Maybe that is where the saying “there but for the Grace of God goes I” came from?
Jesus: “…Galileans were worse sinners because they suffered such things? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same manner.”
Jesus: “…Eighteen upon who the tower of Siloe fell and killed them; do you think that they were more guilty than all the other dwellers in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same manner.”
Bad things happen to good people… and good things happen to bad people!
Go figure, try to comprehend, but Jesus’ message is clear: repent of your sins now!
Although it seems like a weighty thing to do, in reality, as like a lot of experiences in the Spiritual World, it is a freeing thing to do and leads to a renewing of one’s spirit, one’s mind and eventually one’s body!
“I too, like someone seen to have suffered misfortune, might have suffered a similar fate, but for God’s mercy.”—is the meaning per Phrases.org.UK of the saying “there but for the Grace of God goes I.” Bet there is the deeper meaning of repentance to stay spiritually fit in life.
No need for repentance because evil is not real? Evil is real, Satan binds us for whatever reason.
A woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent over and utterly unable to look upwards. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her: “Woman, thou are delivered from thy infirmity.” And he laid his hands upon her, and instantly she was made straight, and glorified God.
Rulers of the synagogue: “There are six days in which one ought to work; on these therefore come and be cured, and not on the Sabbath.”
Jesus: “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or ass from the manger, and lead it forth to water? And this woman, daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound, lo, for eighteen years, ought she to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
And as he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame; and the entire crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done to him.
And Jesus and our faith in things outside our own self frees us!
For Jesus said “for everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
Jesus also said “if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And he who does not carry his cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple.”
Old Testament God or New Testament Jesus?
At first I was going to label it Old Testament thinking but then realized that this is Jesus speaking in the New Testament.
How can I hate everyone in my family so that I can be a disciple of Jesus?
And furthermore, if all members of my family want to be disciples of Jesus, then isn’t everyone hating everyone else? Who would be the peacemakers?
Jesus also said “so, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple.” This I get, possessions, material things, especially in excess, have distracted me from the Lord from time to time in my life.
Maybe this is just a reminder that we must love our God first and all other things, including family harmony will follow that love of God. With Jesus in my heart I find it difficult to hate anyone, including myself, for more than a momentary and fleeting feeling of hate. Followed by anger which I let go and let God handle in my God Box.
Finally the upshot is that I am not God and can’t think like God. I repent! I have surrendered to His Will and do not have to understand everything. As long and Jesus is in my heart and I lead with that loving heart, all the rest will take care of itself.
If I can be the Splendid Spiritual Self, inspired by Jesus, that God wants me to be then the Ultimate Love of peace, joy and freedom will be present in me and in my life.
God’s TROML Baby am I!
Day 70: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Jesus tells You that unless you Repent, You will Perish in the Same Manner…
Read and inspired by the New Testament, The Gospel of Saint Luke Chapters 13-14.
Bible Notes:
The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
Saint Luke, a pagan by birth and a physician by profession, had never seen our Lord. An early convert, he became a companion and co-worker of Saint Paul.
In the first four verses of his Gospel he explains why he wrote it. Paul’s doctrine that salvation is for all, not for Jesus alone, is the theme of Saint Luke’s Gospel.
Luke Chapter 13: The necessity of repentance; A barren fig tree; A stooped woman cured on the Sabbath; The rulers of the synagogue are indignant; The mustard seed; The leaven; The narrow gate; Jesus and Herod; Lamentation over Jerusalem.
Jesus: “…Galileans were worse sinners because they suffered such things? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same manner.”
Jesus: “…Eighteen upon who the tower of Siloe fell and killed them; do you think that they were more guilty than all the other dwellers in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same manner.”
Per Phrases.org.UK:
The meaning: I too, like someone seen to have suffered misfortune, might have suffered a similar fate, but for God’s mercy.
In recent times, this proverbial saying is often used without the literal belief in the Christian God’s control of all things and is used by believers and nonbelievers alike. It is frequently suggested to have been coined in a more pious and devout era. The story that is widely circulated is that the phrase was first spoken by the English evangelical preacher and martyr, John Bradford (circa 1510–1555). He is said to have uttered the variant of the expression – “There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford”, when seeing criminals being led to the scaffold. He didn’t enjoy that grace for long, however. He was burned at the stake in 1555, although, by all accounts he remained sanguine about his fate and is said to have suggested to a fellow victim that “We shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night”. End of Phrases.org.UK reference.
A barren fig tree.
A certain man, who had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, to the vine-dresser: ‘Behold for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down, therefore: why does it still encumber the ground?’
Vine-dresser: ‘Sir, let it alone this year too, till I dig around it and manure it. Perhaps it may bear fruit; but if not, then afterwards thou shalt cut it down.’
A woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent over and utterly unable to look upwards. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her: “Woman, thou are delivered from thy infirmity.” And he laid his hands upon her, and instantly she was made straight, and glorified God.
Rulers of the synagogue: “There are six days in which one ought to work; on these therefore come and be cured, and not on the Sabbath.”
Jesus: “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or ass from the manger, and lead it forth to water? And this woman, daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound, lo, for eighteen years, ought she to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
And as he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame; and the entire crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done to him.
Jesus: “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I liken it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his own garden; and it grew and became a larger tree, and the birds of the air dwelt in its branches.”
Jesus: “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and buried in three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”
Jesus: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able to… ‘Lord open for us!’… I do not know where you are from… I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity… but for yourselves cast forth outside… And behold, there are those last who will be first, and there are those first who will be last.”
Pharisees to Jesus” “Depart and be on thy way, for Herod wants to kill thee.”
Jesus: “Nevertheless, I must go my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou who killest the prophets, and stonest those who are sent to thee!… And I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you shall say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Luke Chapter 14: A man with dropsy cured on the Sabbath; Taking the first place at table; Poor guests; Parable of a great supper; The guests refuse to come; Other guests are invited; Leaving all to follow Christ; The man who built a tower; The king who went to war; Salt that has lost its strength.
Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees: “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?”
But they remained silent. And he took and healed him (certain man who had the dropsy) and let him go.
Jesus addressing the lawyers and Pharisees: “Which one of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him up on the Sabbath?”
And they could give him no answer to these things.
Jesus: “When thou art invited to a wedding feast, do not recline in the first place… lest perhaps one more distinguished than thou have been invited…’Make room for this man’; and then thou begin with shame to take the last place… but when thou are invited. Go and recline in the last place; that when he who invited thee comes in, he may say to thee, ‘Friend go higher!’ Then thou will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with thee. For everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
Jesus: “But when thou givest a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and blessed shalt thou be, because they have nothing to repay thee with; for thou shalt be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
One of those at the table with Jesus: “Blessed is he who shall feast in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And he who does not carry his cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus: “So, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple.
Jesus: “Salt is good; but if even the salt loses its strength, what shall it be seasoned with? It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure heap, but must be thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and now the Book of Josue in the Old Testament!
What mean these stones? You shall teach them and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel. The Lord your God drying up the waters thereof in your sight, until you passed over, as he had done before in the Red Sea, which he dried up till be passed through, that all the people of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, that you also may fear the Lord your God for ever.
The waters that came down from above stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain… those that were beneath, ran down into the sea of wilderness (which is now called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed…
In that day the Lord magnified Josue in the sight of all Israel, that they should fear him, as they had feared Moses, while he lived.
Two very interesting and rich chapters in Luke. Pardon the pun if you are a poor person. Actually the joke is on the rich as the bible says it is harder for a rich person to find heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. No reference as I have not gotten that far yet. By the way we are not talking money or riches in terms of worldly wealth here, right? We are talking about having Jesus in your heart, the Holy Spirit of God within you and not just thinking or touting you are with God, right? Remember two wrongs don’t make a right but four wrong left turns may keep you on the same right journey in life!
Jesus talking one lost sheep that is found: “What man of you having a hundred sheep, and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which is lost, until he finds it?… Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost. I say to you that, even so, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just who have no need of repentance.”
Jesus in the Parable of the Prodigal Son talking one lost soul that is found: “(The son’s father was) moved with compassion… because this my son was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and is found… (and the father said to the other angry and jealous son)… “Son, thou art always with me, and all that is mine is thine: but we were bound to make merry and rejoice, for this thy brother was dead, and has come to life; he was lost, and is found.”
By the way that is the marvel and miracle of journaling, or writing something down on paper or in an electronic format. Why? Because you have to think and formulate thoughts, and evaluate choices and make a decision on what to write. All inspired by a relationship with God, having Jesus in your heart and being immersed in the Holy Spirit.
One more preachy suggestion. Don’t rationalize by saying I can’t do a journal, somebody may find it and read it. What you are really saying is that I don’t want to be introspective because I fear the pain of self-judgment. Well subconsciously that is already going on and you know what? You are very likely being much harder on your self than need be. Plus, who better to learn from that ourselves, as long as we come out of denial, rationalization, and justification. TROML Baby, find your own Splendid Spiritual Self!
The story of the unjust steward in C16 Matthew surprised me a bit in that it seems the message is that the master commends the servant for being prudent, though dishonest, in further, should I say, misappropriation of funds?
Prudent—wise or judicious in practical affairs; sagacious; discreet or circumspect; sober; careful in providing for the future; provident: a prudent decision.
