ON TRESPASSING

 WHAT GOES ON IN PARADISE STAYS IN PARADISE 

Sins are trespasses. One time, I fished on another person’s property, thinking it belonged to the coal company who did not care. I did not know that I trespassed, but I had. It was accidental. The problem is that I never questioned whose property I fished because I wanted the satisfaction of catching good fish. Trespassing on that paradisical lake was all about me. I had gone onto property that was not mine without considering whether it was some person’s or some companies. I rationalized that it was okay to go where I should not go because I assumed that nobody would care.

Everyone cares about their property, and most would allow me entry just by asking. Others would say, Don’t go there because it is mine. The reasoning is inconsequential because the command is emphatic!

The first recording of trespassing came from God; God planted a Garden, and appointed Adam as the keeper. He commanded the keeper to keep his Law: “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Gen 2:17). Neither “Adam” was to eat of the tree, and he told the male that was the Law. As the keeper of the Garden, the male Adam should have posted “KEEP AWAY” but he did not. Eve, the female of Adam’s kind misunderstood, and she trespassed. Eve was the first to “die” because she either rationalized that God was gracious enough to forgive her, that she was misinformed, or that she knew better than either Adam or God.

Sin is essentially thinking of oneself of knowing better than God. For instance, my neighbor called Christianity a “fairy tale” whereas God calls it His “Bride.”  He knows better than God, hence he has made himself “God.” Adam and Eve did the same thing, but soon, when God came, they conversed with the One True God — the “Word” — pre-incarnate Jesus to whom they listened.

Both ate of the fruit. Eve ate because she had been beguiled — lied to — and Adam ate because he thought God had lied. Why so? Because Eve was still alive although she had eaten of the forbidden fruit. She had trespassed and nothing seemed to have happened.

Did God care about the fruit? No; He cared about their safety. He knew that Satan would be there to deceive them. It was not His tree that he was worried about but the two people that He had planted in the world. The point here is that rules are not selfish commands but regulations that keep people safe from Satan. Hence, the Ten Commandments are the “NO TRESPASSING” signs that are not for God’s satisfaction, but for mankind’s safety for them to avoid close encounters with alien beings of a third kind.

I trespassed to hunt mushrooms. I sneaked in around the “KEEP OUT” sign. Why was it there’ to keep me away from mushrooms or something else? Within that property was a dangerous cave. The sign was to keep innocent people from danger in the cave! Furthermore, the land belonged to another person, and I had no right to be there. The mushrooms, the same as the fish in the previous incident, belonged to someone else.

The entire cosmos belongs to God, and mankind has no rights to explore His property. However, God does allow His people to roam wherever he allows them to go. His “Estate” is more than land, either visible or invisible, but wherever mankind might go. His “Estate” is His rules. Sin is the violation of His rules; after all righteousness is the “economy” on His Estate.

You must understand what uprightness is. Eve failed to understand that righteousness is whatever pleases God, and that we are in His best interests as “Husbandman” of the Estate (John 15:1). Husbandry is (1) “the care, cultivation, and breeding of crops and animals,” and (2) “management and conservation of resources” (Oxford Languages 2023).

The Estate, without question, belonged to God for “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). From nothing, God made it all; the entire Estate belongs to Him! Atheism is essentially saying that mankind owns all that exists and can go wherever they desire to go. If God does not exist, they are not trespassing at all. Thusly, mankind think they are free-range creatures and can do whatever they want. Eve surely thought that as she trespassed. She did not trespass onto God’s property because that was not the Law but disobeyed His only command. Hence, trespassing is not so much where you go, but respecting the rights of the authority.

God wants us to go wherever we want to go but wherein there is no danger for us not disrespect for Him. Was God being selfish with His produce? Not at, all; He only desired to keep the Garden safe from harm and those two humans were His favored “plants” from whom He asked to provide a good crop — to multiply (Gen 1:22).

God was the Husbandman and His way was taking the “soul” that He had made and planting His Holy Seed into it; then watching if grow. As it turns out, Eve became the “husbandwoman”… “Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord” (Gen 4:1). Eve lied twice: (1) She deceived Adam into thinking that Cain was his son, and (2) it was not from the LORD GOD but her new “lord,” Lucifer. The “Serpent” had beguiled her, and she would indeed die because she was like the old creature rather than the humane kind.

Whatever was in that fruit, mutated her genes. Perhaps the genetic mutation was not from the figs but from the semen of the fiery serpent! It is learned from the Books of Adam and Eve that after sin, the two could eat of a gigantic fig but were afraid. They still thought that the fruit was the trespass when the trespass was listening to Satan rather than God. They had believed the lie; they had consumed misinformation: The Serpent said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen 3:4). In other words, Death is not for certain, so go ahead. Is that what we think when we sin against God to this day? People are not certain that there is a God and a Hell wherein to die!

Death is not the flesh, but the soul. The soul is eternal and hence cannot be killed, but it can be tormented, so continual tormenting of the soul is “death.” That is the penalty, not for trespassing, but disregarding the Laws of God that He posted for our safety.

God only had one Law in the Garden. What was it? Do not go where I warn you not to go. Why that one Law? Because God had Goodwill for His two plants. Yes, God planted the two Adams — male and female — to multiply and produce. With that said, non-binaries and homosexuals are trespassing on the Estate of God. They do not belong in the Garden of God and certainly cannot be watered by the Holy Water of the Spirit of God. They are as dead to God because they have trespassed on His Estate where they do not belong.

That the cosmos is God’s Estate should be obvious because He is “Existence” — “the begging and the ending” (Rev 1:8). He was the only viable reason that there is an existence. Anyone or anything else is an Existential threat because it attempts to snuff out God. Therefore, trespassing can be denying that there is a God and people are free to go wherever they desire to go.

That thought is Satanism: “Do what thou wilt; that is the whole law” (Anton LeVey). Trespass freely is the whole law, and as Adam found out, that idea causes a very slow but certain death.

Trespassing, therefore, is doing what you want to do without regard to the “NO TRESPASSING” sign, ostensibly the Tablets of Stone with ten No Trespassing warnings on them. As it turns out, you are free to trespass against those laws but beware, the onus is on you to prove that you are more powerful than Satan. They are warnings to stay away from the booby traps that Satan has set for his “fiery darts” (Ephes 6:16) to penetrate your flesh and into your soul.

Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer. It is His prayer to you and your prayer to Him: 

¹³ Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. ¹⁴ For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: ¹⁵ But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Mat 6:13-16)

 “Do not eat” was God’s command to stay away from temptation. That is the hard part because temptation is everywhere except for one place — remaining covered with the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost of Jesus. God did that for Adam and Eve, with skins, to protect them from any further fiery darts of the Wicked One.

The command to not eat was to preserve God’s Garden of Living Souls — His most prized crop on His Estate. Jesus said to pray, “For thine is the kingdom.” The reason for staying away from evil is the same today as in the beginning; it is God’s Estate and what he says goes!

His Estate is more than the Holy Land of the mid-east and even more than the cosmos. God’s Estate is in the hearts of men. The followers of Jesus are the “traveling church” and the disciples of Christ are His traveling Estate. By going against others, you may have trespassed because Christians are heirs of God, and the Estate of God is destined to become theirs.

To rob Christians of their well-being is like stealing their shares of the Estate of God. To have goodwill toward God is agape love for God. To have goodwill toward the heirs of God is like loving God, the Father whose will is that none should perish (John 3:16). Trespassing against others is violating their possible rewards to the Estate of God. The last to become a child of God gets as much as the first. Like Eve, if you trespass against Adam, then, your trespassing is as bad as Adam. Adam hearkened to the voice of Eve (Gen 3:17), causing Adam to trespass as well, with them both in danger of losing the Estate of God. Thus, causing others to sin is trespassing against the Will of God.

One short story: A woman in church, and elderly lady, testified. She made a driving error, and the man subsequently made an obscene gesture toward her. She did not become angry because she knew that she had done wrong. She asked God to forgive her for causing “that poor man to sin” as she said it. She innocently trespassed by accident, causing the man to trespass against her. That was the sin of Eve, and God had grace on her, but not without consequences… her nature changed and thereafter she could multiply her way with the pain of childbirth (Gen 3:16).

“Death” was more than killing the soul but the nature of her kind, or species, changed. Before, God had done all the multiplication His way; now with the new knowledge of the carnal beast, Eve would bear her young like the beasts, and not God, but she would provide for God a man. She had become subservient to her new “husbandman” — the Devil. She was cursed to do things the way the beasts do it.

So, stand warned. Be upright. The Will of God is for your safety while on His Estate. Leave if you will but do so at your own peril.

Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise because they failed to recognize that it was God’s Estate and His right to either keep or cast out as He pleases. You will finally discover that on Judgment Day when God tells those known for trespassing, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:23).

Note that God does not say, You that have sinned, but you that work iniquity. Those workers are those who continually work against God by trespassing wherever they go — as if the world belongs to them just because they exist. Iniquity is the sinful nature that those who prefer trespassing like the beasts.

(picture credit: WBTW)

 

 

ON HIS BELLY HE SHALL GO

 What seems to alienate some from Judeo-Christianity is what seems to be mythology. Right before the time of Christ the mythological gods of Greece were eminent. They were all unseen gods and some, like Pan, the half-man, half-goat, were the epitomes of mythology.

When the seventy Jews, acceptable to the Greeks, were chosen to translate the Hebrew into the Greek, it stands to reason that they may have been Hellenized — influenced by Greek culture and Greek mythology just like some translators of this century may be influenced by our culture and psychology.

What would demonic influences be called by the Greeks? They were not the philosophers that they claim to be. What Karl Jung called the “shadow,” perhaps the Greeks symbolized it by using a visible image. The shadow archetype in Jungian psychology is the darker side of human nature — the thoughts, feelings, and impulses of the mind.

The ancient philosopher, Bildad, got it right when he was counseling Job from a psychological perspective, “Our days upon earth are a shadow” (Job 8:9), a shade, a protection from the light. Of course, the “Light” is God Himself. Inside everyone there lurks a personality that refuses to come out into the light.

Paul’s mission was this, “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18).

With that said, there was likely no “serpent” in the forbidden tree of the Garden of Eden. Nahas, in the Hebrew is used to describe several things: a fire, a snake, but more generally any image.

The “Serpent” was not a serpent! The prophet Isaiah uses the noun serap, to describe the Serpent. The Serpent was an angel — a seraph, having “six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly” (Isa 6:2).

Again, a seraph seems to be a mythological creature, but the wings are described as coverings, which is validated by the linguists ( (Strong 2006). Two of the coverings the seraph was said to “fly,” but Strong’s indicates that rather than physically flying, he could brandish, flicker, or faint from the darkness.

So, again, rather than a seraph being the visible image with six wings, those attributes may have been coverings to conceal light or flicker just enough so that humans would not see the darkness revealed. In other words, seraphs may not be alien creatures, but like mankind who have “personalities” much like ours although they are not people but invisible personas from another realm.

The “angel,” or soul, of mankind is elohim. The plural Elohim represents God’s singular Image, and the created images of God are called elohim (plural) in the Hebrew. Angels were made in the image of God and are elohim-like humans but of a different “kind” or substance; man has two substances, one visible and one invisible (the soul), but angels have one invisible substance while in their realm, but are what is considered today “shape-shifters” in this realm as demonstrated in the Book of Adam and Eve and Their Conflicts with Satan.

So far, but perhaps not so well, the intent is to dismiss what seems to be mythology in the Bible. Scripture reveals the Elohim in Jesus, as Jesus was baptized, “The heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him (Luke 3:21-22). That “Bodily Shape” would be the invisible Image of God that was revealed at the baptism of Jesus. No other men nor women had that Image revealed (John 1:33) because only Jesus had within, the Image of God! With that said, there is indeed an invisible realm that God reveals as He suits.

Now return to mythology for a moment. Consider the following passages:

 

·         Seeking to kill Jesus, “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve” (Luke 22:3). Somebody, perhaps Luke again, who had seen the invisible Image of Jesus, he saw the invisible image of Judas, the Antichrist, as well. Judas was imbued with a seraph, and like a seraph, he was the bearer of darkness and death.

