September 15th.

All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.

Those who rejected John's teaching rejected God's purpose for them, which was opposed to their purpose. John prepared the hearers of his message and the recipients of his baptism for the one who was coming after him, who would carry out and make God's purpose a reality by handing Him the family of sons who chose Him over their very lives, yet who were unable to be near Him because they were unclean, under the curse. So what was John's message, the teaching that went with his baptism which was the outward sign that you accepted his teaching?

"What should we do then?" the crowd asked. John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

John preached the good news before Jesus did. Giving away one's things doesn't seem like good news, though, to the animal who just wants to survive. The law of sin and death (the curse the humans are under) conforms them to the condition that makes it impossible for the humans to be and do anything except what all animals do—survive, take care of and love themselves, and run after whatever aids them in that endeavor on all levels (not just physically surviving, but emotionally coping and mentally feeling thoroughly accepted). So the bad news for the humans is that they are just like all the animals through and through, down to their very resting place—forever becoming one with the earth by their individual demise/decay, melting into it so they are just another part of the cycle that keeps on going around. It can still be thought that they are still around, some element of the soil their organic body has enriched, but their individuality is lost when they are hidden, becoming unseen in the ground.

The doctrine of hell negates the beauty, simplicity and efficiency of God's plan that they do get to live on in this renewable fashion, becoming food for plants who will become the same as they have become. The christian hell says that everyone lives on with their identity intact, being tortured forever as the same person they were while alive in their human body. The christadelphian view of hell being just the state of non- existence in the grave is pretty good because it's based on the Hebrew Sheol, the word for the grave. So the humans, like every other animal that lives then dies just goes into the ground and that's that, which makes a lot of sense to what we can observe about life and death.

The problem with the christadelphians though is that they have made themselves into just another religious movement, for the purposes of being able to control it like they think they need to control everything in their lives—who pays the water bill, who takes out the trash, who gets to be in their version of the kingdom of God. All their little doctrinal factoids are lined up just perfectly so that any human can study, memorize and learn them in an academic way, then adhere to them which they believe to be the criteria for being "in the kingdom" (along with all the other christadelphian who are, not accidentally who they consider to be the "good people"—those who don't threaten their little man-made house of cards). It's just an "Our facts are righter than your facts" kind of game they play with the non-christadelphian humans. In the end they are just the same as anyone and everyone else, because the true living God doesn't recognize the systems that the humans create and maintain, no matter how religious they seem, or how much truth they claim to be adhering to. They like all the humans are just like all the animals in that they just go into the ground and that's that—their neat little doctrines all lined up and memorized are just another part of their humanity, which is temporary (because they go into the ground like every other part of this creation).

Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

The good news preached was that a human could be transformed into a being who cares so much about God's purpose—like the prophets and righteous men who wanted God and His purpose to be fulfilled in themselves instead of their own—that clinging on to his possessions actually seems worthless to him, because he knows that he is a citizen of another place and this earthly existence is only temporary and doesn't matter.

Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

The good news was that an ordinary animal, what could never be brought close to God because it's unclean, could be transformed into a son of God, so that it could be known by God as a Father knows a son. This was, for John and Jesus, the thing that God was just about to bring onto the earth that they were a part of, via the prophecies of Jeremiah who said that God would put His law inside a man's heart, that it would live that close to him because it was a living thing, so different than the law absorbed through the eyes and the mind of dull humans who always want to run away from it because of the curse they're under.

I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Then came the Jesus man, claiming to be the Messiah, who went even further. He claimed that God Himself was living in his human body, that he was the promised Son of David, the firstborn Son of God—greater than Abraham and Moses because of the presence of the life of the God of Abraham and Moses who was living inside his body. What he told those who had been given the special eyes to be able to hear and believe him, was that he *and* the Father would be coming back to live in their bodies, in the same way that the Father was living in his body. That was the mechanism which would be able to effect this good news that was being preached about a transformation from animal to son of God, as he himself was (the first one to be born of God).

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

Everything about salvation according to the real Jesus was based on this, not knowing or adhering to the correct facts but adhering to the condition of being born from above, of God—and the way one would know that is because He and the transformed Son would be living in their bodies. By the presence of that force they would be able to start to become transformed, by being conformed to the Father's reality and learning His way instead of the way of the animal, which all humans are naturally conformed to because they are animals and not sons.

