August 20th.

Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.

This is information we can use in a real way, which isn't the obvious way according to the animal that constrains us to think that the only things valuable are those we can weigh in the natural, what can provide us a kind of agreement where we're used to finding it. However, the reason these and other words were preserved are for a supernatural reason that the humans cannot fathom even though they assume to be able to. They aren't like other words because within them is a secret message that keeps getting reconfirmed within those who are specially chosen to be given the ability to decipher what that hidden message actually is, which goes hand in hand with what's being done inside them.

David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not failed to keep any of the LORD's commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

A sense of another identity apart from that which was assumed when the animal was incorporated into the one in question (he who has been specifically chosen to become a son of God) is one of the major foundational structures upon which the rest of the life is built. There isn't any information here about how to become a son of God except perhaps desiring that in a true way and not being satisfied by the myriad of lies that the humans heap up regarding their assumptions about what they claim is "the truth." Yet even desiring that cannot be taught; it is something that's there or isn't there. If it isn't there then the best one can do is try to get something from whichever gods they have latched onto and attempt to appease them by performing rituals and creating and maintaining the validation within their group they need to continue to "believe" that they are correct in assuming their gods are the ones who can deliver the goods.

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!"

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The humans expect to be given something, like a sign they can see with their human eyes as though they are so important that they deserve a sign from God about what He wants to say. That goes according to the erroneous assumption that He wants everyone to know and understand His truth, so the only reason they don't is because of something that has gone wrong with the plan of God, or there's something lacking in the humans. The assumption that He chooses those He wants to understand while He just leaves the others alone or else gives them over to whatever lie they want to latch on to isn't part of any religious group's theology that I know of.

The only thing that does lack in the humans is perhaps simply that they don't want Him, except if they think they can get something from Him, the ultimate prize in their game of survival, the presumption that what they'll get from their gods will allow them to survive forever, in the same vein as everything they've done in their lives has been about their own survival. They either have a lackluster sense of trust that goes something like, "If there is a god, then he'll love me as much as I love myself, because I'm such a good person that everyone should know that. I'll just go to heaven like everyone else seems to think they're going." And that is that. The religious ones on the other hand think they have an extra secure lock on it because they have found out some details about the gods made up by humans, have become familiar with them and think they adhere to them (when ironically they don't because there's no way for them to adhere to what even they must admit their made up jesus god commanded, as per the words they claim to live by but can't—but that's no worry because they don't need to get hung up on minute details that aren't important like the trivialities they have set up as that which makes one able to be one of them, the good people).

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

The useful information about the opening verse isn't about anything external to us, but the evil that lives in us just because we came from the stock of cursed humanity. It is about acting like Asa did, not with mere words but with actions and a life of devotion to the Father who has called us. That requires something concrete from us, because it can only be done in a pure and honest way if it comes from a pure and honest place from within us. We cannot offer up anything that is acceptable to the Father if we are playing games and hiding in our heart from Him, keeping things from Him while we go through some motions with our mouth or other way—perhaps things the humans can see that give a false notion of validity—as per the external devotion we think we need to offer up out of obligation, the scraps we throw out thinking we can fool God like we fool men.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

The humans expect to be able to see something to verify a thing one way or the other, and they've learned that they can and should expect it in the reality they can see and know, that which they are able to control. While the leaders thought their will was being fulfilled, that they were doing their gods a favor by getting rid of another false messiah, another thing was happening. However, it was completely hidden in the natural, just as the only living God is hidden from the natural creatures, the same way He hid the Son from them.

A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Son spoke mysteriously because there was a mysterious reality taking place inside his body, an entirely different reality than that which existed in the place where the humans comprehend. The sign of Jonah was something utterly spiritual, as it was introduced by the Son for the purpose of his response to those who assumed to know because of their book learning. The Son didn't have the book learning to teach him about the things of God as the humans are able to perceive them (as they relate to obvious, natural things that can be observed, studied and overcome; then when conquered they become the conquerors to possess and own). The Son had the Father living in his heart, teaching him all about that which wasn't obvious, what the humans didn't get because they are obtuse to the secret and hidden things, as well they should be and are, considering they are not revealed except particularly and sparingly. The Son knew what the teachings were all about on another level than that which was taught to humans, by humans, about the obvious things—things that can be figured out with the natural faculties the humans by and large all possess within themselves.

Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down.

Elijah didn't come to help him in that way—to physically take him down and save him from dying. The way that Elijah did help him is by verifying the truth to him and validating his true identity according to the mysterious reality of the Father's life that lived in him to teach him who he was. This is dissimilar to what is naturally assumed about him when one holds to the lie that he existed as a god before he was created by the only God who ever existed as God. In that case one just assumes that the jesus god already knew perfectly well who he was and there was no question in his mind about what he needed to do. If this is the case then the reason John existed was just as some token gesture on the part of the gods (jesus god, holy spirit god & father god), probably just to fulfill Isaiah's word about him coming and so prove the gods to be correct and able to predict the future.