·         After identifying Jesus as the malefactor that the chief priests were seeking, “He (Judas) cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Mat 27:5).      
Judas, like Jesus (Acts 5:30) was hanged on a tree. The Antichrist would mimic Jesus in every way. He died much like Jesus would die.          
Not only that, but after dying, Judas would be “pierced” in the same manner as Jesus was pierced:

·         “This man (Judas) purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18). With Jesus, it was much the same way, “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34).

·         There were two “crucifixions” that Jewish day. God performed the bloody deeds Himself. God killed His only Son but that was to render Satan in Judas powerless.  Where is this leading?

·         The “gospel” of the Word in the Book of Genesis. God forecast all His plans for Adam, Eve, and the “Serpent.” He would punish, but protect, the two humans but there was a different plan for the Beast: “The Lord God said unto the serpent, ‘Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen 3:14).      
That sounds like the serpent once stood erect but afterward would crawl, does it not; that God changed the genes of the walking species to the species of a snake?         
If He made the Image of Lucifer (Satan) a different kind of beast… from an angel to a snake. That again sounds like mythology!       

The ”Serpent” was an image but the image was perhaps the “Shadow” of the Persona of Lucifer whose claim to fame was the “Bringer of Light.” Inside Lucifer was Satan, the Adversary and Deceiver, who was the “Bringer of Darkness.” With his “wings” (coverings) he (sic) would cover his inner identity; he looked like an angel bearing the Light of God, but Satan was the darkness within Lucifer — his “shadow.” Eve saw the angel Lucifer with her bright eyes but failed to see the darkness lurking inside of the light-bearing angel (Gen 3:1).

Did Eve see Lucifer’s inner nature? Did she see that he was the bringer of darkness?    No, because of his coverings, Eve failed to see the inward reality of Lucifer“ — the beastly nature that he concealed with his “wings,” or deceptive coverings.

Many so-called “Christians” have that same inner nature and present themselves as fine Christians. God knows who they are inwardly; He examines the soul and ignores the flesh. Eve failed to do that when she looked at the bright and shining image of Lucifer.

Perhaps God did not remove the legs of a serpent and make them crawlers. The scripture may imply that, but it does not say that… It says, “On his belly he shall go.”

Going is moving from one place to another. To go to heaven requires a “door,” or portal, from one realm to another (Luke 13:25).

Satan went “to and fro,” according to the Book of Job (Job 1:7). He did not crawl but just appeared from one place to another. Plainly, Satan’s penalty was not constrained movement!

It is said, “He is a fine Christian who will surely go to heaven.” In that context, the Christian is expected to go to Paradise in the realm of heaven.

“He was an evil man who has surely gone to Hell.” Hell is also a place in another realm… likewise in heaven (Luke 16).

Perhaps the Word was revealing how Satan would go to his “heaven…” to Hell. “On his belly he shall go!”

What happened to Satan? He want to and fro. Herod the Great was surely imbued with Satan because he too tried to kill Jesus. With Herod gone, he seems to have gone into Herod Archelaus who was as cruel as his father.

Satan moved around until God was ready for him to go! Just as with Job, God allowed Satan to haunt Judas. He was preparing the way for Satan to go.

What happened when Judas died. He went not to the real Tree of Life (The Cross) but the Forbidden Tree. He revealed new knowledge as he had done with Eve and that was the whereabouts of Jesus. Because of his (Judas’s) sedition after his “last supper” (Luke 22:20), he was ready to go, as was Jesus.

Jesus was hanged and his belly burst asunder. Judas was hanged and his belly burst. God did that to Satan! Satan had to go, and “On his belly he would go!”

Think on that. Satan had entered Judas standing erect but when he would finally go, Judas was laying on the ground with his face in the dust. Now reread Gen 3:14.

Satan, no longer erect, would leave Judas. Judas was on his belly with his blood pouring into the dust, all the while the blood of the still erect Jesus was seeping into the earth.

The Holy Ghost left Jesus. Luke saw that and wrote about it (Luke 23:46). He saw the Holy Ghost enter Jesus at His Baptism and leave Him at the Crucifixion.

Luke wrote Acts as well. He somehow saw Judas die. Luke would have seen Judas give up his “ghost” or the “shadow” within him. Did Luke follow the Holy Ghost to Judas and see the Invisible Image of God destroy Satan? It seems that He did.

Nobody knows when Judas hanged himself nor when he fell from its branches. Perhaps Judas hanged himself on the Judas Tree as Jesus was hung on the Tree of Life. Perhaps he hung there until Jesus died and Luke saw the Invisible Image of God go down to valley of Gehenna and fulfill the pledge to the Serpent… “On his belly, he shall go!”

God was prophetic with Adam and Eve; why would he not be with the Image, called the “Serpent”? God kept Adam safe from harm until the “Word,” Jesus, would die on His Tree. Why would have Satan not gone to Hell at the same time? Why is Calvary the “place of the cranium” if it was not Adam in whose skull original sin was regenned?

God seemed to have planned the events of His death and the destruction of Satan thousands of years before He rested; then He propitiated His blood for “sins that are past” (Rom 3;25), for the genetic sins from the female “Adam.”

Now for the validation. Hold on tightly to your opinions: “upon thy belly shalt thou go.” Let that be examined; the “belly” first. The Hebrew word is “gahon,” meaning “belly” but coming from the root word, giah — “to burst forth” (ibid). It is bursting forth from the belly. That corresponds with Satan bursting forth from the belly of Judas.

Next consider “go” in that same passage; it is the Hebrew “yalak,” — “to cause to go, or to die” (ibid). The “Word” nailed it! The Word nailed Satan to the Cross, prophesying the death of him in the persona of Judas. 

(picture credit; MesiterDruxke)

 

 

                                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

ON JUDGING OTHERS

 Today’s passages are on judgment; not the judgement of God upon people but people judging other people. The final judgement is reserved for Jesus, to wit: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10).

Even Christians will appear before Christ to be judged as well done or I never knew you; depart from Me; you that work iniquity (Mat 7:23).

The point therein is that Jesus is the judge, and for us to judge severely to damnation, undermines God.

That introduces the most often quoted… and misquoted verse in the Bible, even more so than John 3:16 — Do not judge, or precisely, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Mat 7:1). One amateur theologian asked, “What part of not do you not understand… you are NOT to judge?”

