Skinnykenny

The first readers were encouraged for they knew what was waiting for them if there was no intervention by God. They were filled with the hope that only a loving God could give, a God who indeed is faithful and keeps his promises. A new beginning a new land flowing with abundance of peace, freedom, liberty, joy, happiness, dignity, and milk and honey besides, a place and time not unlike paradise. These promises were and are more than merely physical happiness, they were spiritual happiness. The use of figurative language allows and encourages the use of imagination which when applied correctly and properly instill hope for a real future. This highway might well be physical, but the language is figurative, and it leads the imagination to perceive that God will be victorious and only those souls who have trusted in the Lord will have the privilege of access to this highway which leads to the new Jerusalem and to the very throne of God. We are indeed ransomed and redeemed, i.e. purchased and this at the highest possible price. We not only are rescued from slavery to this world and the prince of the air, but we are rescued from our selves as well. We have become God's very own we are his personal possession, and if we let him he will teach us all things and we will become friends with God not merely servants or slaves.

Doing good for the sake of others and expecting nothing in return, going the extra mile, turning the cheek, being kind even in the face of anger and hatred, and always being ready to express why we have such peace and joy in Christ alone. Love of power, personal edification and pleasure at the expense of others and at the expense of natural and divine law makes a mockery of truth and justice. We are called to pray for our government's even if our government leaders are abusive and evil and no respecter's of God or man. We are to pray for our nation and its citizenry and our neighbors and this so that we might live in peace. We must do our part in bringing about peace and our part is sincere prayer to our Lord and God who is able to bring peace into our land and into our homes and into our lives.

Momentary forgetfulness. Momentary fears. Momentary pride. We must always be aware of our weaknesses and God's ability to rescue us from these. We must faithfully place our trust and hope and love in God alone. We must do our part actively participating in God's salvation plan for us, by living for God in all that we do. There is nothing too small or too big that we cannot hand over to God. In fact God will bless those who trust him alone especially in the little things, for when we learn to surrender the little things in our lives over to God we in time will learn to surrender not only the big things but everything over to God. We will learn to work, play, rest and sleep for God alone, offering every moment unto him. In this we will be greatly blessed and in his blessing he will be greatly glorified. Being content in want and in rich's is dependent upon our love for God. We must learn daily how to be content, and we do this by faithfully carrying our cross and laying our burdens at his feet. We achieve these attitudes and obedience not by our own strength, but rather by prayerfully in all area's of our life offering to Him everything especially our own wills and allow Him to do with us as he wills.

Our God is a just God, he is beauty, good, truth, meek, kind, patient, just, compassion, gentle, peace, authority, power, glory and holy. The worst enemy of God's grace is inordinate pride, ****, covetous, gluttony, sloth, avarice, anger, for these build up a wall of rebellion against goodness and God's grace. These create ever greater shades of darkness and fear of divine light. Yes, many times and this with great consistency for our God is a God of forgiveness, kindness, patience and love. I have experienced these things and goods of God not because of my own goodness, but because of God's benevolence towards all those who desire Him and have laid open their hearts and minds for Him to renew at His pleasure. Humility, acknowledging our need for God acknowledging our dependence upon God. I would suggest for a more perfect insight into these matters to read and listen to the beatitudes of our Lord.

Without rules, codes, laws and discipline's there would be not sustainable society in existence. These are indeed important. Where the narrow minded and the spiritually stifled encounter problems is that they attach themselves to these rules, codes, disciplines of all sorts, including the reading of the Bible. They believe that these practices are indeed the whole of the method by which a person enters into a state of righteousness in the presence of the Lord. Not so. Everything must be taken into proper and correct context, intent and proportion. If a person is practicing disciplines as if these can save, then they are sorely in error. If a person reads the Bible diligently but without correct instruction, knowledge or understanding, it will be their undoing. Rules are important and useful. Codes are useful and important. Disciplines are useful and important. Laws are useful and important. Without these there would be no nation, state or Church. Rather, we are to love the Lord with our entire mind, heart, body and soul love our neighbor as our selves and not neglect the laws, rules, codes and disciplines. God has given His people rules, laws, codes, and disciplines for the express purpose of teaching and building up of His kingdom of priests, prophets and kings. To declare any of these as useless or worse is to declare God a liar. God's kingdom on earth is like His kingdom in heaven, it is ordered with rules, laws, codes and disciplines, if we do not learn how to be obedient here in this existence we will not know how to participate obediently in the next existence. Therefore no one with the correct and ordered mind or spirit will ever rail against rules, codes, laws or disciplines. Everything must be in "correct" context, intent and proportion.

