Matthew 5:17-19 ~ Fulfill

 

Labor Day Weekend

2024

Matthew 5:17-19

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. 

For truly, I say to you, 

until heaven and earth pass away,

 not an iota, not a dot, 

will pass from the Law 

until all is accomplished. 

Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them 

will be called 

great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Labor Day Weekend tends to get blurred in. Possibly more school supplies after the children have seen and experienced the new school year.   And yet, for many, historically due to new school year history we have experienced and shared, we examine our place in life. What we do and how we will achieve the purpose God has for all of us.  

Biblical Recall: Who examined their place on earth and Heaven at a critical time in life? John the Baptist. After John the Baptist had boldly done EVERYTHING ... legally, spiritually and physically, dangerously, John the Baptist wanted to know if all Jesus had done made Him the Christ of God.

Jesus was asked Publicly.  And He replied that although John the Baptist was great, he was least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Why? 

The road blocks we put up. Our mental stopping places. 

Not me, man! Ennui, mon chere. Boredom. One-upmanship. The correct social and political boundaries are beginning the out of boundary phase.  What's in it for me. Ugh. This is a big, long trail of unending guilt and putdowns.  The put down for grins. Manipulation for greed and placement and chuckles. Fear. The desire to go further. My parents didn't approve of that and gave many, many reasons.  That hurt. Count me out. What will I fix for dinner? Do you think I need to re roof the house. Porn.  Sex Adventure. Sexual manipulation for control, pleasure or interest of a cat.  My golf game needs work. Is it worth it to learn pickle ball?  Laziness. The desire to coast. The willies. Control more for being left out. Placement. Usury. Wealth and the love of money. Not my scene, not my circus and, definitely, not my monkeys. I have family obligations. Something else might be more fun, in the long run. Or short run.  Choice B, C, D all the way to Z. If you think so, Let me relieve you of your freedom and financial freedom and influence.  My tribe and well-traveled verbal ques and pathways would frown, and I would arrive at the tedium of having social blowback.  I'm too old to change. I'm too young to believe all this. Where did she get those shoes. His suit is pretty nice.  Damn, I remember that, that was so awful.  No one thinks that, really. Poverty and boredom and shame. Substances. Pride. Goofiness. Do you think they believe what they say? Does anyone. Good intensions. Secretly, I believe ALL of THIS BIBLE AND GOD. Don't tell. Hidden intensions. Our own plans. I never did have much faith in all this.  Because. The Plans we fear God will have for us. Not appearing to be stupid, slow or slovenly.  Being Pigpen's Friend. Being the friend of Homer Simpson's Neighbor. Being Homer Simpson's neighbor. Being dull. Being fast.  Being an idiot. Road blocks. 

Who displayed this Biblically? The men surrounding Jesus. The 12 Chosen and the 72 Chosen. Those who dot in and out of the Gospels. 

A friend of mine who is a Doctor of medicine said he thinks our mental stopping places are built into our strands of DNA. Some of the above reasons are going to shape us and guide us, and God knows this intimately.

How will we escape from the wrath created by our roadblocks, internal and external? 

How will we go further with the Lord? Even to give us joy in fulfilling the purpose of the Lord for our lives? 

1 Peter 5:7 

Casting all your anxieties on Him, 

because 

He cares for you.

I can give you a very personal example. I went to Church, with my mother, late December of the 1980s. And I don't think I heard one word of the Sermon or even the Christmas music.  It was as if I sat in the middle of 2,000 people and was alone.  No one could, or had the ability, to help us. Our firstborn son was early and he wasn't making it.  The NICU Doctor had told me they thought he would do much better from his 5 pounds at birth.  He was beautiful.  As we left the Church, I was handed a card from the Prayer Guild saying 1 Peter 5:7.  And the words of God impacted my heart.  God Himself had reached out and I felt within my soul, God knew the Love, surprise, the joy, the loss and the fear Edward and I were living.  Edward was sitting beside our son. We stood for hours beside his incubator. 

