August 19th.

Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

There is a tendency to try and quantify the life by equating the old with the new, to find a direct correlation between the old and the new. The details aren't exactly translatable though because the consciousness of the humans at large is different. For instance, we might want to define what the idols, high places asherah poles of today are, but that's a simplistic thing to do because of the complexity and the differentness of the humans and what they were prone to then versus what they are prone to now.

What is the same, and the important thing for us who have been called to come close to the Father, is the general idea about the tendency to stray away from the right way that we know has been planted in our heart. That knowledge is the thing that will be tested when we start doubting, which is inevitable because we're the only ones who are hearing what we're hearing and even though we know it nobody else does so it's easy to get distracted by all the other things that seem so appealing to us all the time, what is so easy to just open up the door for, because it's constantly knocking and wanting to come in. If we toy with the idea though, even just a little, it squeezes in the crack and then it's more difficult just to ignore it, and we fall in to going where it wants to lead us which is bad because we can only be led by one nature or another.

If we choose to satisfy our selves by whatever urge is coming up inside us to follow it, then we get given over to that thing and we have to stay there for a while, even after we have satisfied ourselves. We just have to sit there with the regret and shame, and all of the things that can't be explained with words because it's all part of a process that isn't very comprehensible or totally understandable for a good reason—so we won't be able to figure it out and contain it, possess it and control it. It controls us and not the other way around because it isn't like human processes that we control for our good, what we conform to our reality according to our needs, cravings and urges to find and maintain that agreement we constantly need to feel like we are okay, safe and stable, just fine on our own and not actually what we are—totally helpless to control and keep anything except an illusion of what seems to be.

Another thing that can be correlated from their to our experience is what the true God wants, expects and demands from His own truly born by the life of the Father inside them sons. That is a devotion that's unparalleled to anything they've been devoted to before, but that devotion doesn't come easy even and especially if the desire for that is present in the individual, because of the first thing touched upon, what lives in us natively to tempt us to do anything and everything *but* be devoted, loyal and faithful to the Father and those we know to be our brothers. Not just those who are alive in flesh and blood bodies but those who have ever existed who have had the desire to be devoted to the Father, and have chosen Him over any and every thing else they had to choose instead of being as He desires His sons to be—totally devoted to Him in the reality of their entire existence, eventually becoming or having nothing but that, and being willing that everything else could just fall away if they could get and have that and nothing else for themselves—just a knowledge that they have been devoted to the Father in a way that He accepts and is pleased with.

Those who are chosen to be given so much, who know they are chosen because the true God has been revealed to them, can tell the difference between everything they experienced before that revelation about God, all paling as bogus compared to what is being revealed in the true and unspeakable way that it happens when and if it does. And they know it not because they followed the guidance, instruction or advice of another or other humans, because humans don't know what only the teacher can teach the son who is chosen to be taught by the teacher who can go beyond the limitations of the flesh and blood world and live in the son's heart. That is how they know what they know, and know they didn't make it up just because they wanted it to be true for them.

You have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back.

God's sons are led by Him, not the animal instincts that always want to try to get us to follow it. Satan is the created adversary, an option for choosing against God even from the beginning when it persuaded the humans to follow it instead of God, to trust that it knew what was better for them instead of God, to buy into and believe its lies that they needed something more than what the Father offered them instead of the truth that He knew what was good for them and wanted them to be satisfied with what He was offering to give them. The dissatisfaction with what's being offered is a tempting agent that makes the sons want to wander away from where they know they should stay, but forget when they allow that thing to grow inside them and get bigger and more irresistible and difficult to deny.

You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die...You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.

The Israelites thrusting God behind their backs is the action that said they did not want to be led by God, but everything that lived in their animal hearts to draw them away from Him, similar to the first humans who wanted to trust and be led by God's adversary instead of Him. If one is thrust behind your back, then it cannot lead you; only when it is out in front of you can it lead you. Another correlation (learning device—reason it's been preserved) between then and now is how God gives individuals or groups over to what they chose to love, serve, choose, trust, be led by, etc. It's sort of a poetic justice side of God that plays in tandem with His poetic irony. It's like an,"Okay you think you want that thing? Well, here you go, you can have all you want while I withdraw my good gifts from you" kind of deal. It is there to teach the son about devotion to the Father instead of everything else that comes along to tempt him and draw him away from that position where the Father wants him—close to Him. But he cannot come close to his Father if he's being led by the animal to serve his every craving and lust that comes along. It isn't a petty type of deal on God's part; that's just puerile human sentimental thinking and good for nothing.

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

The path that leads to the Father is straight when we are led by Him. When we choose to follow the adversary we turn off the straight path and go into the thickets and get tangled up and stumble so we can't find our way. The way of being devoted to the Father is the way the humans detest because it's not exciting or gratifying like we like things to be according to that nature that lives in us to lead us away from Him. It doesn't produce any kind of currency that the humans strive to attain to in their lives, like being considered one of the "responsible," or "intelligent" humans who is admired by them (satisfying the unending cravings for egotistical gratifications, acceptability attained which produces an agreement in them that they need and crave). The way that is carved out for the sons isn't like the way that we'd naturally choose, because it doesn't give us any of the many satisfactions that we naturally want satiated.