Humans justify and deceive themselves due to Adam's fall, whereby all of humanity is born into the state of his original sin. Thereby all of humanity suffers from a darkening of the intellect known as concupiscence, which strongly tends toward sin. Sin is any willful thought, word, deed or omission contrary to the law of God. Thus, on the natural all of mankind's inclinations are tainted and thereby tends toward sin. Due to our darkened intellect we tend to hold on to things which are appealing and comfortable to our natural and sinful inclinations. Mankind stumbles over Jesus Christ because He is Light itself. The Light is frightening because it demands a change within our natural intellectual thinking and perceptions of what is actual reality. Prior to Christ we were moved about by our darkened intellect and the darkened intellect of the world. We were comfortable with a dead faith, a faith based solely upon our own imaginations. With the Light of Christ we see things we never seen before and they are not pretty and this challenges us to change and change is not easy nor desirable for the old wine of our lives was mild and full of our own desires and wishful thinking. Even if our personal lives were burdensome we had grown comfortable with these heavy loads/yokes that never truly satisfied, but neither did we truly have to think and if something undesirable happened we easily could and did blame it on something or someone else, such as karma, bad luck, politics, religion, the weather, etc.. Those who have come to know, love and serve our Lord are duty bound to share this same divine charity with those around us. We might well be the only Christ another person will ever meet, therefore we must be living this divine life of forgiveness and charity at all times. Love and kindness can cover over a multitudes of sins and heart breaks thereby healing the wounded spirit and thereby shedding rays of faith, hope and love into the soul of another. We are to share the Word of God in the way we live our lives and when necessary use words. It is by our example that our neighbor will respond to, whether this example is good or bad. Thus, we must be prepared to share the faith, hope and love of God at all times, whether convenient or inconvenient. If we do not share the Word of God through our evangelizations, and ministering to the needy in mind, body and spirit, God our heavenly Father will not hold us guiltless. If we do not warn our neighbors of the imminent danger and they remain unknowing of God and die in their sin, they will not enter into heaven and we will be held liable for their loss. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian but does not live it by assisting to the physical and spiritual needs of their neighbors and to the alien and to the stranger and the family member, though he call upon the name of the Lord daily, he will not be saved, and this because in truth he never knew the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to love God first and foremost with our entire being and essence daily and love our neighbor as we love ourselves, to do anything less is to not be a Christian. We must carry our crosses daily. If our Lord finds us dragging our crosses reluctantly or if he finds us casting our crosses aside he will not be pleased. We must eagerly carry our crosses daily, just as our Lord carried his to Calvary. Keep in mind, that even our Lord received help in carrying His cross, therefore let us call upon the Church and her faithful to assist us in faithfully carrying our crosses daily.

All believers are those who through faith choose to learn and come to know God more perfectly in their lives. The virtue spoken by the prophet Isaiah is the theological virtue of hope. The faithful indeed have hope in God for they through faith choose obedience to Him and to His law, His commandments and to His testimony, they in essence become the offspring of God, for they chose to listen, learn and imitate those faithful whom taught them these truths virtuously in faith, hope and charity. A few examples follow: St. Matthew 9:2, St. Luke 23:39-43, 1Corinthians 4:14-16, St. James 5:13-20, 1 St. John 5:10-21, Apocalypse 12:17.

The prophet is speaking of the final judgment as proclaimed in the various ancient Catholic Christian Creeds. The two which follow are the "Apostles Creed" & "The Nicene Creed." I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen. I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

St. Matthew's Gospel chapter 24 is speaking to the believers in the present tense, meaning the time of tribulation and the end times will be witnessed by the Church. No escapism here, no Darbyistic rapture seen here. Further, the Gospel of St. Matthew and in chapter 25 gives us two perfect and graphic descriptions of the final judgment individually and collectively. The two parables are "the ten virgins" and "the sheep & the goats." St. Mark's Gospel chapter 13 reveals the same, the faithful believer will endure the times and witness the signs, and being persecuted, being betrayed, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, put to death, etc., just like our Lord Jesus Christ. For no servant is greater than their master, and no student greater than their teacher, and no believer greater than their Lord. Rather, the faithful and obedient must endure just as their Creator and Lover Jesus Christ had to endure. The Revelation of St. John chapter 13:9-10 tells us that many faithful believers will be taken into captivity and many will be put to the sword. And in Revelation 20:3-5 we witness multitudes of the faithful and obedient who never worshiped the beast had been beheaded for their faith in God. Again no escapism here.

