September 26th.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

The man who believes God shows that he believes by doing the real work of believing what seems horrible and impossible. If it were easy to believe then it wouldn't be work. If we could keep our lives and still be able to go to the Father, then we wouldn't be giving anything up, so what is so great about a devotion that's not willing to sacrifice, but just say we would if we were given the choice. We like to be able to decide what it is we're going to give up, as per what feels safe to us to do, what *we're* comfortable with letting go of, because that goes with our need to control and keep things in and around our lives how we need them to be in order to feel that agreement with our selves. We don't want to feel like we're out of control of our lives, like we have to count on others to give us what we need.

I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.

The next line after this which reads, "Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God," must be a scribal rewrite, or "correction" made by a copyist, because Jesus isn't talking about the death of Peter's body, as the legend goes. The whole section is about Peter not going back to his old life, not thinking he can just hang on to what he thinks will give him the agreement he wants to find with himself now that he thinks the insurrection is over, now that he thinks it's back to business as usual as Peter the fisherman.

Then he said to him, "Follow me!"

The command Jesus issues to Peter is to not follow himself and what he wants or thinks he needs to do (the way of the wild animal that must protect itself), but follow the Son to where the Father is, not the way the animal which drove Peter decided was the way he wanted to go, but the way Jesus went to the Father (I am the way)—without animal identity, reputation, money, things, or anything and everything that would tie him to this earth by what he's clinging onto, his ideas what he thinks he needs to preserve regarding his existence that will give him some shred of control to which he might cling.

Rephrasing it a little Jesus says, "Before I came the first time to you, you were an independent animal, going where you wanted and doing what you needed to do for your own self because nobody else was going to do that for you." The counterpart, "When you are old" refers to when the Son and the Father would come back to live in Peter's body, the second coming for Peter and the other sons when the new covenant would be poured out on some of the humans, the time promised by Isaiah, Joel and the others which could only come after the Son went to the Father. That time would bring about for Peter another consciousness, not of a mature animal which had to survive by keeping what it had and not letting of of what was "his;" but of a child that stretches out his arms so his parent can dress him. He would be led by another, not himself which is the way of the animal, to places where he didn't want to go, according to his animal mind that needed preserve what it thought it knew was the best way to be and do what was necessary to survive.

Letting go of what we think we need to hang on to because we're afraid is the concise description of the son's journey to the Father. It is the gradual act of learning to unbecome what we became, which sounds sort of simple until we realize just how much of a fortress each one considers that thing they need to protect more than anything else—their life. That is, not just their physical existence but everything that's wrapped up into who they are as an individual amongst other individuals who are all doing the same.

Much of what the Son of God taught the men given to him cuts into the heart of that very thing—all of the instinctual tendencies to preserve what is most precious to us—that fortress of what and who we are. He told them things like, "The animal nature that instinctually drives you to protect the fortress of your heart makes you want to hold on to your shirt so you can survive, but you should undermine that animal by giving someone who doesn't have one not only your shirt, but go even further and give him your jacket too (the physical aspect of survival). And if someone hits you, your animal will tell you to protect your honor and hit him back, to do whatever you can to get justice for yourself. But you should undermine the animal that drives you by instinct and not only refrain from hitting him, but also allow him to hit you again if he is so inclined (the emotional, egotistical aspect of survival). The animal instinctually drives you to want to mate with the opposite sex, but you should undermine that animal instinct by teaching yourself to not even look at a woman while being driven by that type of instinctual desire. And you should take it even further if you cannot help yourself from being carried away by the desire that comes up when you look at her, even by gouging out your eyes if you have to. That is how important it is to become true to the Father, by betraying and undermining that animal nature which makes you act and be at your very core, just like all the other animals driven by the instincts that naturally live inside you."

In all those things you're allowing the animal to dictate to you what it wants you to do and be. If you don't learn to undermine it so that you're able to not be led by that natural animal instinct, you can't become a son of God, because that animal instinct that leads you is the serpent, the devil, the adversary and deceiver. It is the Father's enemy, the curse He put into the humans precisely because they didn't want to trust Him, but wanted to trust it—so He bound them to it, He gave them over to what they loved and craved to get for themselves. The life of the sons of God isn't like the life of the animal who spends it getting things for itself, but of trusting the One who wants to be that one's Father, who wants to dress him and lead him where He wants His son to be, not where the animals wants to take him so it can survive a little longer and better.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "

Zacchaeus had the seed of the faith of Abraham living in him, the seed of what was good according to God. That's why Jesus recognized and welcomed him, and he welcomed Jesus gladly. But Zacchaeus had not ever recognized anything genuine in the land until Jesus came, therefore that seed was lying dormant in him, and he was doing what all animals do—providing for himself, more cunning at it than the rest of the animals. Unlike the leaders, who used Abraham for their own gain, Zacchaeus didn't think that what he did was a betrayal at all, because there was nothing to betray, there was nothing good in the land that he was compelled to be faithful to. That seed of what was good told him the truth about the disingenuousness of the leaders of Israel, as it told him about the genuine authority of Jesus, one who was true when all others were false. He was considered a traitor to the Israelites because he took their money, what was so valuable to them, away from them. They were more envious, hypocritical and egotistical liars than truly devoted to God and the truth of wanting to be found righteous according to Abraham's faith.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

His act of generosity, of letting go of what was so valuable to men, was triggered by his instant reaction of being in the midst of what was genuine and true, while everything he ever saw before (what the liars swore was the way to God) was false. Giving away half of his possessions was no small thing for him, which prompted Jesus to acknowledge him as a son of Abraham who was willing to give up to God what he valued highly. That was something the religious jews couldn't do—that is, respond to what he could see was genuinely true and right—definitely from God—and desire to show the Lord that he believed by doing what was very significant, not just talk and words.

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

Abraham believed God more than his animal nature, enough to go against it by betraying what he naturally loved more than anything else to just be faithful to the word that was spoken to him about what he loved so much. Doing the work of faith, though, is not a one-time event and then we're good. It is a constant, ongoing thing, a work of believing so that we become willing to do the hardest thing—disciplining ourselves to turn away from that animal who always wants to rule us. It's even harder than that, because that phrasing makes it like a third person deal, something external to us. It will be there around every corner, wanting to rule us, wanting to define us and pull us in to what it is, because it is us. Misery loves company is the working cliche going all the way back to the beginning, when the humans were joined with misery.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.  "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

The snake wanted the humans to be as he was, so it tricked them into trusting his lie instead of God's truth. There is no other motivation for what it did, other than wanting the sons of God to be dead as it was, out of envy. It was created by God so that His son would have an adversary, and by that would have the opportunity to show Him that he loved Him and was willing to do the hard thing to show it, to prove his love and faithfulness to his Father. It's a very tricky and complex thing to make a being that is not compelled to love you by force, or no other alternative than the one. If this is God's desire then it makes sense that He would also create this alternative choice that was allowed to be alluring.

As sort of an aside I'll say that whether it's historical or metaphorical doesn't matter. What does is that we know it lives in us to be that very real choice against how the Son went, so the details are important for us in how they apply to us, certainly not whether it all happened literally according to what the words say. Metaphor is one of the main literary tools employed in most of the preserved accounts. To get caught up in some argument about whether it's "true (a misnomer in itself)" or not is just to deflect what's important from applying to us—just another way to hide from becoming honest on the level that matters.

The sons of God will have the same opportunity because the same adversary will be made aware to them, pulling them into remaining as it wants them to remain, into leading the sons with its allure, of making them turn away from the Father and toward themselves—embracing, loving and running after protecting their precious little lives and what seems valuable to them regarding their desire to survive in all the ways they are driven to—instead of Him. It wants God's sons to be as it is, cursed by God instead of as their Father wants them to be—faithful to Him and what He's told them about how to be, even being responsible as per the measure they've already been given. It's not generic, nor is it anything another human can coerce the son into being faithful to. They must listen to and trust the voice of the Father, not any man or group of men who claim to know the way to God.

The sons will recognize, just like Zacchaeus, that the truth isn't in those self-appointed leaders, that they in fact don't know the way, as they might want to claim—even if so many others believe they do, and follow them because they compel them to by the force of their political (recognized and observed by the humans) positions. God's sons are not about the numbers; that's the human way. God is about doing and making possible what to the humans is impossible (that this peasant from Galilee was the Messiah). They must believe the teacher inside them and turn away from what every other animal embraces. The sons will know, even if only the little bit they are given, according to the way the teacher teaches, because he speaks the living word in them that they know to be genuine and true.

While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.

The spirit for us is in effect the replaying of this story in our life. The lives and experiences that we read about is the life of the son. It is Jesus coming to us, doing miracles that we know make him the only authority that has ever proven to us has power to be the actual way of truth beyond all else. Just the same as those who had the seed of belief, of seeing what was true and responding to it, who also saw Jesus' miraculous power, the sons believe as they believed. That doesn't mean everything is all of a sudden done and over with, just as it was not for the disciples, nor anyone else who believed in the Lord.