Humanly speaking the life of the son of God seems like the worst thing that could be done with a life, a waste of life and the epitome of misguidedness, a head-waggingly pitiful misdirection of an existence—all because they don't experience what the sons experience, because the process of being transformed is not at work within them, because they don't have eyes to see and ears to hear what the sons can hear, not because the sons are so clever or able to figure God out, but because the Father's truth has been revealed to them, within and inside their heart, to turn them away from that path they've been walking down all their life to start carving out the unknown path. That's the long and short of it—the sons of God need to stay on the path that leads to the Father even though it seems unexciting and unfulfilling, because that very need for the excitement and fulfillment is what is wrong with us. It is the same thing that was being offered to the first humans by the created adversary who told them not to listen to God, but that they should strive to get more because what He offered them was unexciting and unfulfilling.

John made Jesus' path to the Father straight, as per Isaiah:

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

The Father had prepared the Son to know the way to Himself. John was a witness, a helping pointer who confirmed to Jesus that he was right in thinking and knowing all the things he thought about himself, revealed to him by the Father but not in a naturally validated way, but the way that required the great faith to be built into him. John made Jesus' sure and final path to the Father, by way of the work he was chosen to do, straight even in the natural because John was a human, the last of the OT era prophets whom Jesus knew were his true brothers because they were the ones whom the Father had chosen to put His truth into, just as He was putting it into Jesus the Son of the blessed One.

Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"

They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, "Prophesy!" And the guards took him and beat him.

John was the earthly validation that the Father gave to Jesus to confirm to him what wasn't confirmed anywhere else except in his own heart via the spirit of the Father who lived inside him to teach him how to choose the right (the way of the Father) and reject the wrong (the way of the animal, of men—the way that all of the humans are given over to).

Before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

The condition of the inhabitants of Israel at the time of Jesus, spiritually speaking, was a time of darkness. God was gone from the land, and there was no truth of Him anywhere because it was laid waste, as predicted. It's exactly like today, where lots of people claim to know the way to God, and they convince themselves and the others who have chosen to adhere to the same lie that they're right (because they're "experts"). In reality the earth has been laid waste again, and it has been that way since maybe a few hundred years after the first century, as predicted by the voice of the One living in Daniel's, Jesus' and the apostles' bodies. They predicted the time of darkness, just ahead, which was told to them by the spirit of the great prophet living in their bodies.

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

We know that the myths started to emerge shortly after Paul was gone from the earth. By 400 a.d. or so thereabouts the truth about Jesus and the new covenant, as the disciples understood it, had been totally changed into something it wasn't. Those who took earthly control and power over what became of "the church"—originally created and led by the spirit of God but slowly and completely taken over by the human animals (the abomination)—changed the truth into myths and lies about the nature of Jesus and Satan, of the knowledge of what was evil (the animal nature, the sinful nature) versus good (the good Son, the work he did). The truth was taken over by men and made into a lie, and has been that way ever since that time—in captivity in the land of the great whore of babylon. The understanding of what the sinful nature actually is has been completely lost, and so the work that Jesus the firstborn Son (not a god) did in doing the Father's will instead of his own, taking the animal (serpent on pole) upon himself by becoming it which he had never known before, and killing its power so that those sons who had been—before, during and after—chosen to be free from its curse could be, so they could come near to their true Father who wanted them in His house with Him and their true brothers.

I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons;
for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.  "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

After John was put in prison his work was done, preparing some of the people for the Lamb of God who was going to come into the world. Jesus said to the 12 men chosen for him, "Follow me, and I will lead you to the Father. I will make the path straight for you. If you remain in me, you will stay on the path that leads to Him. I am the way to the Father, and the only one who can show you the way. Apart from me there is no straight path, but only one filled up with stumbling blocks that you'll trip over. You can't find your way to the Father by yourselves, but only if you remain in me, doing as I do and being as I will show you that you must be to stay on the path. I have to be out in front of you, leading you the whole way. You too will have to put the adversary behind you, and keep me in front of you so I can lead you."

The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

The copy for the sons in the accounts of the Israelites is that God desired to drive out the adversary from the land, which is our body, out of which He desires to drive the animal nature so that He can always be in front of us to lead us, and not the adversary which always desires to be out in front of us, leading us (as in the temptation of Jesus, and the account between Jesus and Peter).

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.

"She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Mary was being led by God to do this for Jesus, to validate what he knew the Father had told him and to give him comfort in the time just before he was going to be in agony and darkness. Judas and some others were being led by the animal to worry about the money that was being wasted in Jesus' anointing. It's similar to another episode where the same Mary was again being led by God to just be content with sitting at Jesus' feet, listening to his words. There she found safety and security as God revealed to Mary how important Jesus and his words were and she responded, which was the actuality of her choosing the right thing, the only thing that is needed so that everything else can just drop off. That is to love and respond to God when He reveals the truth. Mary chose the right, which is the way of love, of God, of listening to and being satisfied with so that all we want is more of the living word which speaks the truth to our heart, so that we can know who we are.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

The sister was worried about the things of men, earthly things, of the humans. She was caught up in preparing the temporary food, doing the responsible thing (according to the humans), while Mary was eating the food that the Father was giving her to eat, the very words of Jesus as he spoke them. Mary was being led by the Father, to run after the truth which will last forever; Martha was being led by the animal, to run after the worries of this life, the temporary things that don't even matter.

Only one thing is needed, to listen to the living word and be led by him, to choose the right. Everything else is going to fall away because it is temporary, the things of men, the wrong. Not being led by all those other things, but responding to the Father and only the one thing that is good—Him—is making the choice.