The language of the prophet speaks and foretells of the holy Eucharistic feast which all the world has been invited but only many will accept. With the advent of Jesus Christ he heralded in the last days and we have been living these last days for 2,000 years. The faithfully obedient have continuously partaken of the heavenly banquet since our Lord Jesus Christ instituted his holy Eucharist in the upper-room and completed his "aqdah" upon Mt. Calvary and drinking the fourth cup of the Passover while upon His holy cross as he said I thirst and was given gall / vinegar wine and then declared it is finished (complete). This divine and heavenly banquet "on earth as it is in heaven" is the consumption of the "actual and true flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." Those who eat His flesh have his life within them and those who drink his blood are entered into the New and ever lasting Covenant of God. Christ's Bride will suffer all of the identical suffering that her Creator endured and overcame through His resurrection 3 days later, and so too His Bride will suffer the same fate and 3 1/2 days later overcome through her resurrection holy and unblemished, and this accomplished through her divine Grooms authority and power alone.

God comes to destroy the destroyers, whether these be part of the Covenant of God or apart from it, for the knowledge of right and wrong is present within all people. Every people and nation knows that it owes its existence to God and that every person and nation ought to offer truth and worship to God alone. However, the spirit of the world has taken a firm hold of the mind and heart of the peoples and nations and these have willingly abandoned not only the natural law but the divine law as well. Thus God comes to chastise the entire world for its mortal sins which have been committed after giving over of itself with "full consent, due to its actual rejection of the actual knowledge of truth and the Truth himself. The world feels threatened for it knows its sin and knows that it deserves retribution of the most severe form, it knows there is a God and it knows it has willfully committed grievous and serious transgressions against Him and His law and His Church. When sudden events occur, whether pleasant or unpleasant, the joy or the fear can open peoples spiritual eyes to see perhaps for the first time that they indeed must change and must repent and embrace God the Truth. Sudden events often times can open people to the reality that there indeed are greater realties than what mere human senses and intellect can perceive on the natural order. When this happens the first steps of conversion can begin and true repentance and true life can enter into the heart, mind and life of the person and their souls. The result of Adam's fall is that all mankind is born not only with original sin but worse with an inclination and desire to commit sin this being known as concupiscence. Because of these inheritances within our nature we suffer from a darkening of the intellect. Because of this darkened intellect mankind is uncomfortable when divine light is shed upon his heart and mind thereby revealing to man that he is in need of God and his life, light and truth. This necessity of change is repugnant to the world, thus the world of mankind does everything possible to bury himself in darkness so that he can if it were possible to avoid change. Mans resistance and rejection of divine light and truth typically expresses itself in harm and destruction of self and neighbor.

An important note: Egypt can be and is understood as a symbol of the world. As Moses faithfully obeyed God and led the Hebrews out of Egypt (the world) into a new beginning and life, the Egyptians gladly and desirously gave the Hebrews plunder just so that they would leave them, thereby the Hebrews through the power and authority of God plundered the super-power of their world. Further, as Egypt is a symbol of the world, believers of the one true God are never to place their trust or confidence in the world. Later, as the Hebrews wander in the deserts of Sinai and sin they yearn to return to the world even to the point of murmuring against God and His chosen leaders Moses and Aaron. God isn't pleased with this and desires to destroy them and would have if their leader and even their father in the faith Moses did not intercede on their behalf. In like manner we witness many believers today desirous of returning to the world and participating in worldly affairs. God never changes and today God isn't pleased with secularized Christians. We as Christians must always remain obedient to God and His chosen leader, father, papa and church, to do anything less is disobedience and therefore will not benefit us nor please God.

We have a bumper crop of such lackeys today. Such people are only interested in what they can get out of the deal / situation. They have no interest in how their actions or lack there of affect others. Thus, the lackey's of Jerusalem and during Isaiah's time cared nothing for the people, Jerusalem or God. Everything they did was only for personal interests nor for the glory of God or the safety of the people. Anyone operating strictly on the natural order will never recognize the need to repent, thus they will continue attempting to accomplish whatever they are doing by their own efforts and intellect or even fears. However, those who have received grace from God, through the exercise of discernment they would have seen and recognized what they must do, repent and trust in the Lord. Anyone who is so filled with inordinate pride and self interest are digging their own grave, for their efforts are entirely repugnant not only to men but even more so towards God. Anyone who declares themselves sinless or guiltless is a liar, for none can stand before the Lord innocent. The faithful indeed have been redeemed, but our salvation demands continued conversion throughout our pilgrimage in this existence. We must always strive for holiness and obedience, less we fall into a worse state than when we first came to know the Lord. It is for this reason St. Paul declares that he 'beats his body straining to control his natural passions and appetites so that he will may run the race of righteousness before God and not forfeit his salvation (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Oh, I found my own error. I apologize to you all for my own mistake and lack of thoroughness. Sincerely in Christ.