Mammon—New Testament. Riches or material wealth. Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:9,11,13; (often initial capital letter) a personification of riches as an evil spirit or deity.
Certain rich man… feasted every day in splendid fashion… a certain poor man named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table…
Abraham to rich man buried in hell: “son, remember that thou in thy lifetime hast received good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now here he is comforted whereas thou art tormented. And besides all that, between us and you a great gulf is fixed, so that they who wish to pass over from this side to you cannot, and they cannot cross from your side to us.”
In golf we look at new inventions and say ‘Wow,’ but then we look at golf history and see those same things from back a hundred years ago. Things like metal woods were produced back then but when metal technology developed they took off in the 1980s and 1990s.
But the children of Israel transgressed the commandment, and took to their own use of the anathema… and the Lord was angry against the children of Israel.
Josue made Israel come by tribes… which being brought by its families… bringing that also by houses… and bringing it man by man, he found Achan… confess, and tell me what thou hast done, hide it not… indeed O have sinned against the Lord the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done.. I coveted them
Josue sent thirty thousand chosen valiant men in the night, and commanded them, saying: Lay an ambush behind the city: and go not very far from it: and be ye all ready. But I and the rest of the multitude will approach on the contrary side against the city. And when they shall come out against us, we will flee, and turn our backs as we did before, till they pursuing us be drawn further from the city: for they will think that we flee as before. And whist we are fleeing, and they pursuing, you shall arise out of the ambush, and shall destroy the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into our hands.
All the kings beyond the Jordan… gathered themselves together, to fight against Josue and Israel with one mind, and one resolution.
After all that, Josue, like Moses was true in heart to God and God led him to lead the children of Israel to Him.
Lord to Josue: Go round about the city, all ye fighting men, once a day: so shall ye do for six days. And on the seventh day the priests shall take the seven trumpets, which are used in the jubilee, and shall go before the ark of the covenant: and you shall go about the city seven times, and the priests shall sound the trumpets… all the people shall shout together with a very great shout, and the walls of the city shall fall to the ground, and they shall enter in every one at the place against which they shall stand.
We are each made in the image of God as was Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis.
Jesus to his disciples: “The days will come when you will long to see one day of the Son of Man, and will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Behold, here he is; behold, there he is.’ Do not go, nor follow after them. For as the lightning when it lightens flashes from one end of the sky to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”
We are all God’s servant, foreigners to one another no more. We are all children of one God!
One American, I believe was inspired by God, to change our terminology of each other the same way Jesus did when he said the kingdom of God was within us.
Jesus: “Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if seven times in the day he sin against thee, and seven times in the day turn back to thee, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
And he (Jesus) also told them a parable that they must always pray and not lose heart—saying. “There was a judge in a certain town who did not fear God and did not respect man. Mow there was a certain widow in that town, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Do me justice against my adversary.’ And he would not for a long time. But afterwards he said within himself, ‘Although I do not fear God, nor even respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will do her justice, lest by her continual coming she finally wear me out.”
This is a brutal and violent part of the Old Testament. As brutal and violent as it gets I would imagine. It horrifies me that so many would be killed and completely exterminated by God through Josue but that is the way is was in those biblical times.
So the five kings of the Amorrhites being assembled together went up… and camped about Gabaon, laying siege to it…
Josue to all the men of Israel and the chiefs of the army: “Fear not, neither be ye dismayed, take courage, and be strong: for so will the Lord do to tell your enemies, against whom you fight.”
And Josue came, and all the army with him… on a sudden, and fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into the hands of Israel… He slew them all, so as to leave no remains of them, and he did as the Lord had commanded him…
The bibles accounts for the number of kings slewed by Moses and Josue:
But to the tribe of Levi he gave no possessions: but the sacrifices and victims of the Lord God of Israel, are his inheritance, as he spoke to him.
Caleb to Josue: Thou knowest what the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and thee…to view the land, and I brought him word again as to me seemed true. But as my brethren, that had gone up with me, discouraged the heart of the people: and I nevertheless followed the Lord my God… this day I am eighty-five years old, as strong as I was at that time when I was sent to view the land; the strength of that time continueth in me until this day, as well to fight as to march… and Josue blessed him (Caleb), and gave him Hebron in possession… And from that time Hebron belonged to Caleb… until this present day; because he followed the Lord they God of Israel.
I always thought the ‘S&H’ of ‘S&H Green Stamps’ stood for something like “Save and Help’ yourself to something better in life like a new toaster. In reality, ‘S&H’ stood for the Sperry & Hutchinson Company (S&H), founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelley Byron Hutchinson. Popular in the 1930s through the 1980s. It was one of the very first retail loyalty programs.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay in thy house today.”
