My Spiritual Journey: The long road

For years my world was a desert, but there was music, and that was what sustained me.

For a long time it seemed rules were all that there was. God was a mean guy in the sky that would smack you down if you sinned. Or at least send you to hell when you died, so you better not die. We were told to get saved and then be good. Or maybe you had to be good first and then be saved. But being good just involved avoiding certain sins. It seemed like a lot of times it was more about not getting caught sinning than actually avoiding the various sins. I wanted answers though, not just platitudes or more rules. I didn't know what I wanted really at the time, i wasn't even a teenager yet, but it was more just wanting to know the whys and hows of things. Even then the rules seemed like an easy answer to a complex question.

I did feel guilty though and perhaps that was what the rules were for. But my guilt was more than the rules. I wasn't smoking, drinking or whatever else there was. The casual eye I was a basic good kid that went to church and did well in school.  I wasn't a problem for the adult authorities. Inside was a very different story.

Overwhelming guilt and shame that soon came to live inside me. Secrets on many levels.

Some things I felt guilty for were not even my doing.  Seeing things no one should see before my teen years began, and secretly enjoying some of the sins of others. These were things no one talked about, and I sure didn't want to talk about it.  Sneaking peeks at forbidden things. Emotions smothering me from all sides. There was no one to turn to.

There were my little secrets. Only they would not have been little if anyone had known. I used to cry out to God for some sort of sense out of all of this. But there were no answers. There was humiliation around every corner. Someone who knew the secrets of things behind closed doors, knew my connection. Mutual embarrassment ensued whenever we would meet. I had to keep secrets. I did, and I even started keeping them from myself by erasing any traces  of things that happened in secret.

That was my own private battle. Much too complicated for me and certainly nothing I could ask anyone about. But then there was the social aspects of religion, church. I wanted to know God because I thought there would be some answers there, and I thought church would be the place to find it. I was mistaken.

The thing I saw was that everyone acted as if they were good, but they were not good. Christianity became a game. To be socially accepted, I did like every one else. I hid my sins, and pretended to be good. Some of my sins were not sins at all, but were just things I had felt guilty about. The hypocrisy of it all bothered me more than anything.  I also resented having to act like I was a good person when I knew I was not. I also resented having to pretend other people were good people when I knew they were not too.

I saw the human condition as one of weakness, sinfulness and despair. Yet religion's heavy hand was upon me. I wanted to know God, but God seemed so far away, so hard to understand. And in my dealings with most religious people, there was just pretending to be good. Now there were exceptions. There were some wise older women - older than me at least - who seemed to understand a little bit. They offered me hope.  A teaspoon of grace in a desert of sinfulness and guilt. It was a medicine I took eagerly, but they were the minority and often they were drowned out by the noise of religiousity.

I seemed miles - even worlds - away from the peace of the multicolored river of my youth. I could no longer see that place where i used to see God, and  could not feel his spirit within me anymore. I could barely even remember the river of rainbows. Were they just something I had imagined? Where was that feeling. Sunsets became just sunsets. I barely cared about the colorful mountains and fire in the sky anymore.

At some point I realized I would have to stop looking to others for answers. I was becoming an angry young man. They - those I had looked to as leaders - either did not know the answers or were refusing to tell me. I knew God. This was not what God was about, I knew, but even if I raised the question I got scolded or shunned. As my teen years began, I knew it was not God that was the problem. Religion just confused the issue - or at least the issues I cared about.

 Anger raged as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s. There was still some fear of the angry God who got mad if you sinned, but even that began to fade. People would say "God loves you." That only made it worse. What the hell did that mean? There were a lot of layers between me and God by then. And it would only get worse.

 There was a numbness that calloused over my heart as it sealed itself off from danger. Apart from anger at the frustration of not being able to find answers, there really wasn't much emotion.