In the various readings and studies I have made of Neolithic man / societies, I have never found any that sought out Satan or any resemblance thereof. The practice of pantheism, animism, totemisms, paganism, et., of course, but this entirely out of ignorance. Yet even within these most ancient societies and religious rituals and beliefs there was a desire to be one with the cosmic powers that be. Where things go from ignorance to bad is when a man or society desires supremacy above these cosmic powers. Even in such times these men / people who exalted themselves were either feared or hated for they attempted to trample upon what was known at the time to be truth and exalt themselves over the deities and the peoples.

Hmmm, I suppose the "Anima Christi" (Soul of Christ) prayer was some how inappropriate for a Bible study? If you would, please explain. Thank you.

The Hezekiah and his people of Judah and Jerusalem were to remain faithful to God alone and place no confidence in their own will. God has everything under control, in fact Egypt will itself be conquered by Assyria and its captives enslaved taken as booty naked. Hezekiah befriended and trust in both God and His servant Isaiah, therefore did not make any alliance with Egypt or other nations. Well, if I were to see a naked person especially a friend making what looked like a spectacle of them selves, it might be hard to discern whether this person is indeed in his right mind or not. However, if on the other hand I was moved by God's grace and enabled to recognize and understand what and who my friend actually is in regards to God and my beliefs, then I would like to believe I would be trusting despite the appearances of my friend. This is not unlike what St. Francis of Assisi experienced and did, going about naked forsaking all the allurements of this world and those of the upper-classes and aristocracies. Most were repelled by this behavior, but those who moved by grace from God befriended him and in due course indeed changed the Church and the Christian world on to a path which served and sought a closer and more perfected way of serving, knowing and loving God.

Yes, this ruler exalted himself not only above the pagan deities but also above the one true God. This no differently than many rulers throughout the ages and none more so than right now in this country. This prophecy reveals the characteristic's of all would be rulers throughout the ages who through great hubris and inordinate pride and who desires to elevate themselves to divine status, even above God. I do not know that I can say that I desired to elevate myself above God, but I certainly have desired my will above God's will. For as saint Paul declares ... 'I do what I do not want to do and don't do what I ought to do,'... Unfortunately this is the human condition called "concupiscence" which we must battle hourly. Thus, to be faithful to Jesus Christ, we must take up our cross daily, not put it aside, or drag it behind us, but carry it faithfully and this no matter how impossible it might seem and actually is, but faithfully carrying our cross daily and leaving the increase to God. When we know what and who we are, we will begin praying daily and often, obediently seeking holiness through the virtue of humility whereby we can stand righteous before our Creator and God. Soul of Christ make me holy, Body of Christ save me, Blood of Christ fill me with love, Water from Christ's side wash me, Good Jesus hear me. Within Your wounds hide me, Never let me be parted from you. From the evil enemy protect me. At the hour of my death call me, Tell me to come to You, That with all Your holy saints I may praise You, For all eternity. Amen.

Forum/List/Friends: As I attempted to explain earlier, though not very thoroughly or complete, I'm hopeful this explanation of what Isaiah was pointing/directing us towards is that the Messiah/Emmanuel will bring in the age of spirit and witness, and only after the full number of Gentiles have entered into the Church will Israel/Jews become fully included in the fullness of Christ's body will the end come, and then only after the Church goes through it's Passover just like it's Creator, being betrayed, abandoned, slandered, falsely accused, mocked, teased, abused within and without, stripped naked, tortured, publicly humiliated, thrust out of the city gates of society, and this by all of it's own people, it's own brethren, by it's son's and daughters, and then crucified and murdered and dies, and then buried with good riddance, and then 3 1/2 days later raised back to life in a glorified state to become the purified, unblemished and spotless Bride of Christ. Christ's Bride willingly will endure it's Passover just as her lover Jesus Christ endured His Passover, and this for the sake of the love of the Groom and His Father. Passover yes, rapture no. The following is a better and more thorough understanding which is very important for the truth is, Christ already reigns through the Church. . . "Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion", for the Father "has put all things under his feet." Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are "set forth" and transcendently fulfilled. As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body. Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. the redemption is the source of the authority that Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. "The kingdom of Christ (is) already present in mystery", "on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom". Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at "the last hour". "Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect." Christ's kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church. . . . until all things are subjected to him. Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover. Until everything is subject to him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God." That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him: Maranatha! "Our Lord, come!" Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace. According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching. Since the Ascension Christ's coming in glory has been imminent, even though "it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority." This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are "delayed". The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old." St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles", will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all." Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism. The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.