There are times in life, no one will be able to help. Only God. 

Christmas morning, I was told to call at 7 AM shift change and see what would occur.  I called at 7:01 and was told, with jubilation, our son had done so well and the NICU was sure he would live to be an old, old man. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Tree.

Matthew 13:31-32 

He put another parable before them, saying, 

“The Kingdom of Heaven 

is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 

It is the smallest of all seeds, 

but when it has grown 

it is larger than all the garden plants 

and 

becomes a tree, 

so that the birds of the air 

come 

and make nests 

in its branches.”

Matthew 5:17-19

 

I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 

And for this purpose, I have loved the Lord for many decades. And to hear Him speak in His Word, I have read the Scriptures every day since I was 16 years old.  Personally, I have experienced every reason I listed above. 

And the Scriptures of John the Baptist being woeful, tell me only Jesus Christ fulfills the All in All of His Love, His Word, His Purpose and the Joy of each day. 

God is God. Alleluia!

Abba, Father,

Forget not all His benefits -

Who forgives all your sins

and 

heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you 

with love and compassion

With Your Help, 

believing Jesus walks on water.

With Your Help

We will act justly

 and to love mercy

 and to walk humbly with You, our God.

Dwell in me,

Dwell in us,

Dwell in those we Love,

Help us to seek You first.

And we will finish well, in Jesus Christ. 

And the Nations of the world,

Your Good Creation,

Calling upon You.

Lord Jesus Christ,

Bless those working for

Post Pandemic Healing

and Care.

The healing and safety of Your people.

The safety of those

helping the earth 

to heal.

Let evil and practicing evil

depart far from us

and our children.

Worldwide Peace

Prosperity and

Peace.

Worldwide

Peace!

HEAL OUR NATION

We have 64 days

until 

our National Election.

Please Vote 

and Vote

 responsibly.

For Children in their Schools, all safety.

For those who protect and defend the USA,

protect us from arsonists.

Keep our food supply safe.

Support the Police.

For Worldwide Peace.

And the Peace of Israel. 

Those who protect

and defend

All The Word of God.

Freedom in our Churches.

Wholeness

Holy.

Goodness.

And in Jesus - this Hope, 

Faith and Love - we will rise up believing Jesus. 

Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Yes The Lord Fulfills His Purpose

Thank You, Jesus

†

John 9:1-11 ~ like Him

 

John 9:1-11

As Jesus passed by, 

He saw a man blind from birth. 

2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 

3 Jesus answered, 

“It was not that this man sinned, 

or his parents, 

but that 

The Works of God 

might be displayed 

in him. 

We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; 

night is coming, when no one can work. 

As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 

6 Having said these things, 

He spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then He anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him,

“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). 

So he went and washed and came back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”

 9 Some said, “It is he.” 

Others said, “No, but he is like him.” 

He kept saying, “I am the man.” 

10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 

11 He answered, “The Man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, 

‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ 

So I went and washed and received my sight.” 

Jesus is Living Water.  

Water flows as it will, getting into all sorts of deep topography, 

unseen theretofore.  Jesus is Living Water. God with us.

I can only see Jesus embracing a Love where Love fully hopes to produce Life and Joy. And that Life to be shared in dreams and in hopes and in a widening circle of Family. Life, Love. Faith. Joy.

We could help one another instead of arguing. Bring Love forth.

Foster and Adopt

In fact, Love can be shared with older babies and children as well. Families live far apart. So many children these days would love a family to care for them in Foster Families. The Foster organizations cope with babies born and simply left in hospitals. Adoptions, plentiful.

Job 38:7

While the morning stars sang together 

and 

all the angels 

shouted for joy

We rejoice in the seasons where the burden is lighter and we all pull together. 

Blessings shared.