He would have merely been the token pointer to the jesus god and not an actual help to him in his struggle to get to the Father by doing His will, by understanding in the mysterious way who he was, even though that identity wasn't confirmed by anyone *except* the Elijah who came to help him in the very real way of validating to him that what the Father was telling him in the mysterious and utterly foreign fashion that He must, since He is pure spirit and Jesus was a human born of God (the firstborn Son, not an animal because he was kept from that identity). Even the mother couldn't validate that identity for him because she was too much an animal (she thought he was crazy) like everyone else except John. This Elijah was kept by the Father for that one specific purpose—to tell the Son who he was. He was specially born according to the plan and purpose God had for him, and he was kept by God for that special purpose alone in the desert, meaning away from the other humans (separated from the rest for God's particular purpose so he wouldn't learn their cursed ways).

Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear.

Nothing that would have convinced any of the natural, cursed humans happened. Although this was the most important day in the history of the world—the great and dreadful day of the LORD—alas none of the humans saw it because it all happened in secret, just as God is hidden and secret, unseen and unnoticed by the humans.

The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

Then the Son was raised secretly, and he appeared privately, not publicly. Then he went to the Father and became One with Him and received a body like the Father had, because it was His body—unseen by the humans, but which could inhabit those he promised to come back to in a hidden, secret form as the Father exists.

When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

The humans cannot understand the things of God because as animals, they are just another integral part of the present, temporary, creation where everything dies. Joseph was seen and heard as an arrogant, pompous kid—by those who represented the natural order of God's people, while he represents the secret, hidden tribe of God's elect—for the so-called presumption of claiming to be loved by God (because he heard the voice that they couldn't hear). So he was thrown out to die, despised by his own brothers, rejected by the animals who couldn't stand to have the living God in their midst. This is the hostility between God and the adversary, the sons of God who are citizens of another world and the animals who are fully bound to this creation. The animal cannot love the One God loves because it does not know Him or His Truth.

It's no accident that there was no tribe of Joseph because he represents what the humans cannot recognize, that God chose him over all the others to put His word into. He was given ears to hear what the others couldn't hear, the voice of the Father. The story of Joseph is the story of Jesus the firstborn Son and all his brothers, all those God has Chosen to love and be part of His ultimate purpose for this creation. If you hate the One God loves, you hate God. This is so true of the flesh which always wants to kill the one God loves because it cannot bow down to/love anyone except itself, which is all the animals are supposed to be able to do. But for those to whom God has revealed His Truth to, those He loves (the true sons); they will know the heart of God—they know whom God has Chosen.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

The words of Paul echo the truth he knew, like Joseph the dreamer or Jesus the heretic, that once you know God loves you there is nothing at all a man can do to you; his condemnation means nothing. In fact, to the dismay of the flesh and all it boasts about and takes pride in—all that it loves—there is something the sons can truly boast about, which makes all else absolutely worthless; that they are loved by God. Once you know that you are loved by God, the thing that the flesh despises in you, ironically that is the only thing to boast about.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What is true about the natural is untrue about the spiritual because it's an entirely different reality, and the formula that God sets up is that what is true about the natural is untrue about the spiritual. That is so the humans can't take control of the spiritual because all they can hold onto in their natural selves is the opposite to what's actually true in the reality of the Father, the Son and the holy angels who do the work of keeping the animals away from Him and bringing the sons close to Him.

So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Whatever the humans love and hold onto, save, hoard, control and value, becomes a stumbling block for the sons. The natural is opposed to the spiritual, so the more we hold on to what we can see, touch, taste, hear and feel; whatever makes us feel safe or good in our natural selves, has to be let go of because it stands in the path that leads to the Father. Whatever the humans love, hang on to, protect and run after is what the sons abandon, like heavy items on a sinking ship, because they become obstacles to them. Marriage, human family, human love, sexuality, human identity, respect and admiration, honor, ego satisfaction, money, houses, things, careers, validation and everything else the humans seek; can be what makes the path to the Father winding, hilly and filled with rocks and debris, so it's hard to keep running.

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Everything that hinders is everything we learned to value as important as we crossed over from immature to mature animals, when we learned to protect ourselves and become independent from God, dead to Him. The sin that so easily tangles is being led by the animal nature, the sinful nature which makes us unclean animals that cannot come near to God, faithful only to ourselves. That is a faithfulness which is mutually exclusive of God and His family, as per His desire and plan with the present creation, that out of it He will pull His sons who are only faithful to Him and His family, which is more important than everything else.

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.