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

The work of believing is indeed work. Going against that ever-present, pesky animal nature, not giving in to its constant pull on us to serve it is truly work of a significant magnitude, and the one who endures is worthy to be redeemed, because he has shown not be mere words, but by what he's done, that he hates his life and all the ways that keep him from the Father, and he loves what's better.

To him who overcomes, I will give to him...He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Walking on the narrow path that leads to the Father, not veering off to the right or to the left but continuing on straight ahead; is the slow, steady march toward being transformed, toward being pleasing to Him, toward being worthy of being given the title of son of God. Trying to walk on the path, yet continuing to be led by the animal nature that's in us, what keeps pulling on us to make us as it is, makes us dull and obtuse to the teaching of the living word that's in us to continue to show us how to be good sons for our Father, instead of what the adversary wants us to be—unclean and cursed as it is, mere animals who are caught up in the things that the animals love and run after.

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

The sons will have to experience the miracle within themselves, what allows us to believe in the first place, but the animal nature wants to divert it, to explain it as something else, to make what's good into what's bad for its sake. Then even if the son wants to believe, the nature that's in him wants it to all be over all of a sudden. It wants to have arrived, to be where we're going, to be at rest. We won't want to walk and work, day after day patiently enduring and walking, but instead will want to instantaneously be transported from the old to the new. It doesn't happen that way.

Just as the people would rather have had the kingdom of God appear at the moment Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, we also want everything done and over with; because that would mean no continual work, no ongoing sacrifice of ourselves and what we naturally love, and no suffering in this body by having to continue to deny what we naturally want to do. It is completely against the animal's nature to suffer; the animal nature programs us to survive, so that's what we do. A big part of survival is learning how to avoid what's painful or unpleasant to us, because that' a threat to us. The animal spends its life finding ways to build up tangible and intangible things around it, and learning new ways to avoid pain and suffering, because that's what the animal is all about in every way—loving, protecting itself, keeping it safe.

Even when the humans can love something/someone other than themselves by their own power, it is actually themselves they are loving. They can only ever love, care for or be truly committed to their own flesh and blood—what they're programmed to do like any animal is—that is, whatever has their seed in it, a small intangible part of their own natural genetic self that they can recognize and love, BECAUSE IT'S THEM. So what God has put in place is truly perfect, and it keeps Him righteous and His way and desire aligns with His justice, that those who reject Him and do not love Him, are not worthy to be redeemed as His sons. To call God wrong for doing this, for not somehow being fair, and therefore violating some warped sense of justice and righteousness because it comes from what's evil, is the wrong because it caves in on itself. There is a judgment when the sons will judge the world, and they will know how to judge as righteous judges because they will have God's seed in them, His spiritual DNA. That is fairness and justice.

Faith in God and patiently waiting for the Lord, our good husband, go together. The son will be tempted not only to only believe what he can see with his eyes, but also to want things immediately; it will be unbearable for him to wait patiently and faithfully for the things that God has told him are true. When they don't happen immediately, he will be tempted to go right back to his vomit like a dog does, the way he used to live in the flesh. When he does, he is shown that that's wrong, until he learns by suffering when he does the wrong, to the end that he's learning to accept and choose what's right, what makes him pleasing to the Father, heading toward being clean.

It is the son's work to resist and persevere, which becomes our giving back to God for His incredible gift of giving us what we know is genuine and true. Our resistance to the whims of the old man is a sacrifice that we can offer Him (because it's significantly hard to do and it brings much suffering when we're being true about it; that is, not just offering the sacrifice of what's not that important to us while we cling tightly to what is) in exchange for His life in us, which is the deposit and guarantee of the good things He is preparing for His sons—He as our Father and we as His family, which is adequately sufficient for us. We also have to fight the constant doubt—the animal who is constantly telling us that it's not worth it to suffer and work so hard, that it's not even true to begin with. Because we can't see God with our eyes we think maybe He doesn't exist and hasn't done anything for us. The life within us is subtle so we have to continually choose and can't get lazy, sloppy or smug about our place.

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

The humans will reinforce this unbelief in us if we allow them to by entrusting ourselves to them, being exposed to their influence and what they love and run after. This may seem legalistic and over the top to us (how doubt works), but only because we love those ways and are so conditioned to loving ourselves that we cannot accept losing what we love. It seems harsh and wrong, but in the spiritual reality what keeps us on the path, uncontaminated by the adversary, who doesn't give up in trying to pull us away from what's right and good according to God. It's what allows us to keep undermining the nature that lives inside us, as we are commanded by the Son to make our life's work, to become something that the Father can accept.