 But it was there I found music. Dylan, Lennon and McCartney, even the Stones to some extent. There were others, but those were the ones that lasted in my mind.  They said the words I wanted to say. They had the feelings I wanted to feel. It almost seemed like they understood the things I felt. My anger was abated by their lyrics, their music. There was also the Allman Brothers Band. Their lyrics were not that much, but they had a sound that soothed my angered soul. The blues influence on 70s rock and roll became my savior.

In despair I was abandoning my search for God. Music at least consoled me. Still the emptiness was always just a step away. Late at night starring at the ceiling. Sometimes I would pray, but nothing ever got beyond the ceiling. God wasn't listening, and certainly wasn't talking.

I knew there was a hole in my soul that only God could fill, but where was God. How could I find God? Why would religion not reveal the secrets? Anger and depression began to rule. Music calmed me. If it were not for music I would not have survived. It was not the real answer, but it was a  life raft in a sea of bewilderment.

I started smoking in these years. The rush of nicotine seemed to fill me up and make me whole. I do remember one day thinking this was what I had needed. Thus began a lifelong addiction.  

My spiritual jouney: Descent to despair

The downward spiral began as the world unfolded in my pre-teen years. I wanted to know about God. God was the name I finally had for the rainbow river. The image of the multi-colored water was always in the front of my mind whenever we would go to church. I enjoyed the music and the stories in Sunday School. I thought I would find out more about the voice I had heard long ago, a voice that comforted me beyond anything I could understand.
But there was a dissonance that soon showed itself.
I felt the tug of church and religion, but when I went there, all I heard about was rules. Don't drink alcohol. Don't smoke. Don't cuss. The list went on, even things I had no idea what they were. Well I was a kid. I had never drank or smoked, but I had cussed some. I knew what that was. I tried not to cuss so God wouldn't be mad at me, and it was a long time before I would indulge in alcohol or tobacco.
There was a lot of talk of hell and burning forever. I didn't want that so I went forward and said the prayer, but nothing happened. Nothing changed.
It was all just so confusing. If you go forward in church and say a prayer you will be saved from hell. But then if you sin again, God will be mad at you and you will go to hell. So you had to go back down in front and get saved again.
The thing that bothered me most though, was that there was no emphasis on God. No talk about how to know God, how to learn about God. It was just rules.
Then to add to my confusion, after church, the men would gather and smoke on the front steps while the women did whatever it was they did before getting to the car to go home.
I still looked for the voice, but couldn't hear it. Even the mountains started to not look as glorious as they had looked before.
The rainbow river even began to fade from my consciousness.
Fear and despair became a cloud that pursued me. Fear of what I had no idea.
Even in the darkness though, a small light shined. Someday I would know what God was really like, or what the reality was. I knew the rules, but somehow I also just had a feeling this was not the real thing. God would make sense right?

My Spiritual Journey: Paradise tainted

Sitting on the front steps, cold cement and a breeze coming up the valley. Shivering, pulling my coat tighter.
Summer had faded and we were full swing into fall. I didn't like the end of summer, going back to school, or the weather turning cold. I was not over missing summer, but this was one pleasure that did not escape.
Just about every evening I would be out there on the steps watching the sunset. The mountains were alive with fall colors. That was cool enough, but then the sun would set. It was already below the horizon, and the light created a show that I wanted to see every day. The reds, oranges across the sky, against the backdrop of the mountains filled with fall color, took me back to the rainbow river. For just a moment there, I could feel that old feeling again. By now I recognized it as God. It never said anything, but I knew it was there. 
As night began to overcome the day, the mountains faded to blue and gray. As the stars started to appear,  
People around me, adults mostly, also appreciated the sunset. There was a dark side to this though. I thought they saw what I saw, and that they were enjoying what I was enjoying. 
But they said the things i said were cute. Or they just dismissed at childish imagination. Even worse, sometimes I would get scolded for saying things that were not “correct.” How the heck did I know what “correct” was? How was I supposed to know that? How did they know what was “correct?”
So I didn't talk about it anymore for a very long time.