Certainly, anyone but a child or idiot, even most dogs, understand negative commands. “Not” is not the issue; the issue is “judge.” More on that shortly.

The passages below are the best example wherein taking one verse, standing alone, may change the context: 

¹ Judge not, that ye be not judged. ² For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. ³ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ⁴ Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, “Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?” ⁵ Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Mat 7:1-5)

 The points therein are several:

1.      If you do not want to be judged by people, do not judge them. (verse 1). Certainly, no Christians would judge Jesus guilty, would they? because even the court of Pilate found no fault in Him. 
  Likewise, as a Christian you would not want to be judged like Jesus. How was He judged? Harshly. They condemned the innocent man! Harsh judgment is condemnation, so judgment has degrees of harshness whereas “not” does not.

2.      If you judge, understand that God will judge you by your own metrics (verse 2). Hence, if you dare to judge, judge others as you would judge yourself. Few judge themselves harshly. So, the implication is that if you dare judge, do so as you would want to be judged.

3.      You have a field of vision that shields your own guiltiness but examines others closely. You can easily see their sins but not your own. (verse 3). In other words, look not at others; but look within yourself. A mote is chaff, or sawdust, whereas a beam is a huge piece of timber.  
  Everyone has debris in them because none are without sin. Those who fail to look within themselves are blinded by their own massive sins.

4.      You cannot fix the sins of others if iniquity in yourself cannot be handled (verse 4).

5.      And finally, (verse 5), you can objectively judge others after you have objectively judged yourself. In other words, judge objectively and fairly, and once you see the iniquity in yourself the sin the other person would not seem so massive compared to your own.

 Now, since we know the meaning of “not” (negates what has been said), then what does not aim toward? What precedes it — “judge.”

It has a range of meanings all the way from a guess, to having an opinion, to try based on evidence, to determine guilt, to condemn. Dictators condemn without regard to facts, so obviously, judgment is not to be harsh for you would not want to be judged harshly.

Luke, validated that: 

³⁶ Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. ³⁷ Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: ³⁸ Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. (Luke 6:36-38)

 Judge, if you do with mercy; just as God is expected to be merciful unto you. You deserve to die, but by grace God desires that you be judged guilty but reprieved. You also are expected to judge mercifully — if you judge another person guilty, you should also be ready to forgive.

So, that brings us to the second often quoted statement. “I’ll forgive but I will never forget.” Forgiveness is not necessarily forgetting but never again to hold something against the person. True, you may never forget, but you can refrain from continually judging the wrongdoer over and over again! As Seinfeld would say, “I’ll put it in the vault.” It remains a fault, but in the darkness and locked up, the fault is never to be used against another person again.

Some say, “I moved on” all the while holding a grudge against another person. No, you did not move on, you did not forgive, but just no longer dwell on the grudge; you continue your life carrying the grudge and behaving as if it is no longer of concern. “You hypocrite!” Jesus would yell.

Merciful is being as graceful as God. You are to be merciful because He is merciful, not that you can judge harshly, because He may condemn based on righteousness. He is impartial but you are partial; you trivialize your own sin by magnifying the sins of others. Since Jesus is without sin, then He is unbiased. He need not look innocent because He is innocent. You are not!

Luke wrote the words of Jesus a little differently than Matthew but with the same intent. What does “judge” mean in both Matthew and Luke? “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.”

The translators put a colon after the “judged.” That means a clarification is eminent. What did “judge not” mean? “Condemn not.” What does “judged” mean? “Condemned.” So, how harshly are you not to judge? You must never condemn a person, as the strictest definition means.

Jesus condemns the sinner who does not repent. To the scarlet woman Jesus asked, “Who condemned you?”

“Nobody.”

“Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).

None of the others had the authority, nor were sinless, to condemn the tarnished woman, so Jesus did not condemn her. Jesus by questioning the men, “Who is without sin?” removed the beam from their own eyes, and they did not judge the mote in the eye of the woman.

Jesus did judge her. “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” The woman saw that she had a mote, and Jesus removed the mote from her. He did not condemn the scarlet woman, but He had the power and authority to judge her, but although she had sinned, Jesus saw something in her that the others had not — she was worth saving from condemnation if they had stoned her to death!

To be truthful, the woman probably sinned more since she is human, but Jesus, with no beam in His eye, would not hold it against her because she saw her own sin and became a new person safe from the effects of sin. She may still sin, but Jesus would not hold them against her. That is what the others should do as well, but there is no mention that they forgot her sins.

Therefore, “judgment” is not just having opinions or guessing, but condemning. None would condemn the woman because Jesus made them see the beams in their own eyes — they were all sinners and were not qualified to condemn the woman. Jesus alone had the power to condemn or redeem. He chose to redeem the woman because her soul was valuable to Him (John 3:16). We are to have the same attitude.

Do not condemn but an opinion is often worthwhile. It is okay to see the sin but love the sinner. That is not in scripture as a commandment, but it is a tenant from God nonetheless. The whole thesis of the Bible is to hate sin but love the sinner because that is the meaning of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world (sinners), that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (sinners) believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Condemnation is because of sin. Jesus hated sin so intensely that He carried sins that are past to Hell and forgot about them. He despised sin so much that He delivered mankind from the bondage of sin so that they should not perish.

Agape love in the Bible is not an emotional attachment but goodwill. That none should perish is goodwill toward man and the meaning of “love” in John 3:16. That others should not perish is the goodwill that Christians should have toward others. Jesus changed the attitude of the mob who would throw stones. When they judged themselves by the same measure as they judged the woman, they did not condemn themselves, nor would they condemn the woman.

Jesus had made His point to them about judgment and condemnation. He then judged the woman with a fair measure; that He would not want to be condemned by the mob so He would not allow the mob to condemn her!

Being a bit political for the moment, Hunter Biden who has not only a “beam” in his eye but a whole “forest” was just judged lightly for many great and severe crimes.

The obvious expectation is that Donald Trump, who has broken few if any laws, will be judged harshly. Most certainly he will be condemned.

They both should be judged using the same metrics — The laws and Constitution of the United States. However, Biden was judged with mercy and leniency by the justice department, and maybe that is right. Who knows?

However, for justice to be served, Donald Trump should be judged just as the scarlet woman and Biden were judged, and that is with mercy and grace.

