August 13th.

The LORD has kept the promise he made:

I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised,

and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of Egypt.

The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to the LORD toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

And if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name.

Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever."

Our enemy is one who is invisible to us because it is us. Men have hearts that can only be devoted to themselves and their place as an animal that cannot know God because of their condition, unable to be devoted to anyone or anything but themselves, so certainly not a God who is far away because of that condition. It is a nature that is positively unable to be escaped from, because it is the will of God for it to be in place, and our Father does not fail when He does something. It is so thoroughly and firmly established that the humans can't even see it as the curse that God put on the humans, what makes them evil and unclean—that it is the sinful nature Paul speaks of and the condition by which the Son declares the humans evil, just because they're human, and far away. It doesn't comprise and define the bad people, but everyone across the board, without exception. The humans, because of the self-centeredness of the nature that totally rules them, always consider themselves good (even when they spew out their mouth babble about being "sinners saved by grace"). That is why, according to God, they can't be good—because in their hearts they are so totally satisfied with what they are and thoroughly love themselves as per the dictates of the animal nature that rules them.

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil (because you are human), know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

The humans in their natural state are useless to the Father for anything good, according to His definition of good and evil, worthless and worthwhile. They can only become useful if they're taken over by another nature that can actually penetrate their heart and begin to dwell there in place of the animal nature that rules them to make them useless to Him. I'm talking about the actual process of transformation from animal to son of God, not the conceptual process that men read in a book and want for themselves, so all of a sudden they just assume it can be, then is, happening in them the same way it happened in the first century. By the power of their mind they make themselves and those around them believe it's happening in them the same way it happened to those it actually did happen to before that power went away from the earth. Trying to initiate and become that via their own process means nothing, and can't even count much for good intention because the story is skewed from their very beginning when their fathers created something evil out of something good, something totally human out of something that was originally initiated and maintained by an unseen power that genuinely did live in the first century sons of God. The various religious institutions can serve as social clubs, but they can't lead anyone to the true God because they have fabricated everything they believe and continue to spout about what they think they know, all the way back to their mother the whore of babylon (they are the daughters of the whore who maintain the lie like their mother).

The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

The Lord goes back and forth looking for one human whose heart wants to be fully devoted to the Father as the heart of His servant David had been, but knows it can't be because there is something in him preventing him from that. He looks for one who doesn't settle for the trash that the religious groups are offering, which they claim to be authentically able to point someone to the Father, but believes in his heart that there truly is no one who is good, no one whose heart is devoted to God. None of them are able to love, not because they're just not perfect yet, but because they're unclean animals. Animals cannot love; all they can do is instinctually love their own flesh and blood. The humans think that is love, but in reality all animals do that by instinct, so they're just following the urges that are programmed into them as animals, which isn't love.

The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

Solomon assumed that he was the one spoken of by God to Nathan, because he assumed that the kingdom was a natural thing. The "body" spoken of here was actually the heart of David—the attitude and countenance of David's broken spirit and contrite heart, obsessed with protecting the interests of God. That is what defined the Lord, who was the One for whom the Father had been patiently waiting.

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

Solomon's life became a testimony of the fact that he *wasn't* the one spoken of to David, as he turned out not like David at all, but more like the poster boy for animal indulgences, as per the opportunity given to him, which was huge. He couldn't help himself to what his position gave him access to. He indulged himself to the gills with women, wealth and honor amongst the humans—things that couldn't ever satisfy him—and he kept going further in to himself and the animal that enticed and ruled him, away from the God of his father.

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

Solomon was clean because of what he came from, for the sake of David his father, but became unclean by his own inability to restrain himself from the evil that his heart wanted to indulge in, and because he was king he could. He is the classic case of using his position not to serve the God who put him there, but himself. The Son is the polar opposite of Solomon, in terms of being willing to serve the Father instead of his own self and what he can get based on his position.