My Spiritual Journey: Beginnings

I saw God in nature way before I ever saw anything in a book.

My introduction to God was great. A rainbow colored river flowing with warmth. It was undefined, just like the voice at the rainbow river, but I still felt it was that something that was out there – something that was not the same as myself or other people. It was good. But at the time I had no words for it. 

There were also images that seemed to communicate something to me.

There was a painting someone had done, and it was on display at the church. The painting was amazing, lots of colors. There was a river in the painting, and it had colors as well, so I imagined someone else had seen the same river I had seen. I didn't know how paintings came about, but I imagined it was the same river.

I looked at that painting every chance I got. And sometimes I would just stare at it in wonder. The sky in the painting was great too. It looked the way the real sky looked. I remember going outside in very cold weather, shivering and looking up at the night sky. This was rural Appalachia so there was not a lot of light noise. You could really see the sky.

As I looked up at the Milky Way, the vastness of the sky and all the stars, I felt that same thing I had felt at the rainbow river.

Another thing was the view near my house. The mountains were layered and you could see lots of hills. We were halfway up one mountain and you could see the valley and the layers of hills and mountains across the way. The mountains faded into the western sky, there was no end to them, they just faded away.

In the fall especially, the sun would set between two particular mountains. All the leaves were changing and the mountain was alive with orange, yellows and reds. The sunset also changed the sky to various shades of red, and combined with the visual of the mountains. There was also a blue shade of the mountains in the distant horizon as the sun set, as the reds in the sky faded.

The sunsets also gave me that good feeling. Those colors became my new rainbow river.

The only frustrating thing was, I couldn't talk to anyone about this. When I tried it wasn't understood or taken seriously. It could also be that I didn't know how to articulate it and also didn't know what I even wanted as a response.

Somewhere along the line I started hearing about God. Parents, adults in general, going to church and hearing the stories. I liked the stories. Noah and his ark. Father Abraham, and Jesus. Joseph and his coat of many colors. That always made me think of the river of rainbow.

God had created the world in seven days.

And I knew that it was the same one that had spoke to me at the rainbow river. So now I had a name for the voice, a name for the feeling.

I still knew nothing about this God, but I felt good whenever I thought about it, especially if any of those images were close by.

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My spiritual journey: In the beginning, God ...

There never was a time that I did not “know” God, or when I was not aware of something outside myself that was definitely there. Of course it was unseen, but it was a force, or a being of some kind. Still, it was as real as anything else.

I dont know how old I was when I first knew, but it was before I ever went to school. There was a dream. I was very young, and had only limited understanding. I still knew what the dream was about. It also repeated a few times, and maybe that is why I remember it so well.

I was beside a river and looking across. This was no ordinary river though. It flowed color, like a rainbow. The water of the river was streaked with vibrant colors. The colors remained separate, and they flowed together. I And looking across the water I could see other people or other beings. Somehow I knew those other beings were not of this world. They were “other.” I didn't know who they were but I just had the idea that they were not like me somehow. There was nothing fearful about them though.

The water was so beautiful and intriguing, that I went into it. I started walking across. 

But suddenly I was met by a voice, and I knew it was the voice of a greater being. It told me to turn around, and pointed to my mother who was standing on the shore. She was waiting for me to come back. She was happy that I had not continued.

So I went back in that direction. The voice was kind, strangely forceful, but at the same time seemed full of love. The voice was a power, and I felt it when it spoke to me. A peace and happy kind of feeling that seemed beyond understanding.

Later on I heard about God, Jesus and so forth, and it seemed to fit. I always thought back to that dream when I was in church.

Sometimes I would feel that same feeling I had felt when the voice told me to turn back from crossing the river. But I also learned that it was not something I could control, or make happen. It came when it wanted to come. But when it did come, I would feel very good. Most of the time it came in association with a religious event of some kind, though not always.

