3/14/2011

a note to this cool diploma guy

And answering, he said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
(Luke 10:27 MKJV)

The two great commandments summed up from the ten commandments.

And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? None is good except One, God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother. And he said, I have kept all these from my youth up. And when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, Yet you lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. And come, follow Me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, He said, How hardly those having riches shall enter into the kingdom of God!
(Luke 18:18-24 MKJV)

Jesus is pointing out to the rich guy that he put his money above the first two commandments. That is why he went away sorrowful.


Then Jesus says to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. Whoever partakes of My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who partakes of My flesh and drinks My blood dwells in Me, and I in him.
(John 6:53-56 MKJV)

Jesus gives the answer to eating His flesh and drinking His blood, because His followers were tripping on what He just said:

Then when they had heard, many of His disciples said, This is a hard saying, who can hear it?
(John 6:60 MKJV)

He explains what He means:

As the living Father has sent Me, and I live through the Father, so he who partakes of Me, even he shall live by Me.
(John 6:57 MKJV)

Biblically, we can understand what it means to eat of Jesus when we understand what happened to Adam and Eve when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was after they ate the forbidden fruit that they fell because they no longer were completely and constantly dependent on the Father. You see, prior to the Fall, whenever they had questions, whenever they had problems, whenever there might be confusion, they said, "Father, what should we do?" But once they ate of the forbidden fruit, they became independent. They no longer talked to their Abba, their Papa, their Father. They said instead, "We know what's good. We know what's evil. We know how to handle this or accomplish that."
Which I think goes well with your next set of verses:

And Jesus called a little child to Him and set him in their midst, and said, Truly I say to you, Unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
(Matthew 18:2-3 MKJV)

The next verse explains vs 2-3:

Therefore whoever shall humble himself like this little child, this one is the greater in the kingdom of Heaven.
(Matthew 18:4 MKJV)

If your to proud to realize that Jesus was right about how to come to Him, then you cant enter heaven. You gotta see like a child sees...without preconceptions or without bias based on parroting someone else.

Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. The Spirit breathes where He desires, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes, and where He goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
(John 3:3-8 MKJV)

Born of the Spirit makes sense. The Holy Spirit is the one who hovered over the earth in the beggining ( Gen 1:2 ), He was the one who breathed life into Adam ( Gen 2:7 ).

Even Jesus said the Spirit gives life elsewhere...
( It is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.
(John 6:63 MKJV))


But Jesus answered them, My Father works until now, and I work. Then, because of this, the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but also said that God was His father, making Himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do. For whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all the things that He Himself does. And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may marvel.
(John 5:17-20 MKJV)

I love these verses. The Jews understood that Jesus said He was God. They couldnt grasp that concept, and...because of their zeal without knowledge, wanted to kill him.

I see Jesus reachng out to men who are not that smart, independant and unruly at best, extremely proud and self serving humans. I dont see phalacies though.