That is not what mobs do, and the Justice Department will not turn a blind eye to anything, even the least off-color. They have become “Judge Lynch,” the “KKK Mob,” or even the German Court wherein Judge Roland Freisler harshly condemned the accused without evidence, specifically Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Is it happening again, that which must never happen again?

 (picture credit; The Westologist; "The Scales of Justice.")

 

 

 

THE ESTATE THAT GOD WILLS

 Sometimes things remain unseen with the eyes wide open. For instance, the name of the book, “Genesis” is about the genetics of the “Garden” that God planted, and the Garden of Eden is essentially the Plantation Estate of God. In that Garden, God planted a variety of crops, foremost God planted the upright species of Adam in the Garden of Eden, “The Lord God planted a Garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom he had formed” (Gen 2:8).

One of each gender was required for pollination for reproduction. The difference in the species, called “Adam,” was that it was made in the Image of God. God was the “Husbandman” on that Estate and the man His caretaker to “dress and keep” the Garden (Gen 2:15). Now, forget that this was just a small Garden but a huge Plantation. God had made for Himself an Estate.

I had previously missed the point of both the word, “Garden” and “Genesis” but they were concealed in plain sight! God, I soon realized, was making an estate that someday He would divide amongst His heirs — those with his Image, or Genetics. Paul revealed to the world what I suspected: 

¹⁶ The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: ¹⁷ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Rom 8:16-17)

 Adam had the Spirit of God breathed unto him and he became glorified like God. His spirit witnessed the Spirit of God, or testified to it — symmartyreo, “testify unto” (Strong 2006).

Likewise, as Paul told the Romans, their requirement as Gentiles would be for their spirit to testify to the Spirit of God to be “joint heirs” with Christ Jesus.

Jesus was glorified. Glorification is a process: (1) God planted Jesus in His “Garden” in the Kingdom of David, (2) He grew it to maturity therein, (3) He was “harvested” for God at the crucifixion, and (4) Jesus was the seed (genes) that could provide life in a dying world.

Jesus revived the crop of human beings that the invasive “Serpent” had poisoned with “fiery darts” (Ephes 6:16) with the poison of sin on them. Satan ruined the Garden, and soon its human plants would wither and die.

All that to say that God developed an Estate that He would leave to His “genesis” (Greek; gignesthai — those to be born.) His intention was for all those born would be joint heirs, however, both of mankind — the male and female — would emancipate themselves from God and no longer be joint heirs with anyone other than the Wicked One.

The Bible is about having heirs. All kings worried about who would gain their kingdom at their demise.

Herod was paranoid about who his chief heir would be, and Caesar, when Herod died, made all his remaining children joint heirs. God had planned His Chief Heir as well — the Messiah was to be “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim 6:15).

All this is the backdrop to the “Parable of the Rich Fool” from Luke chapter 12. It begins with one member of the multitude that was listening to Jesus with a request; one of great significance to him, “Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13).

Apparently, the man’s father had died, leaving an estate. By the Law of Primogeniture, the estate would go to the eldest brother. Those who knew scripture would know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ignored primogeniture and would most often choose the second son, as was the case of both Isaac and Jacob who became heirs despite primogeniture.

Primogeniture is important because kings and lords designated their first-born male sons as heirs. Joint heirs were seldom the case. The first born, were the first genes of the lords and it would be those “seed” that received the estate, and they would be the husbandmen.

God broke conventions; He selected second-born sons and in their absence, because of death, latter-born sons. My bet is that the man was testing Jesus who had just indicated that He was God, “He that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9).

If Jesus was God as He claimed, then He would act like God, would He not? He would follow the rule of the second-son and make the second son heir.

The man seemed generous; he was not after his father’s estate entirely, but to be a joint-heir with his elder brother. That seemed gracious to the man; he was not after it all but his fair share. Surely, a gracious king would divide his father’s estate in the manner of Caesar.

Jesus, wary of the approach, responded, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?” (Luke 12:14).

If Jesus was king as the man may have thought because Caesar had appointed no heir of Herod in Judea, that the man had the audacity to usurp Caesar, seemed disconcerting to Jesus. Who made you, Caesar, man? For only Caesar could ordain kings in his “estate” of Rome.

The man had the nerve to make Jesus the judge and arbiter in civil matters, not realizing that this world was not the Kingdom of God.

Jesus recognized the man’s motives, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:14). The man had just broken the Tenth Commandment and as such, as well have broken them all (Jas 2:10).

Jesus had just warned the multitude, “He that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9). Then Jesus spoke the parable, ending with “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:20).

Jesus was speaking of the man’s estate if He indeed would judge in his favor.

What was important to the man? His father’s estate and the pleasures that would be thereon (Luke 12:19). Like most people that man missed the point that Jesus was making with His ministry, I AM the real heir to the Father’s Estate, and if you follow Me and share My Spirit, you can be joint heirs with Me!

The man wanted to be joint heir with his brother but did not even consider that Jesus was the legitimate heir to Paradise in heaven; that Jesus even had the Power to judge him and arbitrate the Estate of God!

The man was more worried about the here and now more so than the hereafter, and seemed not to worry about where his own soul might be planted.

What could the man have asked? Jesus, how can I be a joint heir with you, and where is your Estate? What crop do you grow there, and will it ever fail? No, he was more worried about his brother’s estate and how he could take what was not his by shenanigans. He was using Jesus to get what was not his. That is the forbidden sin of usury, and he did so right in the face of God!

Recognizing Jesus as judge and arbitrator seems admirable, but the man failed to realize that Jesus was God, as Jesus had just pointed out. Jesus did not come to judge and divide land but the “Promised Land” in another realm.

The multitude always failed to see that; the Promise Land was never the Kingdom of David but the Kingdom of Abraham who God heired it to for safekeeping.

The Book of Jasher identifies Abraham as a king, but a king living in the kingdom belonging to the Canaanites. Where, then, was the Kingdom of God that Abraham had become joint heir therein? It was in another realm.

Luke identified the Kingdom of God and the Estate that Abraham was to temporarily rule as “Abraham’s Bosom” (Luke 16:22).

Those who are regenned by God above (“born again;” John 3:7) are joint heirs with Jesus and entitled to the Estate of God.

You may have missed it as well but there is no “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” The New fulfills the Old; it is a “codicil” — an addendum — to the original Last Will and Testament of God.

