The Mark - No. 81 Fat Bullies

Never demand or enforce by terrifying people or by accusing wrongfully and always be satisfied with your supplies and wages. Luke 3:14

No matter how thin a bully may be (s)he will not be able to squeeze through the narrow gate. Think of bullying as added fat. Think of all sins as fat that makes it impossible to get through the narrow gate.

The bully has a severe problem with pride and ego, and a blindness to how much greater God is than (s)he.

Sharpshooters who hit the Mark with relative ease can’t understand the hubris that allows a person to tell him or herself that (s)he can bend the will of another, when the Almighty God never forces anyone to do His Will.

God is extremely tolerant or else He would have given up on this project with humankind long ago. It’s true that He regretted the Flood after all was said and done, but it didn’t take long for Noah’s sons to start the distortion of the image of God in humans all over again.

On a positive note, to be satisfied with our position and wages is a sign of humility. It is knowing that we will always receive our daily bread, and that we are as cared for as the lillies of the field and the birds of the air.

Security yields kindness.

No.1 Obey the Commands

The commands of Jesus are the Mark, the target for the perfect life. To aim for and to hit the Mark is to conform to the image and likeness of God. To ignore, neglect, or miss the Mark is to sin. The commands provide stepping stones through earthly life, upon which the child of God survives tempests and deflects the boomeranging darts of pride. Adhering to the Mark aspiring immortals gain victory.

They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.

John 14:21, John 15:10

The first command is to obey the commands.

However often we say we love God, we fool ourselves when we do not take the commands seriously.

Unless we obey the commands, our love is fraudulent and will tarnish and thus we risk damnation.

We disobey the commands because of too much pride and not enough trust.

Obey Christ’s commands to be loved by God, the Father, and to get to know Him.

Trust is like the sun shining through you.

No.2 Repent

[Jesus said]…repent, and believe in the good news.

 Matthew 3:2, Mark 1:15, Mark 6:12, Luke 24:47

Jesus Christ commands us to evolve, to change our way of being. Visualize a rosebud that opens to become fully itself. It changed so much that it looks like two different flowers!

Likewise, open your mind to the clear and unambiguous way to be Christ-like.

Some of these commands will seem foreign and impossible to appropriate. When that happens, it is proof of how far off we are. Instead of trying to adust Christianity to you, the call is for you to conform to the likeness of Christ, not the likeness of your friends or family, but Christ.

Change, thorough change, will come if you want it to and focus on the Mark, which is Christ. The Church facilitates the change. Stay close to Her.

The reward in this life and eternity cannot be measured in their magnificense.

To become less like yourself and more like Christ is like paying $5 for a mansion in the best neighborhood.

The fragrance of the rose in full bloom delights everyone around it, so too will your new life delight other christs in your orbit. Peace.

No. 3 Be Gentle and Humble

Learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. [read: be meek, kind, mild, passive, modest] Matthew 5:5, Matthew 11:29

Imagine that. The maker of genes commands even the fiery among us to defy our own nature, even as he defied the wind and waves, and illness.  How is this possible? Learn kindness, gentleness and modesty to gain peace of soul. The following commands tell us how. Ask for help and you shall receive. Peace

No. 4 Desire Righteousness

Hunger and thirst for right standing with God.

Matthew 5:6, Luke 6:21, Luke 12:31

Some of these commands are taken from the Beatitudes which simply state that those who embody certain characteristics are Blessed. They are not laws that typically define a command, but like laws, the Beatitudes illuminate the Mark, the goal for the perfect life.

To treat the Beatitudes as commands is to believe that we can regulate our selves even as laws aim to regulate us. To repent, to change our way of thinking is a command. To be Blessed is godly. To repent so we can be Blessed is a bulls-eye shot.

To strive for the kingdom is to hunger for righteousness, or right standing with God.
This is where the autonomy of free-will is truly demonstrated. Our genetic dispositions are not free will, but something imposed upon us by nature; assigning ourselves to a religion and church-going may happen because of external pressures from family or society, but to hunger and thirst for right standing with God can only come from within a person’s own heart, and mind, and will. God knows that.