By the presence of that life one could actually begin to start knowing God as his Father, and therefore could actually begin to love Him. That's God's purpose (will) for His sons. The commands that John and Jesus are giving are not possible though, unless one is being that which can overcome the animal nature that is in him. Without that, all one would be is just an animal who perhaps thought he was a son (because he was circumcised), someone who assumed the impossible because the animals can only love and serve themselves, then they go into the ground and lose their identity to the purpose of the revolving earth—to continue to revolve and sustain itself by the consumption of another piece of organic matter into itself.

So what about all the religious people who claim to be "going to heaven," or "being in the kingdom?" All they have is a system, an institution created and maintained by humans, by which they claim to be able to say they are what they are and they can lead others where they're going. And they will because the living God doesn't care about the humans' systems or anything else they claim to know or be able to lay hold of so they can control who goes where. They will lead each other into the ground, where everything goes, as per how it all works which is an observable phenomenon. Why do they seem like such phonies (once you get past the acting job they must adopt to pretend to be what they cannot be)? Because they claim to be able to do something that is impossible for them to do since they assume the words of Jesus are for them when they're not even called, all according to their central teaching that anyone and everyone has a shot, all you gotta do is be like them, the good people, and not threaten their little group's safety by being different than they expect you to be. Sure, everything's just one big love fest until you break the rules, then you are corrected by them, and if you don't listen then you're kicked out because you are a threat to their lies.

I fell face down and cried out in a loud voice, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?"

The word of the LORD came to me:  "Son of man, your brothers—your brothers who are your blood relatives and the whole house of Israel—are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, 'They are far away from the LORD; this land was given to us as our possession.'

"Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.'

"Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.'

God tells Ezekiel the truth about the identity of real Israel—that his real brothers are the ones who are presumed by the presumptuous ones to not be his brothers, not to have Jerusalem as their possession. Those who are far away are the ones who are God's actual inheritance; those who are in Jerusalem are doing evil and not fully following God's whole law.

They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Here is a picture of God's real sons, who don't follow their own ways, don't follow the natural instincts within them to do all the evil things the presumptuous ones were doing, who thought that just because they were in Jerusalem physically, that meant they were Israel, God's people. God was going to clean Jerusalem out, to burn the cancer out like in the days of Noah, because the people wanted to follow whatever craving welled up within them to follow.

But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.

You will know that I am the LORD, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.

Here is a picture of presumptuous humans who claim to be God's people because they have been given a title by other men, because they say the things that men want to hear and uphold the ways of the humans, conforming to the standards they create and maintain. They follow the evil in their own hearts and aren't even aware of it, who although they cannot be as Jesus said one must be in order to follow him, they neither show remorse or tell the truth that they can't, but instead continue the charade of pretending their hearts are pure and teaching others that they can also just pretend too (by adopting their style of acting with their own brand of jargon)—and they think that God doesn't mind that they're just double-minded little presumptuous animals who think they can own the way to Him and profit from it (not just financially). They teach their gullible followers (who give them many non-financial gifts just by listening to them as though they have something to say) that all they got to do is believe their man-made lies about what God requires and they'll all be just fine with the gods, while those who question them are the enemies of the gods (because in the modern age they can't just kill heretics, they shove them away, otherwise they would kill them [us] in the name of their gods whom they feel they must protect [themselves and those who support their position as leader]).

They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people."

"Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

The Israelites still thought they were God's people just the same as those who promote the jesus god think they are God's people. They assumed God was going to come and make them great again, as in the days of king David. The teachers of the law misread the law, and changed it into something by which they could prosper physically and egotistically (an intense human craving), being the great rabbis of Israel, upholding the words of their great prophet Moses.

Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God."

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.

The prophets spoke to Israel's stubbornness, to their love for the gods of the nations around them and their stubborn hearts turned away from their faithful husband. They prophesied to Israel about the consequences of their actions, but they also prophesied about the hope coming, the new covenant that God would make with His people, which was coming some time in the future. That salvation would be different than anyone had seen before, yet it would be based on a precedent already established by Him in the way He dealt with His prophets. Under the new covenant, they would all be prophets, because they would all be inhabited by the life of God living inside them. The great prophet would live in their heart, and his word they would hear, just as the prophets heard the word that God spoke to them.

John will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Turning the hearts of those who were being chosen to become sons of God away from themselves and the world ruled by humans, and toward God who was their true Father instead, was the great prophet's mission—a phenomenon that lasted for a while in the first century. Telling them that the snake was lying to them and leading them astray must be followed by the message of hope for a better and more satisfying way to live for God. It is the message of the good news that is spoken to the oppressed, the down-hearted, the meek, those who mourn, the poor, the widows and the orphans.