For me I sought freedom through compulsive emotional overeating, especially sugary foods. While this self-medication did medicate me in the short-term, which became very short-term over time, it also created another problem in addition to my original problem: obesity and other health issues which I could hide at times, though not always, with my 6-foor, 3-inch frame. I have gained and thankfully lost one hundred pounds probably four or five times in my life. Gratefully, I have not regained that variable hundred pounds in the last eight years.
Thankfully, I let all of that go and let God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit more fully into the core of my being through the TROML Process—my Splendid Spiritual Self.
All we have to be is honest, willing, humble and open-hearted and open-minded and Jesus will come in ways we could never imagined. In this world and beyond.
The ‘Good News’ is that for the most part ‘the land is resting,’—there are no more wars, battles or slaughtering of masses of people. The ‘Better News’ is that the Promised Land is divided but not in the sense of being divided in faith but divided by surveying and distributed to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and then some.
I did checkout the overall scenario and yes, all Twelve Tribes of Israel were present and received property of the Promised Land to possess.
Caleb: He that shall smite Cariath-Sepher, and take it, I will give him Axa my daughter to wife. And Othoniel the son of Cenez, the younger brother of Caleb, took it: and he gave him Axa his daughter to wife.
Appoint cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses that whosoever shall kill a person unawares may flee to them; and escape the wrath of the kinsman, who is the avenger of the blood… such things as prove him innocent: and so shall they receive him, and give him a place to dwell in… because he slew his neighbor unawares, and is not proved to have been his enemy two or three days before. And he shall dwell in the city, till he stand before judgment to give an account of his fact, and till the death of the high priest, who shall be at that time: then the manslayer return, and go to his own city and house from whence he fled.
Jesus is sharing a part of the New Covenant with us as He is being constantly challenged by the ruling Pharisees and Scribes who see heaven from our worldly perspective instead of how God, Jesus and the Bible tell us to see it.
Even Moses, so very close in interaction to God did not understand or completely comprehend the resurrection and life ever-after in heaven. God is the God of the Living, He is the Living God as well as Jesus lives in our heart and the dynamically alive Holy Spirit permeates our being—spirit, mind, speech, emotions, and body.
Jesus points to the widow who put two mites into the treasury of the temple: “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all. For all these out of their abundance have put in as gifts to God; but she out of her want has put in all that she had to live on.”
Imagine God giving us wisdom and putting the right words in our mouths whenever, and always, when needed! 
God was pleased and said: “I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.”
For me I tend to think of the Bible in terms of one’s personal self, myself included. I didn’t realize it or think about it until a few years ago that in all probability and reality that the earth will live on long after I pass on. This death and destruction of the world is in fact in my opinion this day is the death and destruction of evil within each of us and then bodily death followed by spiritual resurrection to a life lived ever after for all of eternity in heave. Just my opinion, knowing we all have one thing in common for sure—death, and Jesus refers to this by saying, “for come it will upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth. Watch, then, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to be, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
So the Promised Land, across the Jordan, was divided amongst the children of Israel.
Josue to Ruben, Gad and Manasses: You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: you have also obeyed me in all things, neither have you left your brethren this long time, until this present day, keeping the commandment of the Lord your God. Therefore, as the Lord your God hath given your brethren rest and peace, as he promised, return, and go to your dwellings, and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan; yet so that you observe attentively, and in work fulfil the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and keep all of his commandments, and cleave to him, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul. And Josue blessed them, and sent them away, and they returned to their dwellings.
And when they were come to the banks of the Jordan, in the land of Chanaan, they (Ruben, Gad and Manasses) built an altar immensely great near the Jordan.
We split but we are still part of the original covenant with God, no lesser than our brothers on the other side of the Jordan
Josue: “I am old, and far advanced in years, (and I am going into the way of all the earth), and you see all that the Lord your God hath done to all the nations round about, how he himself hath fought for you… and many nations remain, the Lord your God will destroy them, and take them away from before your face, and you shall possess the land as he hath promised you. Only take courage, and be careful to observe all things that are written in the book of the law of Moses: and turn not aside from them neither to the right hand nor to the left, lest after that you are come in among the Gentiles, who will remain among you, you should swear by the name of their gods, and serve them, and adore them; but cleave ye unto the Lord your God: as you have done until this day. And then the Lord God will take away before your eyes nations that are great and strong, and no man shall be able to resist you. One of you shall chase a thousand men of the enemies: because the Lord your God himself will fight for you, as he hath promised. This only take care of with all diligence, that you love the Lord your God!
This, in my opinion is Old Testament thinking to the Jewish people at the time, not directed to the Gentiles or later Christians relative to the Jewish people—whatever—that was then and now is now—where New Testament thinking of love and acceptance of self and neighbors prevails!
People: “We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to his commandments.”