How much do you really want to be Christ-like and immortal? Is it a casual desire, like getting a new car, or is it a hunger that forces a response?

Hunger and thirst are signs that your body is screaming for attention in the same way that illness does. They are loud! Spend a moment, especially a moment of extreme hunger or illness imagining an equally loud desire for the contentment of right standing with God. Fasting helps us to understand what it means to hunger for righteousness. As food and drink nourish the body, right standing with God nourishes the soul. Could a starving soul live for very long?

Recap:

1. Obey the commands.

2. Repent – Change your way of thinking.

3. Learn from Jesus Christ who is gentle and humble.

4. Want to be righteous as Jesus Christ is righteous.

No. 5 Be Merciful

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Matthew 5:6; Luke 6:36

‘Lord, have mercy on me, who sins.’

I ask You to help me to be like You, and forgive me when I fail.

You ask me to do the same for others.

Help those in trouble; be sympathetic, tender, responsive, and compassionate.

No blame game, no lusty fault-finders playing hide and seek.

To be Christ-like, to be God-like is to overlook offenses, and to pity the ignorant sinner.

To be merciful is to give the other person relief instead of criticsm.

To be Christ-like is better than being right.

No. 6 Be Pure

Be pure in your heart. Matthew 5:8

The mind informs and influences the heart, but the heart rules. The heart is extra sensory; the heart is keenly perceptive in ways the mind does not comprehend. I venture to say that your heart is the substance of your being, this intangible element of personhood that neither computer nor internet can trump as it has with the mind.

As people age, they often lose their mental faculties, but they rarely lose their hearts.

When I cut open a ripe avocado, I am thrilled when I see an avocado that is perfectly ripe through and through, when it hasn’t started to rot. In contrast to contamination, purity resonates with a delightful rhythm.

The land of immortality is comprised of the pure of heart. This is why we yearn to be there. Yet, to be there we must be pure too, lest we contaminate heaven.

The call for purity is repeated by Christ. He commands righteousness, perfection, and purity of heart.

Psalm 24:3-6

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,

who do not lift up their souls to what is false,

and do not swear deceitfully.

They will receive blessing from the Lord,

and vindication from the God of their salvation.

Such is the company of those who seek Him.

 Psalm 73:1

Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.

The challenge for this week is to look into your heart and purge from it any impurities that may lurk there. How can this be done? Try prayer and fasting. King David did when he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Ask and ye shall receive.  Peace.   

No. 7 Make Peace

Be at peace with one another. Matthew 5:9; Mark 9:50

Imagine sitting in darkness on a cold sandy beach before the dawn. Imagine staring at the horizon where earth kisses sky until the speck of sunlight, as small as a pinhead illuminates the whole world. There is a peaceful eyeful; there is a powerful event. God and the children of God know that sheer power, radioactive power, atomic power, holy power is required to make and maintain peace.
To fight one another is to roll down a grassy hill; it is a natural gravity-fed, physical, emotional and simple act. To make peace, that lily-white breeze of a feeling, is to be victorious over nature which, without it would force the whole wide world into hell if God blinked.

Aspiring immortals make peace by using holy power over self, to forebear, to self-correct, to be merciful. Then we are capable of being at peace with others.
To quash evil, sometimes soldiers must make peace with bombs and bayonets for the same reason that the cross gave life and that chemotherapy heals. In all cases peace requires power, power over evil whether the evil exudes from the world or your own soul.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God who will be welcomed with His open arms into His awesome eternally peaceful kingdom.

No. 8 Take His Hits

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Matthew 5:11, Luke 6:22

Hitting the Mark on this one is extremely difficult. I wonder what form the blessing would come in while I was being shunned and hated.

