My Life (part 37)

The ship set gently down in a clearly marked space in the largest space dock in existence just outside of Los Angeles, Californian, Earth.  Before our engines had completely shut down a shuttle attached itself to our exit port and established a lock.  All two hundred and forty three passengers moved from their gravity seats to the bus type seats on the shuttle.  The shuttle made the short hop to the terminal’s clear plastic dome buildings and we all filed out into the filtered air of LAX.

Just inside the door stands a very pretty girl with short black hair, old style plastic rimmed glasses wearing a short dark blue pleated skirt and a plaid vest over a red knit top.  She holds a hand painted sign with Jasper’s World Welcome! written on it. Sally was fine with my reading the sign but when my eyes drop lower in order to form an opinion of the lady’s dark knit leggings Sally punches me in the ribs.  Sally has become much more possessive lately.

“We welcome you to Earth.  I hope your fight from Jasper’s World was comfortable.” We smiled and say things like, “very nice thank you,” stuff like that.

“Please follow me.  Your shuttle awaits you,”  I must have been following her a little to much ‘cause Sally hit me in the ribs again.  It’s not much of a deterrent because I enjoy it when Sally hits me in the ribs and this Earth girl was just a little bit beyond cute.  The place was crowded but the little girl had a way of carving a path and after just a short walk we were entering another shuttle not much different than the one we had just walked out of.  Our guide says good bye and I watched her walking away long enough to get another jab in the ribs.  The shuttle was just like the one I used to take from the mall in Bakersfield, California, Earth; just a little smaller, so I showed all the guys how to use the safety straps and we settled in for the twenty minute ride to our hotel near the test site for the full sized GR Earth’s factories had produced.

“Feels weird going back to Bakersfield, I said to Jasper who sat beside me in the aisle seat Sally and I saved for him.

“There ended up being four sites that met our needs for the test.  Bakersfield was centered among the factories that produced most of the components and they had an assembly plant large enough so being your home town factored in but did not need to carry much weight.”

“A strip of land ten miles wide and twenty miles long, an island of green on a brown world,” Matthew, a fellow student, said from behind our seat on the shuttle.

“It’s going to be glorious,” Jasper said, turning in his seat and giving Matthew a grin.

Success

Matthew 26:11Amplified Bible (AMP)
11 For you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me.
But one of the main things we are to do is feed the hungry – you know poor people. But we are not to expected to solve the problem. (Because we are not going to.)

Matthew 5:7

Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!

Matthew 9:13

Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy [that is, readiness to help those in trouble] and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims.

Matthew 12:7

And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Matthew 18:33

And should you not have had pity and mercy on your fellow attendant, as I had pity and mercy on you?

Matthew 23:23

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected and omitted the weightier (more important) matters of the Law—right and justice and mercy and fidelity. These you ought [particularly] to have done, without neglecting the others.

Justice

Do I seek justice or mercy? Do I look for opportunity to establish justice or do I offer mercy?

Matthew

“Why does your master eat with tax collectors and those [preeminently] sinful?” asked the man.
“I desire mercy,” answered the Man. (amplified amp.)

Sex

I find it interesting that both sides of the homosexual issue focus on a set of attributes that have nothing to do with being homosexual. The attributes are rather the attributes of a person without a sexual orientation. If the church would embrace these attributes (as Jesus did in Matthew 19:10-12) instead of being repelled by them the church would gain it its debate.

Pre, Mid, Post Trib.

This morning my pastor spent forty-five minutes explaining how the Church will be taken out before the tribulation. I followed along. I had this thought: The Church seems to leave, with the exception of the one hundred forty-four thousand and who ever else gets the mark of God and His protection. There is no real set point where this takes place. So…based mostly on Matthew 24 ie: two in the field, run to the mountains, don’t start a baby – I had the thought that the blink of an eye end of life could be an individual thing that takes place in each of the followers of God throughout out the seven years until by the end of the tribulation the bride of Christ is completely “caught up” in Heaven with Him.   What do you think?

Ask and Receive

Matthew 7:7-8

 

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (kjv)

 

I have heard it preached:  You ask you receive you’re done.  You have got all you are going to get. 

 

But what if God is bigger than that?  What if it takes a lifetime of seeking and knocking and asking?  What if we receive a little and add to it until it’s a lot?  What if almost everyone has at least a little of this free gift from God and every one of us needs to continue to ask, seek and knock? 

 

Consider the Amplified Bible version of this verse.  Check it out with almost any commentary you want.  It is a much better translation.

 

Matthew 7:7-8

7 [a]Keep on asking and it will be given you; [b] keep on seeking and you will find; [c]keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.

8 For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.  (Amplified)

#2. Castrated.

Years ago in Elk Grove, California my wife and I spent some time taking care of one hundred head of Black Aberdeen Angus cattle.  Each animal had a tattoo, an ear tag and three registered names.  The cattle were raised not for meat but to supply bulls to the industry.   The owner of the ranch needed to be in Saudi for a year and it was decided to put off the raising of bulls for that year.  In a large pin near the barn were eight small bulls.  These bulls spent their waking hours butting heads and pawing the ground, clouds of dust surrounded the area.  A large animal vet was called.  The veterinarian had a special device that clipped off the bulls scrotum and sealed the cut at the same time, it took just seconds for each bull to become a steer.  The next day the eight animals that had been bulls no longer played roughly or challenged each other, for the rest of their lives they lived in a quite, cow like, style.

In Matthew 19 Jesus is talking about marriage and his disciples ask a question: 7“Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked.

8Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended. 9And I tell you this, whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery—unless his wife has been unfaithful”

10Jesus’ disciples then said to him, “If this is the case, it is better not to marry!”

11“Not everyone can accept this statement,” Jesus said. “Only those whom God helps. 12Some are born as eunuchs, some have been made eunuchs by others, and some choose not to marry for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

Eunuchs are, either physically or emotionally, castrated human males.  Like a bull a human male can be made into a eunuch and according to Jesus a person can be born a eunuch.  Like the steer castrated humans tend to be less aggressive.  In our society castrated humans are often attracted to the arts and some of our most creative people may fit the definition of eunuch Jesus used.  Eunuchs are sexless people.  Eunuchs, according to Jesus, can be useful and productive in the work of the kingdom of God.

Why do I find this message important?  Eunuchs are not attracted to women sexually.  Eunuchs may feel comforted and protected in the company of men.  A person born a eunuch has no frame of reference with which to determine his own sexuality.  Does this bring any group in our society to mind?  Being a eunuch does not mean a person is a homosexual.  And that is my message:  Being a eunuch does not make a person a homosexual.

What is a eunuch?

In Matthew 19:12 Jesus refers to eunuchs – men who are as a steer compared to a bull.  They are this way by birth, choice or force. 

Eunuchs are almost sexless. Eunuchs tend to be soft, mild people who are often very creative and productive.  They have less aggression by nature.  This personality is not gay or homosexual and not always a choice- this personality is that of a eunuch.

Jesus understood the usefulness of the eunuch in the work of the church.

Matthew 19:10-12

10The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

11Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.

12For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”