To be joint heirs with Jesus requires Him to judge and divide the Estate of God — that Garden for two that has grown into a Great City of God with many living souls within its walls, each governing very democratically as joint heirs.

With that explained, the entire Bible is the Testament of God and how the Estate will be probated. By the way, Jesus probated the Will of God when He was Glorified, and those who follow Him will be Glorified in like manner at the General Resurrection. He divides the Estate of God to those who follow Him all the Way there.

Jesus said it best, “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).

The mansion is on that great Plantation in Paradise, the very Estate of God, not here, but in heaven. It is as real as the world but in another realm. That is the inheritance that the man should have asked Jesus about.

(picture credit: HoumasHouse,com)

 

 

THE MODEL PRAYER

 Many say, “I have no idea how to pray.” Jesus knew that, so he provided a model prayer for us to pray, so, not knowing how to pray is no excuse! So, Jesus taught how we are to pray. It is called, “The Lord’s Prayer” and it is how the Lord, Jesus, would pray, and how you should pray.

Prayer is nothing more than communicating with God but turning to Jesus to deliver on the prayer, not to forget that Jesus is God manifested. He is telling the prayer what would please Him.

Prayer changes things. “Pray” is a simple word but opens doors to God. Jesus said, “After this manner therefore pray ye” (Mat 6:9). You are to pray… proseuchomai in the Greek; pros, “forward facing… toward God,” euchomai; “to speak out” (Precept Admin 2016).

Prayer is not only speaking to God, usually audibly, but facing God. “Facing” implies Jesus because He is the face of God that was revealed to the Israelites with the birth of Jesus. We are therefore, to pray to Jesus as the mediator to the Father, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5).

Technically speaking, prayer is to be directed toward Jesus – the Person of God. Most pray to “Father God.” Although Jesus is God, our prayers are to be directed toward His Face, “Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim 2:6).

Therein, prayer is directed at Jesus because He was the ransom paid to God for our sins.

Jesus said, “’I AM’ the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” ((John 14:6). The Israelites came to God through Yahweh — the Father, and they made the sacrifices when they prayed. Now, Jesus has made the ultimate sacrifice (Himself) once and for all (Heb 10:10).  He is God; the Great I AM (Yahweh) in the flesh of a man. Finally, the Hebrews had the Image that they always sought to pray toward. Thusly, we too are to pray toward the Image of God, Jesus.

Where is Jesus now? Where do we look? Certainly, beyond ourselves. Jesus is not in us but with us as the “Comforter.” We must not look in the mirror or even the mind’s eye, but if anywhere, toward the Cross. The Cross is the symbol of the now invisible Image of Jesus and exists only in thought.

What happened on the Cross that we should face it? Redemption. It is not the wood that we are to look toward but the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To forget the purpose of the Cross is to take the LORD GOD’s Name — “Jesus” — in vain, or without a purpose. Jesus fulfilled that Command, and we are to take that Commandment seriously.

In summary, prayer is to be directed, not toward the Invisible God, but the Image of Him, Jesus. He is the Way to the Father and Him alone. 

Jesus said, “after this manner” we are to pray. In the fashion that He was about to present. It need not be prayers to Him in those exact words, but in thought. Now look at how we should pray: 

1.       Pray without obstructions to the prayer, pray alone and without fanfare. (verse 5). Even if someone leads in prayer, you are to do the praying yourself, not just listen to the prayer, but pray it!

2.       Pray within a closet (tameion), a secret chamber so as not to be seen but clearly see Jesus. Prayer should be directed toward Jesus. A secret chamber need not be a room with walls, but while praying all other things should be blocked out.  Walls certainly would block out distractions, but in public, closing the eyes is the prayerful thing to do because then you cannot see others, and if they are reverent as well, they cannot see you.

3.       Prayer should not be standing (verse 5). Perhaps it should be prostrate — stretched out with the face downward.  
  Kneeling is the prone position to face God… kneeling with the face downward.          
  Why on the knees? The servant of Abraham in seeking a bride for Isaac, said this, “And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham” (Gen 24:48). His head was bowed, perhaps his eyes were closed because that is how saints saw Jesus (examples: Bartimaeus and Paul), and he blessed the LORD GOD. “Blessed” in the Hebrew is “barak” and means “to take a knee” (Strong 1890). Therein seems to the position that one praying should take, and it certainly is not standing!

4.       Pray to make your point (verse 7). Then Jesus provides the points to make.

5.       Pray your own thoughts not what others are saying or to sound good (verse 8). God “hears” your mind; speech is for others to hear. Praying out loud is chaotic. Prayer, except for the one leading, anyhow, should be quietly spoken, if at all, to yourself.

6.       Pray in this manner: “Our Father which art in heaven.” Note that Jesus is the mediator, but that was after He made the sacrifice. He was telling the disciples how to pray at that moment while He was on Earth and not in Heaven. Jesus is now with the Father in heaven, as One God.   
  We are not told to pray to the Holy Ghost that remains with us, but to the Person, Jesus, who sits on the Throne of God as the Father and Son in One Person.

7.       “Hallowed be thy Name” (verse 9). Just what is the Name of God? God just IS, “I AM THAT I AM” (JHWH). The hallowed name is what God is called — “Jesus” (Mat 1:25). The “Father” is Jesus, and the hallowed Name is not Jehovah but “Jesus.” “Father God” is not His Name but who God IS.       
  “Hallowed be” is how Jesus is to be respected. The Greek is hagiazo — considered holy and worthy of praise and reverence.  Simply put, the Name “Jesus” is magnified above all names.

8.       “Thy kingdom come” (verse 10). This is important to Christians because Jesus is already there.              
  You may have missed it but the prophets, to the birth of Jesus, to his death and resurrection is about the Kingdom of God coming to Jesus. As heir to God, Jesus is all about inheriting the Kingdom of God, and when that time came, thereafter, Christians are fellowheirs along with Him (Ephes 3:6).       
  Christians pray that the Kingdom of Jesus come so that their own kingdom will be realized; they pray for the time they will inherit God’s Estate in Paradise, not in this realm but another in the hereafter. They pray for their share, not that they inherit it by law but by grace. Graceful Jesus is called upon to share His entire estate with His “brothers” and “sisters” in Christ, meaning those who have been engendered from above (“born again;” John 3:7) by God.         
  That Jesus is the “Son of God” does not mean that God sired Him as any parent would, but that Jesus has the genetics, or “Genesis,” of God.    
  Jesus made the promise of the coming Kingdom: “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). Thy Kingdom come is the final preparations for the coming “estate” that we are to pray for!