I suppose that if you are willing to take the hit for Christ, and you are really standing in His sandals. He will be with you and reward you in unimaginable ways... at some point during eternity. It’s probably worth the wait. Besides, anticipation can be more fun than achievement.

Being hated for Christ is very different than simply being hated. It may not be on account of my Christianity that I am being persecuted but on account of my personality!

Finally, I think this Mark can’t really be achieved because it depends on others to hate or persecute you. It is impossible to try to be hated while trying to love.

MAYBE there is a way. There are a few countries in this world where Christianity is forbidden. One could plan a vacation there, and wear a big gold cross. If you happened to be killed, you could become an instant saint! Now that’s a blessing! Remember though, Christian martyrs do not commit suicide! Someone else has to kill you and you have to not want that to happen!

Lord, I’m sorry for making fun of this ‘beatitudinal’ command. You know I would take your hits and even die for you. I try every day to find ways to die to my ‘self’ for Your sake, so You won’t cringe if I wear a cross and act like a jerk. If it ever happens that I am persecuted and excluded for your sake, I promise not to buckle. Well, I hope that I’ll try not to.

No. 9 Be Luminous

[As you wouldn’t light a lamp and place it under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand to give light to all in the house]…let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

If your marksmanship has improved, and you have internalized the commands and you are starting to evolve into a replica of Christ, by now you are probably glowing in the dark. Isn’t this fun?!

John said that in Christ was life, and the life was the light of all people. Everyone shines life. To think like Christ and behave like Christ is to shine brightly; it is to teach, to heal, to feed and to relieve suffering.
These works are the manifestation of God’s light in you and should be on display to cause people to thank God and worship Him and love Him.

It is THE luminous circle of love! First God loves you and fills you with His light, then you use your light to love and help others, then they love and thank God too!

To illuminate is not a request. It is a command. It is one of the purposes of going through the kind of transformation that forces us to combat our nature and our egos.

Turning into a flashlight, is not for your own good, so you can live happily ever after, or just look like a star. It is to expand the kingdom of God on this earth, one state of consciousness at a time.

Joy.

No. 10 Bear Fruit

He removes every branch in Me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit He prunes to make it bear more fruit. John 15:2, John 15, 16

If you thought that you could go to God’s Kingdom to escape terms like the Gross National Product, think again. The acronym GNP, actually stands for God’s National Product and it is very important to Him.

Productivity matters. Busy bees, busy ants, busy christs. God’s world is teeming with activity and continuous improvement.

Perhaps the phrase, “May (s)he rest in peace” only applies to the time between when we leave the body and the Second Coming.
I suspect that even on the new earth our fruitful productivity will be required to create the most magnificent world possible.

This explains why fruitful branches are kept and unfruitful ones are burned. (Read John 15:6)

It is no wonder that the verb ‘to produce’ sounds like the noun meaning fruit? Fruit, such as apples, peaches, and figs are not only beautiful and tasty they also keep our bodies healthy. In addition to vitamins and fiber, fruit comes with a bonus: seeds. Seeds are the source of even more fruit. Fruit is the most productive of God’s creation. Look around; to be productive, i.e. to be fruitful is to be like God.

Reading the Bible and praying often is a grand way to learn and feel holy. But getting out in the world to follow Jesus Christ who taught, healed, fed, and raised the dead increases the GNP and builds God’s country.

Are you in?

No. 11. About Adultry

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery. Matthew 5:28

Mathew 5:32; Mark 10:7-9, Deuteronomy 24:1-4

Focused aspiring immortals
hand in hand

Stroll carefully and confidently on the straight and narrow path

Loving God with every breath and with pure hearts

Not concerned that

Invisibly He watches from on high, to judge them by their mating love.

For Adam and Eve, it wasn’t the curiosity about the forbidden fruit, or even heeding the serpent’s skeptical words that expelled them from His Garden, but actually eating it.

The temptation to sin is not the crime, only the doing of it.

Adultery is the exception because the lust is the sin, even without the act.

Lust is disloyalty. Lust supplants the spouse in one’s heart, if not yet in the bed.

