At some point: this train is leaving the station!

 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

?????? What is Peter saying?  Casually.......! he is affirming his death!! like leaving on a trip!! By train... Departure?? tent?  Sounds easy!  We who in this American society hold so dearly onto life and find every way possible to extend, refresh, unwrinkle, preserve and undo death.  It's just not possible.  And we cringe when death is near or near to ones we love.  And yet Peter is calmly affirming his departure, perhaps knowing in his heart he was to suffer like his Messiah.  But he tells all of his Churches in Asia to continue in the Faith.   
     To be sure the times he lived in were violent (think Nero) lions and the like.  But he rather affrims the Kingdom to come and strongly suggests that what is to come in the eternal is far greater than what is now present.  Sounds good.  Compare our times also..... Isis, Boko Haram, Houthis, Separatists,  and the gazillion factions in the Middle East! Ours is a violent world too and it is escalating also.  Fire is consuming and it spreads without control.

    So choose door No. 1,2, or 3! from the price is right!  Door No. 1 is all things material. Door No 2 is counterfeit kingdoms.  And behind door No. 3!  A chance to depart this kingdom we live in daily with strife, violence, hatred, malice, and theivery in high places.  Preached by one who came from the dead, firstborn of it...and promised things better than  what is here..  Can we believe it? Thy kingdom come.....thy will be done on Earth as in Heaven.....surely there is war in the heavenlies as Daniel was told by the Angel Gabriel, fighting on his behalf. But who is the General!     And can we follow the one who liberates, feeds, heals, and gives hope to countless generations?  We all decide which track the trains runs on,and what door to choose..... 

Suitably created;

Mercury to hot
Pluto to cold
Jupiter to gassy
Neptune to icy

Earth....just right

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like:

like seed scattered along a path, rocky soil, and weeds,

like wheat and tares,

like a mustard seed,

like hidden treasure and a pearl

like a net let down and catching all manner of fish good and bad

10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you,but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;

This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

     This is the essence of the Gospel nothing more and nothing less.  It is unchanged since the early days of preaching.  What has changed are men's interpretation and their presentation of it.  Some promise all sorts of things not present in the Gospels.

 Prosperity doctrines, to name the biggie.  All manner of churches are in this country producing programs, events, teachings on doctrines (questionable) that can be manipulated by those in areas of influence.  So what is the essence of what Christ preached?

   

 Refer to the verses above:

The kingdom is precious like a pearl.

The kingdom is like a field with weeds capable of choking out the new gospel just received.

The kingdom is like a mustard seed, small but huge in it's capability to produce thousand fold.

The kingdom is like a net, catching everything in it's drop, letting go that which is bad.

The kingdom is like a path scattered with seeds of truth, accepted or not depending on the condition of the heart.....................

Finally Christ's words:  

Who ever has, will be given more ( those who have accepted the secrets of the kingdom)

Who ever has less....it will be taken...the judgement and rejection of Christ will in fact cause those who have much in this world to be taken from.

Anti-Christ/ or against Christ/

     The mixing of our thoughts has been on going since the days of Christ our Lord. Now it is even more intense than in those days. Ideas and thoughts spread with a click of our computers, smartphones. Worldwide not just communitywide. We now live in a media  filled world where we are subject to every thing possible that can and will work it's way into our mind and soul and Spirit.  Everything Christ brought to us was life. He undid the curse, everything that was within the world and in us also.  Think not?  Disease, he healed.  Poverty oppression, he fed 5000 twice, to show us faith, hope, and love,  The rich, he chastised, the Religious, he spoke harshly to, and undid their ways right in front of thousands,  Death, he took Lazarus from the grave, with wrappings and all entombed in his death prematurely and released him.
     We are seeing people transformed ( Bruce Jenner) before our eyes in spectacle that causes us to wonder and those of weak conscience to doubt what we once knew as right and wrong. We who are Christians and under the grace of the Lord must see this as outright battle against what the teachings of Christ taught us.  This though does not mean we do not love those who are trapped in their sin as we once were, but we take our stance from the one who showed the way into grace.  Christ met all, taught all, embraced those who were confused in his time and spoke to issues of his day to undo a wrong mindset.
     Remember  Peter's response to Jesus's testimony about his impending Death?  "Lord it will not be so!"
"Get thee behind  me Satan!" was Jesus's words to the rock.....Why, surely Peter was not Satan...but anything that is against Christ is The Spirit of Anti-Christ or against God.    And at that moment even Peter was in league with the one against Christ.  Peter's did not want to lose something precious to him, however to Christ those words were tempting him  to not go through with his very reason for coming to Earth.  Salvation.
     Dark over light/ wrong over right/  a mixing that is very hard to undo once it takes root in and around us.  If we continue to see these things unfold daily and are in a continous state of mind, "well if it does not affect me...then what's the harm?  But to those who are now growing up in a world without that sense of right and wrong  truths that once were generational and passed from one to another , it is a warping effect.  Take a look at the TV shows now and the ones 30, 40 and 50 years ago, Is there a loss of innocence?  Is the vulgar, tasteless and raw humor openly and proudly displayed?  I think so.  Think Michael Landon's Little House on the Prarie, contrast it with any show now....values? Exact opposites. So we now make our own morals along the way, mold and shape our minds to whatever the flavor of the day is. Baskin Robbins choose a flavor...... Sin is ever with us,  Lot and his wife fled the City of Sodom in his day. With the help Of Angelic beings! Things were bad then too! There are then peaks and valleys of moral conduct through the ages. Found and lost and then hopefully found again.  
   
 
   






































t what is truly right and wrong.  Darkness over ligt has become the mantra of the day.

The Battle has been decided

The camp of the ememy has been overrun.

They lie with their faces flat and are down in the dust

Their swords unsheathed lie at their side

Their blood no longer in them cannot call for life

They have been weighed and have lost the battle

The victorious have totally overrun the camp

And The LORD has had his victory

The serpent of old has been defeated and his slippery words in the dark have been silenced

Those who hear the voice of the Lord are those who take up shield and sword for justice,

They will ride into the land of the living and none shall steal their righteousness,

For their righteousness comes from the Lord.