Even at an early age I began to associate God with that dream. God was the voice I had met in the river of the rainbow.

That is where my journey began.

It was a journey though, and it was years before I began to understand God. Tomorrow I will write about the frustration of not being able to know who the voice was.

Beatitudes: Blessed are the persecuted

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10

When we are counter cultural, the culture will criticize, because it does not like being exposed. Jesus said we will be persecuted, or criticized, because of him. I think this is because his message is so revolutionary.

He says blessed are the poor in spirit. He says to be humble, to consider others, to be meek and so forth, which is the opposite of what the modern culture says. Our culture glorifies those that are strong, those that make a name for themselves, those that draw attention to themselves. Jesus calls us to be something quiet different than that.

I Peter 2:15 says, "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people." This is the reason we can rejoice at persecution, because our hope is in God, and we can expect "foolish talk."
Peter goes on to say in verse 21, "But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God."

If we are criticized or persecuted, it should be for actual righteousness, and not because we are indeed wrong or just acting crazy.

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Beatitudes: Blessed are the peacemakers

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

Matthew 5:9

This should be the goal of a follower of Christ, a peacemaker. This is not someone who takes sides necessarily, but seeks peace. Romans 12:18 says "as much as lieth in us, to live peaceably with all men."

Jesus has made peace between us and God, and we should be a people of peace. If we are peacemakers, we will appear different to the world, and it will get attention. Perhaps that is why it says they will be called children of God. If we are making peace, instead of strife, then people will know we are children of God.
The peacemaker faces issues, and speaks the truth, but still realizes the value of peace. This is not pacifism, but rather, helping others to find a way to have peace. There are solutions to issues, and perhaps working for those is better than having strife.

And we see the Beatitudes building on each other. The pure in heart realizes that God's purpose is much higher than our own, and seeks the kingdom of heaven first - hunger and third for righteousness. It is a natural step from there to be a peacemaker.

This is the first Beatitude as well that is a direct instruction to do something involving other people. All the others have some effect on those around us, but this one is a clear statement of something we should be doing, as the children of God.

From my own application, I can see how I fall short. I get into political arguments. I take sides in that arena, and battle against those I disagree with, or even think negative thoughts about "the other side." I feel poor in spirit because I have failed so much in this area. I wonder what things we could do to be a peacemaker in actual life. I find myself wanting to respond when i see political posts that I think are less than truthful, but, what would a peacemaker do?

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Beatitudes: Blessed are the pure in heart

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The pure in heart refers to who you really are. It is not an outward legalistic righteousness that purity refers to. Often in modern Christian circles purity refers to sexual relationships, but much more than that is in mind here in this scripture. Pure in heart means a single mindedness that is preoccupied with God. It involves the thoughts, desires, purpose, will, understanding, and character. It is who you are inwardly. Purity means not being hindered by worldly things. Often sexual purity is in mind, but there is also greed, hate, bitterness, unforgiving attitudes, judgement of others and other things that keep us from being pure in heart. The previous beatitudes said "in spirit," but here it says "in heart." Maybe Jesus didn't mean anything different other than he was just using a different word, or maybe it was a slight change in meaning. 

They will see God

They will see God. This can refer to the revealing of God at the judgement at the end of the age when our eyes will literally see God. But it also refers to the spiritual eyes that can "see" God now.

This purity is also obtained by faith. There are countless books and such to help you grow spiritually and can help, but it is God who makes us pure, and we receive that by faith.

In our lowly human state, we cannot be completely pure. Paul said we see through a glass darkly. But with the eyes of faith we can see God when we rely on the purity of Christ.

Pure by faith

Im not sure I have ever felt pure in heart really, though I have felt that i've seen God in nature and in music, and even in religion at times.

But perhaps you would not feel you were pure if you were pure, because purity is not egotistical at all.