Malachias 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus, the highway is being made straight, and in every nation there are people/believers gathered under Jesus Christ's one banner within His one kingdom with it's one holy/clean sacrifice/oblation. As for the entirely of the man-made invention of "Darbyism" i.e. rapture as understood by a tiny minority of faith communities, this false notion of escapism I will not address, for it is simply another extension of their continued symptoms of error to due to a lack of actual knowledge and understanding of divine reality.

Isaiah poetically speaks of a time of perfect harmony and perfect peace as it was in the beginning. However, we are to keep in mind that the Kingdom of God is "now"! Not some distant future time and place, but here and now! Jesus never abandoned his people, he never left his people orphaned, for his kingdom is here and now, he is actually and literally present to everyone who actually believes and possess his knowledge and understanding. Those outside of this knowledge and understanding guff and wag their heads in disbelief. This no differently than many of Jesus Christ's disciples could not accept nor believe that they had to eat and drink his flesh and blood to have eternal life in Him, thus they turned their back upon their one time lord never to walk with him again. Only a few disciples including the Virgin Mary the first and greatest disciple of Jesus, and eleven of Jesus's apostles actually believed this truth and this knowledge and understanding. Again, the majority rejected this truth, this knowledge, this understanding. Though many have come to believe over these past 2,000 years, the majority continue to guff and wag their heads in disbelief. As we proclaim in the Lord's Prayer, "...on earth as it is in heaven..."

Jesse is the father of David, and is St. Joseph's great grandfather 14 times removed and likewise Jesse is the Virgin Mary's great grandfather 15 times removed, thus both St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary are of the line of David, therefore through legalities St. Joseph the foster father of Jesus gives his son a noble lineage. The Virgin Mary through her blood by ascendancy gives Jesus his noble lineage. Through the power and authority of God the father and the over shadowing of the Holy Spirit the Son of God is conceived in the womb or the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit not only upon and in Jesus, they are one with the Father. Thus, all the substance of divinity is present and therefore all the attributes of same are present. As God spoke and the universe and world were created, and as God breathed life into Adam, and as God with a wind parted the Red Sea whereby Israel was saved and the Egyptians destroyed by the sea crashing upon them. Therefore when God speaks His Word the world will fear when his divine judgment is pronounced upon the earth. The Lord ever hears the cry of the poor in spirit and those in poverty as well as the widow, orphan, alien, weak, defenseless, etc., and He administers true and divine justice. Our Lord comes to destroy the destroyers with His divine Word.

Do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Love God above all things and persons first and love our neighbor as we love our selves. Sounds easy and doable. However, how many people actually know what love is? How many people are willing to actually love, which requires and demands self sacrifice? Unfortunately not many. Jesus asks his disciples/apostles, 'when the Son of man returns will he find faith on earth?' Unfortunately I comfortably can say that when our Lord returns He will find very little if any faith on earth. Without faith, there is no hope, without hope, love grows cold, without these only despair remains. Where despair is prevalent evil abounds, injustice becomes common place, and zeal for hate rages to ever greater depths of depravity.

When we see the Son we see the Father. The Wonderful-Councilor / Prince of Peace / Mighty God / God Hero are one and the same person, namely Jesus Christ. The peace the world offers interests me little to not at all. Therefore the Wonderful-Councilor is the Prince of Peace and His identity is "Son of God" and His name is Jesus the Christ. It is He whom I desire.

One of my favorite passages sums this up pretty well: Luke 8:16-18 "...16...17...18 Take heed therefore how you hear. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given: and whosoever hath not, that also which he thinkest he hath, shall be taken away from him. On the surface this doesn't some pleasant. Yet in truth, every believer has had much taken away from them, and in truth this has been a very good thing. For there was a time we might have though any number of evils were good. But through the grace of God all this useless baggage and sinfulness and weight of guilt and fear is taken away, and we in truth begin to see the actual divine light and love of God and begin to desire to share this same hope of loss of these burdens and heavy yokes in favor of God's light and easy yoke of liberty and freedom from the bondage of a sinful past and sinful world. Our minds begin to be renewed in the Truth Himself and our lives are restored to holiness and our faith is increased and our hope elevated upon seeking things above where our savior and our heavenly Father sit enthroned and victorious, so we willingly mortify our flesh and wills that they be trained in the ways of God alone. (Read - Colossians 3:1-5)