November 29th.

We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

There is a great deal of suffering to be had in denying ourselves the satisfaction of satiating our cravings or appeasing our great fear by the power of our own hand. To go into the lust or live in some idealistic dream; to ingest whatever consciousness altering substance that works best for us and we can get our hands on; or to love our self as best we could with the resources at hand by seeking out what makes us feel safe and secure. To deny any or all of that creates a nervous, fearful anxiety, like an animal getting trapped in a corner because we're not used to abandoning what made us feel safe and allowed us to make sure we were loved hostile world where most often there isn't any love because it's covered over by fear and hiding and the competitiveness that the humans use to deal with that. The fear and grief of learning that we are prohibited from taking care of and loving our selves like only we know best how to, is significant. "Who will love us if we don't do it ourselves?" is the big question we subconsciously ask ourselves if we ever get close to pondering such a thing.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

The Son didn't bolt out of heaven with a knowledge of how to love because he was a god who already knew everything. The definition of his life as the words testify to is the model for the sons who are called by the Father, so it's important that they know what is true about their brother who is the Christ of God. He spent his life with the Father and those who taught him learning how to be and remain a good Son for the Father's sake. He suffered while he learned how to not take up the animal identity but remain true to the Father.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

The love he finally had wasn't just instantly and painlessly planted in him, nor did it already live in him because he "came from heaven." The Father loved him because he chose and kept choosing to be what the Father wanted him to be. Out of a sincere love for the Father, whom the Son personally knew because the Father revealed Himself to the Son, he chose to be what the Father loved to see in His sons like David and Moses—a true shepherd of the sheep of God's pasture, which are the members of His secret family, all those who he has been gathering up since the beginning.

The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Why was Jesus loved by the Father? Because he wasn't a god, but he was a human who didn't know the Father until the life of the Father was revealed to him in his heart. He patiently learned to choose the right while he suffered through the learning process of being transformed to one who could learn to love by coming to the Father and listening to his teachers. Denying what he could have reached out his hand and grabbed (like fruit from a tree) was a choice he made, after he was made ready to be able to make that right choice and reject the wrong. And what became of his ability to deny what was infinitely appealing—understanding you are the most anticipated and beloved hero, that you are the one your people have been expecting for centuries, and you have the power at your disposal to grab that identity and make it yours if you want?

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

He saved the sons and gave them to the Father, for His sake, because he suffered, not just the final death of his physical body, but every point of learning not the choose the animal was a very real point of suffering as he had to deny what the animal wanted him to take up for himself, what he could have gotten by the power of his own hand. He went the opposite way the animal always goes, into the suffering of denying what seems best to the natural self, and said by his actions that he believed the Father more than the lying serpent (whom to his animal self didn't always appear to be so hideously bad, but a friend who was offering him satiation, validity and great wealth). And he was willing to prove that he believed the Father by suffering through that act of choosing the right and rejecting the wrong, which is the living model for the sons who are called by the same voice to become more than animals led by the instincts in them to be just that.

He says, "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me."

It's easy to trust God when we know we have a way out, by our own hand, an escape route that's open if we need it. We're allowed to have the things that help us cope and feel safe for a while as we begin to learn the new way. There are things which, according to the personal covenant the Lord has with us because he lives in us, we can do for a period of time and there's no call to deny them until we're ready. Then, when the appointed time comes we will just know it's time because of the voice of the word who speaks. It isn't just about being legalistic or arbitrarily giving up things of our choosing, which can lead to hypocrisy. The suffering and the learning are a very important part of the process because they break down the animal's power. After all, it is the primary MO of the animal nature to protect its host at all cost from every sort of unpleasantness, pain and suffering as best it can; so suffering through that and seeing we're still okay is an effective way to undermine its power.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

It's about the personal journey, not one bit generic. The liars claim that it's the same for everyone, that the rules come from the rule book they misinterpret as the word (printed words on paper), so they extract the rules for the members of their institution to follow, because they claim to know the way to the secret God who doesn't become found out by a generic group of animals trying to claw their way into His house.

Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

The purpose of the journey is to reclaim the sons from the world of the animals, resurrecting one from that state of the living dead, and transforming him into a son of God who is alive to the Father, who can recognize the good shepherd's voice because he is able to come near. Being alive to God is being seen by Him, and He can only see us if we're in His presence. But nothing unclean can be near Him, which is why the sons have to be transformed from one state/condition to the other—what all the OT clean and unclean business was for and about—or they cannot be known by Him.

If a person touches anything ceremonially unclean—whether the carcasses of unclean wild animals or of unclean livestock or of unclean creatures that move along the ground—even though he is unaware of it, he has become unclean and is guilty.

Or if he touches human uncleanness—anything that would make him unclean—even though he is unaware of it, when he learns of it he will be guilty.

It's cut and dry in that the human animals are all naturally unclean because what's living inside every one of them is the nature of the serpent, the "unclean creature that moves along the ground," the one animal which is craftier than all the other animals. The Son of God was clean, even though he was human, born an animal because he came from a human (he didn't just pop down from heaven where he lived as the son god to make his token sacrificial gesture that the father god required).

And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

What they are transformed away from is the curse put on the first humans (being forcibly bound to the serpent via the nature of fear and hiding they were made to share, when they broke the covenant with God by reaching out their hand and grabbing for themselves what was not theirs, nor meant for them. The Father intended that they be His children, but they wanted to be gods. Then they were bound to a changed creation by the new nature they were given—of death instead of life.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Our animal emotions are fleeting and based on what we can perceive with our natural senses—what is true in the natural world but not according to God's reality, which will not end like the former will. The enduring fact of God's purpose is not based on fleeting, changing emotions like those we naturally possess, which follow the rule of the natural—that everything in it may have its brief moment of glory, like a flower in bloom, but it always changes and eventually ends. That is a law which holds true for every natural thing.

In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

That isn't to say that God's mind can't be changed, but only to establish that the work which has already been started is not going to quit or end because of anything we do or don't do. That's what the animal always thinks, when things seem to change. The first thing I do is think about what I did wrong in an attempt to somehow control what is going on, to try to get something back that I think I've lost by some power of mine.

By what the animal does it can control, to some extent, its circumstances directly around it. That is also its dilemma, because the animal learns that it must control its own destiny, how things will be for it because no one else is going to do that for it. Once it crosses over into adulthood it learns that it has to provide for itself, so it can never believe Jesus when he says that God wants to be our Father, that he has genuine concern for us, and will give us what we need to survive because he does care for us. No matter how much it might say it, the animal flat out cannot trust God; that is opposite to what its purpose is (staying alive and providing for our own selves), yet another thing keeps the animals, who are *all* inhabited by the nature of that which is opposed to God, unclean. It is that nature in us which tells us that we cannot trust God, although we may say with our lying mouths that we do trust God. But that mind set has to exist in some far removed, conceptual way which allows us emotionally to feel like we are still surviving—so we can still feel we're right with God while we are actively being the animal in full tilt, all the time. We spend our lives searching for food, money, shelter, prestige, honor, respect and anything else that might enhance our plight of needing to survive.

That is the game that the animal nature plays. In that regard it is no different in the atheist than in the one who wants to follow and please God. Because of the curse they are both in the same place with regards to God—away from Him because they're unclean. It is the same animal nature, put on Adam when he disobeyed God, that lives in every one of the humans, because it's universal. It is the sinful nature, the flesh, the devil, the old man. The term "old man," coined by Paul, is wonderfully descriptive, because it denotes a condition, along with a necessary movement from old to new.

The new condition, the new nature, the new man, is something Paul knew he had been transferred into, although he didn't understand the reality of the old nature until he was made aware of the new nature along with the old one. He could see that the "old man" was what he used to be, and the "new man" is what he was being transformed into, at the time of his letters to the sons who were also being transformed. It wasn't just a concept in Paul's mind, but a living reality, a knowledge of being translated from one condition to the other—the "rebirth and renewal by the holy spirit."