There seems to always be some worldly thing that is still there, no matter how close i feel to God. I guess it is just the human condition.

Still, i don't think purity is something to be sought. We should seek God instead, who will give us a pure heart.

Beattitudes: Blessed are the merciful

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy
Matthew 5:7

In a sense this is reaping what you sow. We receive mercy, so we are merciful to others. Psalm 18:25 says "with the merciful thou will show thyself merciful." As we forgive others their sins against us, we forgive others. The two go together.
Also as we offer mercy, or forgiveness, to others we show - maybe we even show ourselves - that we have received mercy ourselves.
It can be hard to forgive others, but there is nothing to be gained from holding a grudge or having a spirit of unforgiveness. When we do that, we do nothing but make the pain linger, we are not free yet from the hurt.
I felt things for years, but it was not until I
But I have also received mercy from God, forgiveness. It sounds so cliche to say my sins are forgiven, but think about this. In the same way that we still suffer when we hold on to bitterness when someone has wronged us, we also hold on to the pain from our own sin when we have not received forgiveness or mercy.
That is why these go together, giving and receiving mercy.
I have said the beatitudes build on each other. The person poor in spirit realizes his poverty, then mourns his condition and only then can he be comforted. From there the person is meek, recognizing his state of having been forgiven. That leads to a thirst for righteousness - which is a thirst to know more about God, not necessarily being all perfect.
And of course a natural part of all that is receiving and giving mercy to others.
Each one of them can also be seen as its own statement that stands on its own.
A word also about "blessed are." In the New Testament this word mean something like happy or well off. In good condition is the person who is poor in spirit, who mourns, etc.

Beatitudes: Hunger and thirst for righteousness

         Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

         for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

A flower thirsts and flourishes in a harsh environment.

Hunger and thirst are the most basic human needs and perhaps feelings. We realize we must have food and water to survive, and if we are without, we realize our bad state.  To hunger and thirst for something is to need it, to think it is something we must have in order to live.

In the physical world we must have food and water to survive, and we are not surprised when we thirst or hunger. In the spiritual world, our most basic need is to have a relationship with God. Many people are looking for that "something" that will give them a sense of well being or wholeness. They may try to fill it in many ways, but they usually come up empty eventually.

This is also the next step in the spiritual journey. Starting with becoming poor in spirit, recognizing one's condition of being "poor" as in not having what you need spiritually.  We then mourn our bad condition, and this is often called repentance. In this state, we then become meek, which is more of an attitude of recognizing one's state of being. It is humility in its most basic form,

So when we get to this point, we may again have that thirst and hunger for God. We may again recognize our need, and realize what it is. When this happens, we will be filled. What is this righteousness that we hunger and thirst for? It is a relationship with God. It is not hungering and thirsting to be some perfect person, that is not what righteousness really is. This righteousness is more a relationship with God, which is how we were designed to be in the first place. When we hunger and thirst for this - realize it is our most basic need, then we can be filled with the love of God.

I remember feeling this way a long time ago, after years of searching, finally finding the truth of the gospel. Maybe it was then that I was first really open to it at a deeper level. It was just a feeling like finally I was in a real relationship with God. I was praying, reading the scriptures and meditating on them. Thoughts of the spiritual world seemed to crowd out a lot of cares of the world - what we call sin. I was not thinking of myself as some holy person, but rather, simply a person who was being filled with a righteous (as in correct or realistic) relationship with God. I was filled then.

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Beatitudes: Blessed are the meek

Is this an image of meekness?

               Blessed are the meek,
         for they will inherit the earth. \
Matthew 5:5

In the world there is competition to get ahead. To win someone else has to lose, is often the mindset. The aggressive and powerful rule the day. That is not what Jesus was calling his disciples to though.  People who want to rule the world think highly of themselves and their own strength, they are not poor in spirit, do not mourn and are not meek.