As a nation, we have done something in the past that has blessed us all.  Fire Stations accepted children, babies, the little ones when their parents felt they needed to leave them forever.

Locally, during Covid, a baby boy was abandoned at one of our local Fire Station. No questions were asked. And the notice was put in the local paper. Why? One parent might be looking. 

And a few years went by and the local newspaper did a tremendous article and photo of Thanksgiving.  A couple wanted to celebrate their son was now 3 years old. They had been unable to have children together and the baby left, graciously and generously, at the local Fire Station had been legally adopted in time to celebrate his 3rd Birthday. The parents wanted to share their joy in the mother's decision to safely leave her son to be cared for. 

The Fire Station reported the find in the article and said at first shock. And then hope. And now joy. 

This is a longtime tradition in Texas. 

Gladney Adoption in Fort Worth since 1887

In 1887, the first "Orphan Train" from the northeast. The Orphan Train Movement transported roughly 200,000 children from the northeast throughout the Midwest and as far west as Texas.  And these children were helped with increasing determination to be placed in a family, and Gladney Adoption was created.

Today, often the children placed up for adoption at Gladney are families with too many children who want their latest pregnancy to be adopted to someone Gladney helps. Gladney

creates adoption books, where hopeful parents explain with art and photos of their heart for a child they cannot conceive together. And sometimes the prospective parent(s) looking for an adoptive family also create an art book of dreams for their unborn child.

There isn't a need to have IVF disagreements.  

Theology is one thing. Life and children another.

In vitro fertilization, a complex series of procedures, can lead to pregnancy. A treatment for infertility.

The people I know who have experienced IVF find it is the most time of tears they have ever experienced. Not everyone can carry a full term infant. It used to be $40,000 dollars even 25 years ago. 

This is when people with tears can comfort others. People who can't carry to term, could contribute to the IVF of people who cannot afford IVF.  And instead of a useless, hurtful debate on frozen embryos labeled only as human beings, we could create families. Where women who want to be mothers help one another. And fathers prepare art books with their hopes and dreams. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Father of mercies 

and God of all comfort 

Who comforts us in all our affliction,

 so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, 

with the Comfort

 with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, 

so through Christ 

we share abundantly 

in Comfort too.

More Love. More Help. Less arguing. 

Exodus 22:22-24

You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 

If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, 

I will surely hear their cry

 John 14:18 

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

 Isaiah 1:17 

 Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; 

bring justice to the fatherless, 

plead the widow's cause. 

 Psalm 82:3 

 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; 

maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 

Abba, Father,

Praise the LORD, 

O my soul; 

all 

my inmost being

Praise His Holy Name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and 

forget not all His benefits -

Who forgives all your sins

and 

heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you 

with love and compassion

With Your Help, 

we will look to the Windows of Heaven in our life 

and see a blessing overflow 

believing all things work together 

for those who Love You.

With Your Help

We will act justly

 and to love mercy

 and to walk humbly with You, our God.

Dwell in me,

Dwell in us,

Dwell in those we Love,

Help us to seek You first.

And we will finish well, in Jesus Christ. 

Help us find and bring

to become

 more Heaven

to this earth.

And the Nations of the world,

Your Good Creation,

Calling upon You.

In Jesus Christ is 

Our Love, Joy and Hope.

Bless those working for

Post Pandemic Healing

and Care.

Bless us all, 

worldwide

with Healing

Safety

Prosperity and

Peace.

Worldwide

Peace!

We ask healing

of Your Good Creation

The fullness of the earth is Yours.

The healing of those we pray for

in our heart and soul.

The safety of Your people.

The safety of those

helping the earth 

to heal.

Let evil and practicing evil

depart far from us

and our children.

The Healing

of the Nation.

Wholeness

Holy.

Goodness.

And in Jesus - this Hope, 

Faith and Love - we will rise up believing Jesus. 

Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Yes The Lord Fulfills His Purpose

Thank You, Jesus

†