9.       Next comes, “Thy Will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” This is important; not “my will” but “Thy Will” be done. Mankind’s problem is our will. We are to ask God through Jesus to overcome our will and exchange it for the Will of God.                  
  You must first know about the faculty of the will; it is using reason and understanding to determine actions.          
  That God is Truth, therefore, the expectation is that the person’s mind considers truth, understands it and why, and acts accordingly.    
  Sin is doing your own will rather than truth. Truth is not what a person believes but ultimate reality. The absolute truth is that there is a God, and to be a Christian, you must understand that. But it is not finished. A Christian would act accordingly. A hypocrite is one who knows the truth and acts against God by sinning.         
  Grace abounds because of those who are willing to act, according to God, but fail to because of the weakness of the flesh; hence Paul wrote, "The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41).        
  The Spirit is in the image of God, but because of original sin, further sin is genetic from the Wicked One (Satan). As such, every person is born with the genetics of Satan, or as David called it, “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5).               
  Iniquity is “depravity,” and is the serpentine nature of Satan. It is the dark “shadow” in which our first ancestors were engendered back in the Garden. Mankind was genetically predisposed to follow their own will “as gods” (Gen 3:25).      
  As such, since God is gracious; each person has a faculty called the will, and the sovereign God allows everyone to exercise their will. They are responsible for their own actions because their mind is free to reason on its own. Because the flesh is weak, the will complies. It acts much like water, flowing the way of the least restriction.                                                
  God does not restrict our actions. His precepts are good thoughts for safe going. Mankind only sees them as hindrances, just like exploratory children who may go toward shiny things.    That freedom to follow our own course is called “free will” because we can follow the courses that our mind suggests. The problem is that everyone is genetically inclined, since the first sin, to go there own way rather than the safest Way!
  You are indeed “born this way” but only you choose the way. That is free will. If you choose normality, so be it, but if you choose depravity, so be it. Sinners are even allowed to choose the depravity that has the strongest hold on their weak flesh, and usually they are sins of the flesh wherein they even sin against themselves (1 Cor 6:18).

10.   “Done in earth as it is in heaven” is the next prayer point. Think not so much as heaven and earth as places in different realms, each with their own environment, economy, and government; think how is it in “heaven.” That depends on how you are judged.   From Luke 16, we find two places in heaven: Hell and Paradise. Each person is to be judged to where they go in heaven, and that is fair for the here and now in this realm. 

       In heaven, each person will be judged. But judgment is not based on their actions but their willingness to be like Christ. God knows that everyone fails because of the weakness of the flesh in their animal, even beastly, flesh. So, rather than judge the actions, Jesus will judge what each person endeavors to do. It condenses down to this one metric: “Do, you love me, ______?”                        

       Rather than thinking of emotional love, it is “agape” in the Greek. It is whether you have goodwill for Jesus or not.           
  Goodwill is not works but thoughts; it is what you think of God.         
  God wisely judges on what we are thinking, not what we have done. Do you consider His list of Wills (The Commandments) as obligations or privileges to serve? They are the same list, but you will be judged on what you think of them. Hence, all the Commandments hang on the concept of love; “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Hence, your good, but still faulty, will is what saves.   
  Think of yourselves as wild animals. As your master even feeds you, the “beast” within still calls you to bite the one that loves you.   It is your will that confines the beast from the genome of the Wicked One that God sees. That you bite your master is just an action. He looks at the intent — the human will that scripture calls the “heart.” You want to be domesticated but wildness is the nature of the beast in all mankind.         
  If the expectation is to be blessed in heaven with Paradise, then your prayer is for blessings to begin here. Earth, for Christians, is performing as if they are already in Paradise, if not acting that way, at least thinking that way.      
  Conversely, if you expect Hell, then here you can expect to be a hellion. Of course, a Christian would not pray to be a hellion, but recognize that if people are not Christians here, they are hellions here, and will be hellions in heaven and sent to Hell where they belong. That is justice in heaven, and we should pray for the same justice here. No wonder, here is Hell for so many, but it is just a little bit of Hell that we sense to know what is coming!

11.   We are to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (verse 11). Note what we are to pray for as an indication of what we should not pray to have. “Bread” is not just bread; it is “artos” — food of any kind. We are to pray that God nourish us, but Jesus is the ”Bread Of Live” (John 6:35). Is it referring to food substance or to the Holy Ghost of Jesus? God will take care of us, and He will continue to do so, by giving us continually the “Bread of Life.”          
  We misunderstand. Bakers bake bread, but God supplies everything else. God will supply things that we need to live here, but we take that for granted; we miss the point. We are to pray for Jesus to supply His “Leaven,” the Holy Ghost, routinely without amiss! Need we pray for that? If we are Christians, He will, but perhaps a better prayer is that we should “eat” the Bread in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19).

12.              