Meek is translated Gentle or Humble in other translations. It is an interesting Greek word that could mean strength with gentleness, but there is no English word that conveys both ideas.

The meek here, are not weak, but they don't have power, and dont rely on their own power. They are not concerned with self, but with God and his kingdom.

The meek have a kind and gentle spirit, because they know their spiritual state and that their value and significance comes from God alone. They realized they were impoverished and without spiritual resources - and became poor in spirit. They mourned, and were comforted. At this point, they are meek, or gentle, because they understand where real strength comes from.

Those that are powerful and strong may rule the world at the moment, but the world will fade away. The meek, or those with a gentle spirit, will be the ones who end up inheriting the earth instead of the powerful and strong.

In Matthew 10:16, it says "The last will be first, and the first will be last."

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Beatitudes: blessed are those who mourn

         Blessed are those who mourn,
         for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4

The Beatitudes build on each other.  Blessed are the poor in spirit was the first thought, and the second one built on that. If you realize your need, realize your poverty spiritually, and come to God, you will receive the kingdom of God, is the meaning of being poor in spirit. The result of realizing your need should be repentance, or mourning.

So naturally, if we realize our poverty, we will mourn, we will not be comfortable. The result of realizing your need is feeling weak, poor, beaten down.  If all we are is poor in spirit, and we don't move on from there, we will stay in a very bad state.

I realize my poverty, my need spiritually, and i mourn because of that, because of the need. The result is finding comfort. God receives those who come to him with humility - poor in spirit.

There is an emptiness that people feel, a desperation. Sometimes people use drugs, or even good things like music to fill that void. It is said we all have a god-shaped hole in our hearts. It is easy to try to fill that hole with worldly things, but that always ends up disappointing.

Mourning is not fun. Confessing is not fun. Admitting your need isnt either. But there is comfort when you do.

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Beatitudes: Poor in spirit

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

Are we as needy as this building, beside a road in Oklahoma?

It went against the cultural grain of Jesus' day just like it does ours. Jesus started his teaching by going against what a lot of people thought.

 There are teachers out there who say if you are wealthy, that is a sign of God's blessing, and people were teaching that when Jesus taught as well. Apparently that has been a consistent thought through the ages.

But Jesus was not talking about money. He was talking about the attitude you need to have to come to God.  It is not those who make a show of being religious, or who have high standing, or even who do all the religious things one should do, that will inherit the kingdom of God. Those who think too highly of themselves, may miss it because they are rich in spirit.

When you are poor, you realize your need. Poor people have to depend on others for basic necessities. There may not be anything they can do about it either. They are beggars, hands held out - dirty hands no doubt. Needy. With not much to offer.  Often they recognize their neediness. It is the same on the spiritual level, and what Jesus was getting at in saying Blessed are the poor in spirit.

On the spiritual level, we must realize we are poor, and that is the beginning of being poor in spirit.

This is the beginning of his teaching, and the beginning to finding God. "Being" poor in spirit, as in realizing  you are needy, weak and poor spiritually. Once you realize the need, you can then ask and receive. If you are "wealthy" in spirit, you wont see your need and you wont ask. Jesus was not talking about money, but about one's spiritual state.

It is those who realize their need that will receive the kingdom of heaven.

"Being" poor in spirit then, is realizing your need, seeing your weakness, and turning to God. This is the first step toward inheriting the Kingdom of God.

Reading the bible as a story

There are hundreds of stories on the Bible, and the entire thing is a story in itself.  Some people have taken the NIV and rearranged it a little bit, to put it in chronological order. It is fitted together as one long novel. Verses and chapters are left out, so there are no distractions.
This book can be read by an individual as a novel. It can also be used as a small group study. There is a study guide and so forth, but the greatest value of this is the story itself.
It has been around awhile, and can be had for very little money. Click on the photo for more information about getting "the story."

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God's priority is mercy, not sacrifice

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
Hosea 6:6

How would God desiring mercy more than sacrifice fit into our world today?