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.

From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view (as the humans see them). Though we once regarded Christ in this way (a corrupting criminal who deserves to be put to death along with his followers), we do so no longer.

While the son is still fully a part and member of the old creation, fully controlled by the old man (the animal nature), he has no ability to understand his condition, and therefore understand his need for true rebirth and renewal, because that reality hasn't been made known to him. It is only after the life comes, which does the regenerative work to give him life (and understanding about the life), that he can begin to see where he came from, and understand his need to be born from above. It's kind of a catch 22, a protection mechanism for everyone's sake, the flaming sword that guards the tree of life from anyone who will just think they want to go and get it. It is a wonderful thing God has done to protect Himself and the inheritance of His sons, those He has chosen to give life to, to put His spirit in, to regenerate from the old, dead man, to the new man, new creation, new family of sons who have concern for God's desire, and each other, who are that desire.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?

This is the end and purpose of a man, the highest he can go in this life. To the animal in us, it will seem not valuable, because it cannot be grasped with the natural senses, and that is what it relies on to perceive what is valuable and not. The most that anyone could ever hope to attain to is to become a true son of God and know it by the wisdom that the spirit brings—to be in the family that will endure, to be a member of the reality of the "people of God," at which everything in the OT had been pointing to. The men of OT time that did love God and who were called according to His purpose understood this, that to love God and His way was more important than anything else, and was the whole purpose of the law and the prophets.

He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

That is something Jesus knew very well, that the treasure of God's word was contained in the scriptures he had access to, but there was new treasure coming, although they both were based on knowing that one was a son of God, and truly, in his heart, more than anything else.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The things he was teaching to the disciples in and around Matthew 5-7, as it says here, are the commandments of the law that God requires. They all point to loving God and our brother as much or more than our own selves. They are not based on the things a man does on the outside, in front of men, which when practiced made a man righteous before God. Actually, what Jesus was saying is that it has always been the intentions of the heart that are important to God. But man, by the evil that lives in him (the animal), changes what is good into what is evil, for his own self-preserving sake.

That is just how the kingdom of man (the world) operates; whatever group of animals has the power to make the rules makes them. Even in this age of democracy, they're never fair, but always designed to benefit most those who make them. Legalized political corruption is totally rampant and always will be because it's in the nature of the humans to always be that way. The ability to sway an official supposed to represent the people with money for his own gain is built right in to the system because the system was built by those who benefit from such a system. For the most part the people are happy and don't seem to mind too much.

It is also—not by accident, but by curse—how the animal kingdom operates. The strongest survive and the weaker ones, the ones without the power, die off. The strongest male, the one with the power, rules the tribe because it can kill off or drive away all the weaker males—the threats to its reign. I'm not saying that democracy is equal to God's way, only that man always corrupts for his own gain if he has the power and ability to do so—like the human animals did with the old covenant, and then they did the same with the new covenant. The animals take whatever they can and turn it into something that can serve them. Jesus taught his disciples the opposite way from that of the humans.

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Loving one another as much as we love ourselves is impossible, because it is totally the opposite of what the animal drives us to do/be. Not just because we aren't perfect, but because we are totally and completely ruled by that animal nature that was put onto Adam. There are no flaws or loopholes in God's plan; what is cursed is cursed. It doesn't come near to God, doesn't trust Him, and doesn't allow us to love our brother because it can only love itself, which is the perfect explanation for the way things are. That's the condition of man because of the sinful nature, being bound to the devil our natural father, the ruler of this world. Our condition of isolation from God is the result of its domination over us. Only the life of Jesus, in spirit form, can do that regeneration from old man to new son, the new creation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

It was done to a small group of people in the first century, who learned to love their brothers, and who were inspired and motivated by its genuineness and power to love God and want His way more than their own, following the example of the head of the family. In effect God merely reversed the effects of the animal for these people who lived directly after Jesus' ascension. It was something the disciples were not able to do until after they had begun to become regenerated from the old man to the new.

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!