The good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.

It is not good news to the well-off in this life, because they enjoy life—they love their lives too much to abandon them for the sake of anyone, especially God because they think they're already being blessed by God even though they read that the rich should be afraid because there is no reward for them from God. Those who claim to know the way to God always (conveniently) disregard these words of the jesus they claim to follow—even though he said they couldn't if they did.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

Did God say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden"?

They don't believe that the first will be last and the last will be first. They believe the snake who says, "Be as comfortable as possible and accumulate as much as you can."

Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Since we were old enough to take in information we have been told that everything in life that contributes to and enhances our survival are the stuff that matters, and that the condition of our heart is actually a non-issue. This happens on so many different levels, and is so ubiquitous that no one seems to notice. The things that seem benign are the very things that turn our hearts toward our selves and away from God. That is the lie of the snake, the deceiver, the ruler of this world. The devil is our self as the god who must always be served, always be kept alive, always be taken care of in the tiny bubble of our little existence.

This is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
"I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

Jesus knew that all things could fall away because they were nothing compared to the condition of his heart, the state he lived in close to his Father. That it was broken and contrite, that it longed to please its Father, that the things that everyone else deemed so valuable meant nothing to him, and that his heart was truly pointed toward his Father and away from his Father's enemy; was all that mattered. Jesus' teaching about the condition of our heart was so important that we should go to these extremes to prevent it from being led astray by the deceiver, because it is all that matters. Here is how he regarded the things the humans love and run after, what they live to preserve over everything else:

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell (the grave, forgotten by God forever like any plant or animal is forgotten when it decomposes and becomes yet another part of the created earth).

He was serious when he said these things. It is better for us to do whatever is needed to be right with God. The message is this: "You will have to do things in this life that look crazy to the other people (giving up your animal rights to live and die like any of the rest of them), but when you know what is real it is necessary to do whatever is required to show God that you have chosen Him over yourself and everything else. It's worth it, because your reward as a true son will be great." Abraham probably would have preferred gouging out his eye than stabbing his own son to death, but that wasn't the choice he was given.

How much time do we spend working for the things that perish—so what's the point? There will always be something else we think we need to justify our lives working for the man—bigger house, better school, newer clothes, fancier car, more respectable image (acceptable human identity among the humans). How many hours of our week go into working for our earthly treasures? Perhaps we are living for the accumulation of unnecessary things that keep us in this servitude. Maybe we need a cheaper house and less new cars. This culture that worships commerce constantly tells us on every television commercial that we need, need, need, which is how they sell stuff. Jesus addresses this very thing in a real way without exaggeration when he speaks to what we actually need in this life:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

These words seem radical because they were not spoken to everyone, but to those few men who were chosen for the Lord to look after and love, to reveal the Father to them so that none would be lost. The motivation to do this is not just available to anyone and everyone who has half a whim that they want to get something from the gods, so they listen to the liars who tell them they can get it. It comes by a power that is unseen in the natural, and it grips and holds a son's heart, and makes him conform to God instead of the world ruled by the humans. It tells the man the truth in the deepest regions of his heart, and the truth sets the man free from his bondage to the animal nature and all the things it tells him he can't live without. There is the gospel for the present age for the sons who are being prepared to become that, whoever they are. No human can persuade them as such, or tell them who they are. It must be a voice that tells them they are on a level where the humans can't go, and only they will know it.

The great question for the man who wants his heart to be right before God: "Do you love me more than these fish?" (Peter's life and human identity was a fisherman) For Abraham it was, "Do you love me more than this child of promise I have given to you, enough to kill him if I ask you?" For Job it was, "Do you love me more than all these things I gave to you because you loved me in the first place?" For all the prophets it was, "Do you love me more than your life, what you could be and have, and be despised and killed because of the words I put in you?" For Peter it was, "Do you love me more than these fishes I have caught for you, enough to leave what you know, what you rely on, and serve me instead of yourself?"

Paul is the example of one who was great in the world, yet like a crazy man he threw away what he had and could have attained (which was a lot of wealth and material things, a position of great honor, and everything else that came with being a Pharisee of his stature). But the humans life and identity he could have provided for himself meant nothing compared to finding more of that which he had been given a lot of already. He did this because he had that power that is unseen in the natural, and it gripped his heart. It made him into what he formerly despised, which declares an unseen power that lived in him, or else he was just crazy.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.