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Specific sheep, not generic. The Son's value lie in being able to save a particular group of chosen sons, not randomly setting up a scenario whereby anyone who had half a whim could just mosey on in with their little declaration about how they assumed their jesus would give them something—the ultimate gift to a self-sufficient animal who spent their life getting things for themselves, a spot in heaven with a savior they didn't ever know.

Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

He who does the will of the Father is the one who searches for Him who has purposely hidden Himself to see who will look for Him. It is a zero-sum game, so that in order to find Him one must lose the search to find the ways to promote their own will and interests. Either one is unclean or clean, as per the intention of the Father to transform that one into a son, most likely because of something He finds in that one regarding what he truly wants in his heart (there is no hard and fast evidence about how the Father chooses, only clues dispersed throughout the preserved words about what He wants to find in a human). There isn't any way for a human's heart to be even a little bit or fully committed to the Lord—or anything in between—because of their condition of only being able to be devoted to themselves. There may be a desire, but there is no way to bust through the membrane of that layer of the animal nature that is there to keep the humans away from God.

Your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.

All the humans are unclean and unable to come near to God, because that's the way He made their condition to be, to uphold His justice. The Son whom David was told about was different than all the humans. The house he would build would be made out of sons who were transformed—because of the work he did, having everything to do with keeping oneself from being polluted by the animal that wants to continue to rule him—from that which is cursed (the definition of human in its natural state) to the son whose heart can be miraculously changed by the power of the spirit to do it, so he can begin to have a heart that becomes devoted to his Father and the the family of sons He is in the process of gathering up. Being fully devoted to some one (God) and some thing (His purpose—gathering up His family of true sons to Himself) is the love that Moses commanded of the Israelites, which was only a copy of the better thing, which is the love Jesus commanded the disciples to have for the Father, him, and their brothers (the family).

He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

God had miraculously turned 5 loaves of bread into enough food for 10-15,000 people, with 12 baskets full of remains, then 7 loaves into food for 8-12,000 people, with 7 basketfuls of leftovers. The disciples' constant anxiety about having enough food to eat, even after seeing this happen twice, is a testament to how powerful the animal nature is that lives in and drives the humans, without even their awareness because it pulls them back and they forget. It's always an issue with the animals about not having enough to survive. This is not a fault or weakness of particular animals, but a part of their nature they take into themselves when they become mature. The issue isn't whose fault it is or whether it's fair, but the condition they inherit (dead to God).

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.

If you look at the wild animal's existence, it is pretty much defined by their constant search for food, intermingled with rest and the production of offspring that come from their bodies. They look for food, eat, rest and make more of themselves, all as their instinctual drives lead them along to do what they do. The humans are a little more sophisticated, and are able to devise ways of storing up the stuff they seek so they can just keep building it up around them as they tell themselves they need more and more of it to keep feeling safe. Their lives are pretty much preoccupied with that, and that is what their hearts are devoted to, the process of continually "providing for their family," (themselves) out of instinct.

And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, `What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

"Then he said, `This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

"But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Son knew that the Father who had chosen them was willing and able to provide what they needed to physically survive (which means nothing to God) so that it wasn't an issue with him because the animal nature did not lead or rule him. Even he was surprised at various times by their lack of understanding, the same as he was amazed at the humans' lack of being able to believe in his authority because they thought they know who he was.

"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."

He was trying to teach them another, deeper evil their nature was prone to. They needed to learn something more fundamental though, that the Father would actually provide them what they needed, even after seeing Him do it for 25,000 people out of nothing. Since it's such a defining characteristic for the animals (constantly seeking provisions), it's something the sons of God need to, and will, learn.

We can't just know it, or attain to it, or ever be good enough to get to that point. We can only know it if it's supernaturally taught to us and made an actual part of us so we actually believe it in our heart. It is a foreign idea than what lives in us as animals who are constantly preoccupied with providing for ourselves. The need to survive, and the fact that we are the one who has to accomplish it for ourselves is one of the most fundamental truths that gets cemented into our nature as we pass from child to adult, when we learn how to survive and take care of our selves. Little children don't ever even think about such things like that. It's not even an issue for them, as was the case with Jesus.

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

"You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."