November 13th.

The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.

A separation from what pollutes is not legalism. What pollutes is so strong that the separation is necessary in order to learn the new way, of being led by another master, teacher and Father. Otherwise that evil nature will continue to be reinforced in us and we'll just continue to be ruled by what always ruled us, what lives in the humans without them even being aware that they are ruled by it as their master.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors.

The strength of Israel never came from the might of the humans who populated it. The nations that were driven out by God were driven out by God, not the humans. When they counted on their own strength, or on other nations to help them, they were decimated. The God of Israel was miraculous in His dealings with Israel, which is the copy that Paul knew because he knew the OT scriptures and understood they represented copies of the better things.

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.

God living in the midst of the Israelite camp, His people trusting in His power to save them from their enemies, and the ultimate redemption of Israel are key themes in understanding what the new covenant was for and about, and the reason Paul was chosen by the Lord to be his servant—because he had the ability to comprehend the mystery that was intricately wrapped up and explained in Israel's history, and be able to explain it to the sons who were under the new covenant. Paul could interpret the mystery of what the words about Israel meant for those who became born under the better covenant, who may have had little knowledge of the details of scripture.

From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

The ability to see Jesus in the OT scripture was a kind of knowledge that involved human reasoning. The secret mystery was that Jesus lived in the bodies of the first century sons; which was the invisible hope, seal and deposit of God's intention to redeem them as His own sons, that they might live in His house. That condition followed the example of the Father living in the Son's body, which was the most perfect relationship. It was based on the copy of what He set up with the nation of Israel—desiring to live in their midst, in the very heart and most sacred place within their camp.

He wasn't just living there, wandering about amongst all of them. He set Himself up in the heart of the camp, and He gave explicit instructions about the house He was to be living in among them. Then He surrounded Himself with layers and layers of clean and consecrated things and people, which is key for the understanding of the new covenant. So many of these things that were such an integral part of an understanding of Israelite history were not just arbitrarily set up by God so that He could just change gears and all of a sudden they have no meaning. That's what happened in the centuries when the abomination was forming, when the official church was becoming more and more anti-Jewish and anti-Israel altogether, so that a break between what finally became of the new covenant movement and Israel's history was the official line of what the church movement became, when it joined up with the Roman state and became official.

However, there is no way to comprehend the condition that existed in the sons of God in the first century unless you understand the OT scriptures and why God did and said all of the things that are so miraculously preserved in those writings. In this light it makes sense that a break happened between Israel and what became of the first century movement, because that meant there was no heritage to base what anyone knew or thought about the Father and the Son—where they came from or what their purpose was—and no way to understand this peculiar thing talked about so much called the spirit, nor that other thing called the devil, or satan. So without that heritage which adequately explains the son's life and the Father's purpose, a whole new explanation arose, which involved not one God but many good gods who were fighting bad gods, in the tradition of the religious model of the culture which was taking over the church and making it an official part of the Roman government. That model is what existed for centuries in so many groups of peoples, especially the Greeks, and was developed in more by the Romans, whose gods were often the same as those Greek gods, just with different names. This is the mother that all of christianity is based upon; they all share the same fundamental lies about many good gods fighting the bad gods, to this day.

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

For Paul, "Christ in you" was not just some matter of fact, ho-hum, yes indeed, you don't say type of mouth babble that has been overused so much that it doesn't mean anything. The unseen life of God, going way back into OT history, is the spirit; a mechanism and way that the invisible God who is the spirit interacted with man the natural animal. It is how He revealed Himself to those to whom He chose to reveal the presence of His life. It was and is not a separate god with its own personality, as it became when the tie was broken and the new gods were formed. Because of that condition of the spirit (the life of God) living in Paul's body, Paul knew he was living directly under so many of the fulfillments of OT promises that he had studied diligently since he was a kid.

Theirs (the people of Israel) is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Paul knew "Christ in you" to be something magnificent, what so much of what God set up in Israel was a copy of, and that fulfillment of those many promises of God through the mouths of His holy prophets, the true understanding of which became clear to him when his eyes were opened to their meaning.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

The humans are all about what they can get to survive a little longer and better, what can aid them in their own struggle to survive like any wild animal must. When the life of the Father is revealed in a man, as it had in Paul, there was nothing to do but want to search for more of that, because it became like a treasure to him and nothing else mattered. However, as secretly as God has always been in regards to the humans and their ability to perceive Him, so goes not only the revelation about Him, but also the entire journey toward Him. The desire to indiscriminately disclose what we hear in our ears to the humans around us will happen because of our fear and insecurity, and the need to find some kind of validation from the humans about what we're hearing. The validation remains as secret as everything else though, because it comes from the same place the revelation comes from, and it isn't a publicly disclosed thing. Only the sons to whom the life and reality of the Father is being revealed will know about it, which is how the Father wants it to be, so they find their value, satisfactions and fulfillments through Him and not a bunch of humans who have no clue but say they do.

Until the revelation came to Paul, he was just another human animal who could only do with the information he had about Israel as all wild animals do with any information: use it for his own gain, fulfill his own animal cravings and needs in the name of whatever god he assumed he was serving—whatever god that particular culture of humans held up as that which should be worshipped. Without the knowledge of the secret mystery, he was on his way to becoming a great and wealthy religious man amongst his particular sect of human animals; a zealous and respected rabbi who went to great lengths to protect the honor of the God he assumed to be worshipping, according to the record mixed with the culture of humans.

Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Upon receipt of the knowledge of the mystery, he understood the only important thing, which was the life of God living in him, and he threw everything else that the humans consider valuable away. This is the same thing Jesus said about the treasure being the only thing worthwhile to the man who was being given eyes to properly see, which was the true kingdom of God, the fulfillment of the true Israel's redemption. When one truly sees according to how God sees, then everything he thought was important all of a sudden just falls away and nothing else matters, which is the realignment of the nature from wild animal (forever bent on survival) to a son of God (conforming to another way than what he conformed to before, as a wild animal). It certainly is not conforming to any of the many human conceptions about what their gods require, christian or otherwise. It is conforming to a secret reality that isn't publicly understood. A certain type of eyesight and hearing must be miraculously injected into one before he can even see the reality, as it had been in Paul.

"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered.

Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you."

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."

Yesterday there was a reference to Jesus in the garden, asking that the cup of suffering be taken from him. For Jesus, the "cup of suffering" was very specific and significant. He used the same terminology in his question to James and John, who were asking him for positions of honor in the kingdom, which they presumed was coming soon.

Jesus responds in two parts. His reply, "You don't know what you're asking," is sort of like, "It isn't the way you think it's going to be, because the kingdom of God isn't like you think it is, what you've been taught by those who don't know." It addresses how they didn't understand the nature of the kingdom, what it meant to be great in the eyes of the Father (what the Son understood) and not the eyes of the humans (what they understood, being humans); and therefore what it meant to receive a position of honor in His kingdom. Not honor, power and greatness according to man, which the two disciples erroneously assumed (all they knew at that point was the animal way of power and value). Instead, those who want to be great in the kingdom will of necessity be the least in this life, that is, according to the humans. It's an easy thing to mouth, but impossible to accept because the animal will not accept that. It is only pretending to conform to an obscure reality because it thinks that it can get something for itself by doing so—going to heaven, which is the ultimate form of survival for an animal that is forever bent on surviving.

An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest."

Even though we may know what the words say, we still do not understand why Jesus makes such a big deal about least vs. greatest. If we did, our hearts would be different than they actually are. This is good for our perception of the animal nature we are bound to, because the animal doesn't see. It is a beast in a field, eating grass all day, oblivious to God's reality as much as the cow is to man's. It does what it is naturally programmed to do, living only to die—surviving but not perceiving God.

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

It lives in darkness in that respect, with regard to actually understanding God and His way. Not because he hasn't done enough but because he is in error about the preserved words, thinking they are true today as they were for Paul. The idea that a knowledge of God as Paul had is not possible for the present day humans is appalling and unbelievable to them. All they can believe in are the things they can control, and think they understand. What makes them feel most comfortable is a group of like-minded individuals who reinforce the lie that makes them feel safe, as though the truth of God would be so narrow and able to be dominated by creatures that are so lacking in every way.

It makes me kind of angry that the humans assume that what they have is the same as what Paul and the first century believers had, so that condition can't mean anything to them but another point of doctrine they think they need to know and adhere to. The salvation based on adhering to certain points knowledge while abstaining from others is flimsy because the human mind is always swayed by what the culture says is true. That's why the christian gods became fair and democratic gods who want every last one of the humans squished into the man-made heaven, because that's the modern cultural mode of the humans.

Unless the sons get pulled out of the "dominion of darkness," which is the animal nature that is ignorant and oblivious to a true understanding of God's reality, by the power that raised Jesus from the dead, that is where they will remain—to live and die as all animals do. That's just the story, and how they fit in to the present creation, which is readily observable. It's not possible to do anything about the condition, it comes to whomever is chosen to have it based on a decision that we are not required or able to make. When the light shined into Paul, he began to understand the words of Jesus as they were, not just as concepts that don't have actual significance. Before that he had no idea.

Ears that hear and eyes that see—the LORD has made them both.

The disciples themselves lived in ignorance of what Jesus actually meant until they were given eyes to see, ears to hear and a mind that could understand as is represented in various gospel accounts (including the James/John conversation). Even as late as after Jesus had appeared to them in his resurrected body, they still didn't understand what this new life was about. When they went back fishing, Jesus appeared again, reeling Peter in, catching him in the net of his new purpose—not to do whatever he wanted (to catch fish, going back to his animal life and identity he had before Jesus came), but to be a shepherd and servant (to feed sheep), what he would never had chosen on his own. It wasn't until after he had given them the spirit of truth that they were able to understand what their new lives were about, when the light shined in the darkness and they comprehended. Until that time they were still in the dominion of darkness, beguiled by the lies of the animal.

The second part of Jesus' response to James and John was, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" He was referring to the cup he later asks to be taken away from him while in the garden praying to the Father. That was the "cup of suffering," of being poured out like a drink offering, ironically for the very ones who were asking him to be granted positions of honor. Then he affirmed, "You will indeed drink from my cup," referring ahead to Matthew 26:27, when he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you."

Drinking from the cup that Jesus drank is not merely saying thanks to God for providing the blood of His Lamb, which can cleanse us from the sins of the animal and rescue us from its dominion, the dominion of darkness. It is saying "I am willing to drink from the same cup of suffering that you drank from, Lord." It is saying that we are willing to lose our life for Jesus's sake, to become as the disciples became—shameful and without purpose according to the humans, so they could be found and given a new kind of value by their Father—one the humans will not perceive. Peter's decision to go back to his old life, where he had an identity and a purpose that made him feel safe, is very significant to understanding what the sons need to understand. Jesus' response to him is too.

"Feed my sheep, lose your identity so I can give you a new one, cast your cares and anxieties on me because I have shown you that you can. I am back from the dead to reaffirm that I have already come back one time, as I promised." The third time Jesus came back was when he came back to stay, to become the seal and deposit, the guarantee of the Father's intention to redeem him so that they could live forever together. That is the highest thing a human can attain to in his short life.

He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.