If we're evil and come from evil, and still have it living in us, we'll love and be naturally willing to protect what's evil by whatever means, which ends up being our own evil, twisted logic and rationale that we have made to align with what we want, while we also convince ourselves that we're doing what's right according to God. That's the twisted up deception of that adversary from the beginning, making the human think with its own logic that they were doing the right thing, that they were doing what God wanted them to have.

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.  "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

The ten virgins & the unfaithful servant parables have nothing to do with morality—how to treat people or be virtuous—they are about being honest and ready to follow the Son to where the hidden Father is, because only he knows the way. Doing the work of God, believing in the One He sent, being ready is a state of awareness of our spiritual predicament, which in turn means the undermining of that old man who doesn't want to work or suffer in the body, and won't die until he is destroyed once and for all—just as it was for the Lord on the cross. It was only then that he was able to be free from its temptation and harassment.

Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

He knew there was then no more chance to be disobedient, no more chance to call down the legions of angels, or Elijah, to pull him off the cross—which as the Son of David and God was his right to do that. Harassment is a good way to term the work that he continued to do while that serpent continued to try to pull him away from being led only by the spirit of the Father inside him. When the work was finally finished, when he came to the end of continuing to and finally doing what was good, according to the Father; then he said, "It's finished."

It wasn't just a one-time deal, his going to die, which is what the truth was turned into in the second, third and fourth centuries when he was made into a god who wouldn't have had a problem doing what he did, being reduced to some novelty. It was a constant heading toward the Father, of denying the adversary who wanted to rule and lead him all the way to the end. That's why God loved him, and why he was worthy to be offered by God as the sacrifice that would satisfy Him—the Lamb of God that was perfect, not blemished, diseased or spotted with the animal nature, which is the sinful nature.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 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. 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. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life

The sons' willingness to work and suffer for the Lord's sake, to walk as he did—albeit less intensely however just as valid—against the whims of the nature of instinct in effect shows that they want to be worthy to be called sons of the living God instead of ordinary animals who can't come near their Father because they're at the mercy of their urges and indulgences which keeps defining them as mere animals. It shows that they desire to be alive to God, that they want to be remembered by Him so that they're redeemed, not forgotten to just become organic matter like everything else—pig, frog, goat, beaver, fig tree, grasshopper, rock or whatever else gets plowed back into the ground to become food for what replaces it.

Man does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.

Their willingness to work and suffer for the Lord's sake eventually guarantees their redemption, because it says not with mere words, that they want to love and be found in Him instead of the old creation. It shows that they desire to no longer be slaves to the old body, but desire to live as a part of the new creation. It shows that they know it doesn't matter what happens to their body, because it means nothing, the opposite of the animal that always wants to preserve its life. It shows that they want to be born of Him and have that little part of His life living in them, and are responding to whatever small thing that may be in them at the time, which will grow as they're given more.

I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given...

If it is not there then they cannot expect to be alive to Him—they cannot recognize Him, nor can He recognize them. In that case they are dead to God, dead like all the common animals, and cannot expect to be remembered/redeemed by Him.

...but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.

In fact the sons start to resent having to be in these bodies of corruption, desiring to be freed from what keeps them evil—their instinctual indulgences, cravings, needs and limitations, because they see that these keep them in bondage to the animal, and from seeing their Father face to face, from being pleasing to Him. In order to look at God's face they have to be able to be brought near to Him, without the dross of the flesh making them unclean, unable to be near Him. Otherwise, as Moses found out, they would just be burned up like straw. So, unlike the animals who can only love and protect their bodies from everything, the sons instead begin to throw off the hindrances they pose in favor of knowing and being with their Father. They continue to knock, seek and ask for the good gift, which is Him living in their bodies, a rejuvenation of what's been gone from the earth for so many hundreds of years.

See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood. In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. In you are slanderous men bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts.

In you are those who dishonor their fathers' bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father's daughter. In you men accept bribes to shed blood; you take usury and excessive interest and make unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD.

I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it. I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the LORD.

Son of man, say to the land, "You are a land that has had no rain or showers in the day of wrath." There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says'—when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.

I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.

While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said: "A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. 'Put this money to work,' he said, 'until I come back.'

But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.' He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned ten more.'

'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.' The second came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned five more.' His master answered, 'You take charge of five cities.' Then another servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.'

His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?' Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.'

'Sir,' they said, 'he already has ten!'

He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.' "

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.