           Next, Christians are to pray, “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (verse 12). Literally, the Greek is “debts” but metaphorically, it is “offences” (Strong 1890). As sinners, we all offend God and certainly other people. Sin is an offense against God.     
  How did Adam offend God (the male “Adam”)? He knew the rule and broke it anyway because he thought God had lied. (Eve seemed not to have died).              
  How did Eve offend God? By creating another being (Gen 4:1)… “I have gotten a man from the Lord,” she said. She was egotistical, and that offends God. Whereas the male broke the Law of God, the female broke genesis of God. She, not God, became the Creator and the LORD became secondary.       
  Note that Jesus expected the Christians to have mercy when He said, “as we forgive our debtors.” It us useless to seek mercy from God if Christians are not merciful themselves; Christians must forgive those who offend them. That is not a contingency but a natural gracious response.               
  I think of an elderly lady at church. She had made a driving error. That was her offense against, not the law per se, but the safety of others.                        
  One of the others responded with an obscene gesture. The lady expected the other driver to be graceful to her and to forgive her offense against him, but he responded with anger — an offence against her. Her natural response as a Christian was not to reciprocate but she asked God to forgive her for making that poor man sin.                
  The angry man’s temperament was anger. Her nature was gracious. She forgave him his offense by pleading his case to God. It was her that had offended the man firstly, so she was in error. She could not reconcile with him, but she did reconcile with God, admitting that even she, as a Christian, had made an offense against another person.              
  You might say, “But her offence was accidental.” There are three different types of sins: accidental, natural, and willful. Her offense was accidental, but she still offended. His was natural; he sinned because of original depravity. He judged her by condemnation (the gesture) while ignoring own his beastly nature.  
  She knew the Law of God. If she had responded with condemnation, then that sin would have been a willful offense.              
  Even the nature of non-believers offends God. Some pagans are humble, contrite, and loving. Those should be the characteristics of Christians, but they miss the mark set by God, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God… (Rom 3:23). How did they come short? They have not been justified — rendered righteous — by sacrifice of Jesus.            
  Justification is not “just as you had never sinned at all” as some say, but the “fatness” of the flesh is rendered into pure “lard” so to speak. It is made pure, and if it was never of the flesh, then it could not have been changed.                
  Never forget that we are sinners safe by grace, meaning that we still sin; accidentally, by nature, or willfully; but God knows the weakness of the flesh and works with us about our offenses.

13.               And continue praying to Jesus, “Lead us not into temptation.” God never tempts but allows Satan to tempt (Job 1:8).      
  God asked Satan to consider his “servant Job.” God allowed Job to be tested for the degree of his service to Him. Leading us not into temptation is asking God to provide safety from the Evil One.    
  Satan knew that God had done that with Job, to wit: “Hast not thou made an hedge about him?” (Job 1:10). The “hedge” was a spiritual fence of some type.                
  For Adam, it was a coat of skins and for Christians the Holy Ghost of Jesus. The implication is that God kept Job safe by being with him. Would Job stay “entwined” with God, as the Hebrew word literally means? That was allowing temptation, but God did not lead him there, Satan came to Job.               
  We pray that God  limits the tests to something bearable, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13).    
  Pray that God allows you to handle all that you can bear and that would be how? To deliver you from the testing by holding Satan and his demons a safe distance away.   
  Please God, steer me away from trespassing, would be an equal prayer. For instance, both Adam and Eve trespassed. God had forbidden them to avoid eating the fruit of His Tree; you know, the one that belonged to Him. The first sin was trespassing; it was God’s Will that they stay away from temptation.

14.               Then Jesus added to the prayer, “but deliver us from evil.” He knows that the nature of mankind is to trespass. Admit it, if you see a “NO TRESPASSING” sign, you think that There must be something valuable there, and many are tempted to trespass.              
  Knowing that so many of us will trespass, and to enter unto temptation, we are to ask God to “deliver us from evil.” Evil lurks whenever people trespass. When Adam entered the area of the forbidden tree, he trespassed. God had not said, Don’t go there, but “do not eat of it.” 
  Trespassing was on Adam’s back, but “God had his back,” as they say. He delivered Adam from the Evil One. He put a “hedge” around the entire Garden to keep the evil ones out (Gen 3:24) and two more “hedges” about Adam and Eve with the coats of skins (Gen 3:21).              
  God delivered Adam and Eve from evil time after time as we learn from the Books of Adam and Eve and Their Conflicts with Satan.

 

15.   Jesus wrapped up that saying, with “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” Thine is God’s. The Kingdom is His, and encroaching into what is God’s is trespassing. Adam trespassed knowingly; it was his will against the Will of God. He did what he wanted to do without regard to God’s sovereignty.

  On the other hand, Eve had not been told the Law. Adam sinned because he had not taught the woman, at least correctly, the Law of God. Eve sinned unwittingly but she still sinned, so Adam was abetting her trespassing.

  Next, consider “glory.” It belongs to God, according to Jesus. Glory is perfection and perfection along with its splendor belongs to God. To be like God is seeking His Glory, and that is not to be had until God’s time when mankind will be glorified. Implied in that prayer is the understanding that mankind cannot glorify himself, but that “power” belongs to God alone.         

  In effect, that prayer is for God to keep Christians meek and to have a realistic perception of themselves… I am not God, I cannot glorify myself but He can do that for me!  It is a power to limit the person’s self esteem to actuality; that we are inglorious, powerless, and servants; and that alone. We are totally dependent on God in all things. “Amen” means “so be it,” or “that is the way it is.”

16.   Now you know what trespassing means. Eve did not. She demonstrated her innocence (and ignorance of the law) by adding to “neither touch it,” referring to the forbidden tree.
  Trespassing is missing the mark of God; that warning sign not to enter unto temptation. The forbidden tree could have as easily been called “The Tree of the Knowledge of Righteousness and Sin” and the middle of the Garden, “trespassing.” Missing the mark commences with going where you should not go!             
  Then Jesus added to pray, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (verses 14 & 15).         
  In other words, I forgive you for coming into my private space and God will forgive me for coming into His Space, and that would be “as God” — the “Space” in His Kingdom is where He Exists. Sin is trespassing into the Estate of God. Legal entry is doing the Will of God, hence the Bible is “The Last Will and Testament of God” for His heirs. Trespassers are not heirs to God.
  In like manner, as an heir to God, you are to forgive those who trespass into your space by offending you. That is the hard part. God is would never offend, but we offend Him anyway, but the hardest part of goodwill is to not take offense to those who offend you. If we do, then reconciliation is required.

17.   That is the end of the LORD’S Prayer, but the nature in which it is prayed follow. Those requirements can be summed up by you having the nature of Christ: meekness, cleanliness, between you and God alone, prayer on truly significant things, and what is the Will of God (verses 16-23).               
  Prayer, therefore, must be done in contrition and reverence; and between you and God with Jesus in between — to be entwined with Jesus as heirs of the Father.

 

Praying is easy but preparation for prayer is necessary. Prayer is honored by the Father to those who follow Jesus and Him alone. For the pagans that have not repented, the prayer of repentance must first be prayed. Although David was a man after God’s own heart, he prayed the “Sinner’s Prayer” (Psalm 51). Before you pray the LORD’s PRAYER, pray first your prayer.