Some leaders seem more concerned about the unborn than they do about those that are born in poverty.
Some leaders are concerned about handouts to the poor, but not about huge sums of money given to corporations.

What would Jesus say to that?

Jesus was shaking things up as he wandered around Israel teaching. The religious leaders of his day had a long history of following God, and they were God's chosen people after all. So who was this new young rabbi coming along doing things that went against tradition?
He healed on the sabbath. He and his disciples also gathered grain on the sabbath. The religious leaders took very seriously the sabbath. it had been ordered by God, and they were determined to keep it no matter what.
Rules were rules after all, and pretty soon you will have chaos if you don't have rules. Right?
Well that was the case until Jesus came along.
Twice in fairly short order, in Matthew 9 and again in Matthew 12, Jesus was in conflict with the religious leaders. In both instances he quoted the Prophet Hosea, 6:6, which says: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
It is true the burn offerings were required, but throughout the Old Testament it is clear that God wants us to take care of each other, and that God desires mercy and justice more than details of rules to be followed.

In Matthew Chapter 9, Jesus forgives a man's sins. Well this was blasphemy of the highest order. They didn't know Jesus was God yet, and only God could forgive sins.  He forgave a man who was paralized. When they objected, Jesus took it a step further by healing the guy. They didn't have anything to say to that.
But a bit later Jesus calls Matthew to be his disciple. This was no ordinary Matt. The text says he was a tax collector. What this meant was, he was a representative of the Romans who were taking tax money from people. These people were also nortorious for taking some extra for themselves. So if you owed $10, they may say you have to apy $15, and keep the extra.
Matthew believes and drops what he is doing and follows Jesus. Then he has jesus come home for dinner and also invites all his other tax collector buddies.  The writer says "sinners" also, so there were some other nefarious characters around too.
Of course the pharisees had to question this. If Jesus was really a good rabbi, he wouldn't be hanging around with these people.
But Jesus response was to quote Hosea.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’a For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Then again in Matthew 12, Jesus and his disciples again get into a row with the pharisees over the sabbath. They were walking through a field and were eating some of the grain. Of course this was a violation of their sabbath rules, but not a violation of any old testament scripture.
Again Jesus points them to Hosea, where it says God desires mercy and not sacrifice.

How would God desiring mercy more than sacrifice fit into our world today?Our religious leaders worry about bathrooms and gay marriage, but are not concerned about homeless people or people going without health care.
What would Jesus say to that?



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Bible study survey for groups puts entire bible in perspective

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The Bible is the cornerstone of Christianity, but a lot of Christians even, may not have a good big picture idea of the entire book. That is where “A Brief Survey of the Bible” by John Walton and Mark Strauss can help. The book has an accompanying DVD with videos enough for 14 weeks of lessons to give students a good overall view of the scriptures.

Walton is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and Strauss is a professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary in San Diego.

This resource would be best used by groups, but an individual might profit from reading the book to get an overall picture.

The writers give a good synopsis of each book, as well as some cultural and historical information, that will make the books of the bible more interesting for those that may not be as familiar.

Another valuable part of this book and video series is that it shows how the Bible fits together. It gives readers an idea of how the books relate to each other, offering glimpses into key events, characters and themes of the bible. There is good information about why they were written and these kinds of things that help develop a better understanding.

There are study questions, as well as discussion questions, that will help a small group enjoy the study. The videos are well done and present a good bit of information.

The series starts with an introduction, and then the next 13 weeks are spent going over a section of the bible. It does not delve a lot into content simply because it is a 14 week long series. But it might give students a taste and pique an interest in further bible study.

The authors also pick key texts for the students to read each week, and will help give a taste for each of the individual books of the bible.

The series is at the adult level and would also be great for a new believers class in a church.

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"1 Peter 1:3 Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead[...].” Praise God through the Word of God at ChurchSource.com.