In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the punishment for adultery is death for both parties. God deplores a divided heart. His love is loyal, abiding, unchanging; it is not fickle or double minded. How lucky for us, or He would have divorced us lomg ago.

To be like God, one must first and foremost love like God.

Fidelity is a virtue, so is loyalty.

No. 13 Don't Swear

Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord. But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be “Yes, Yes or No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Mathew 5:33-37, Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30.2; Deuteronomy 23.21

What an honor. What a relief.

To swear by God or by Jove or anything is to try to give weight to your declaration. It is to bring in the troops to back you up, or to lift you up.

If you swear falsely, to give weight to something that is not true; you aren’t even close to being Christ-like.

Take three giant steps back.
If you have potty mouth, take six giant steps back.

Swearing is not necessary. As a child of the most high God, the Creator of the universe who spoke this whole amazing biodiverse world into being, your word has power.

Your word: sturdy, sound, reliable, forms a foundation upon which the castle of your being is erected.
To swear is to diminish your personal divinity.

Christ came to teach you what it takes to regain the image and the power of God.

This fruit of your heart comes out of your mouth. Don’t let it be rotten.

No. 14 Cheek Turning

But I say to you, Do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:29a

When I was a child I did not understand what grown-ups meant when they said to turn the other cheek. Then one day I read a Bible that said, “…and let him strike the other also.” OUCH!

Smart God tells us not to resist, but rather to let the person complete the zing by doing it on both cheeks, all that you have.

Don’t put up your guard and don’t strike back! Be strong enough to break the circle of anger. Let it play itself out in the other person.

Take the punches like a god. See Christ be whipped before the crucifixion. Be willing to be whipped too. In this way you are being Christ-like which makes you at-one with the Mark! Congratulations you made it!
People hurt others in psychological as well as physical ways. Sometimes they slap intentionally, sometimes just because they are slappers and they don’t mean to inflict pain, and sometimes because they perceive that they are slapping you back.

Evil is like a gas, it pervades the atmosphere and then dissipates; it goes away. You can’t fight a vapor, you wait it out.

No. 15 Roll Over in Court

"…and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give him your cloak as well.” Matthew 5:40

Another in the series that forbids retaliation, this command pushes us a little farther out on the limb by telling us to give the thief even more than (s)he is grabbing.

It is the step that follows the command not to try to recover anything stolen from us.

In short, avoid court. It is a horrible place to be. Don’t just settle with resentment in your heart. Be willing to look like you lost, like you were guilty. Be willing to disrobe, to be cold!
If you want to abide with God and His angels, then you must rise above human nature. You must focus on nothing more than becoming Christ-like through obedience.

Nothing on earth is worth more than this lesson. No warmth on a cold day. No material good, no clinging to the notion of earthly justice, no decadent sense of pride compares to the abundance in store for those who practice letting go for God’s sake.

Invest yourself in God and watch the return increase your net worth.

Demonstrate your devotion; don’t just sing it.

After the sting, see how well this works. You won’t know how much suffering this approach saved you, but giving more than the disputed coat directly hits the target which releases pure joy into your core.

Be like him who said in Psalm 40: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

No. 16 The Golden Mile

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Matthew 5:41

The second mile is the fun mile.

Being forced to do something is no fun. A client wants more than you expected to give and will be paid for, so you have to work through the night, or during a party you wanted to attend or over a holiday.

A teacher gives a lot of homework on your birthday, a friend begs you to do something that you don’t expect to like.
Getting over the hump of doing what you don’t want to do is difficult.

But the second mile, doing an excellent job at it; staying longer than you need to, turns the whole situation on its side!

The second mile is your own turf!

It is where you adopt the idea and make it your own.
The second mile is where the angels come to meet you to play.

The second mile is golden; go there as often as you can.

Find the deposit in your bank account in heaven.

Joy.

No. 17 Let Go - Be God

“Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:42, Luke 6:30

The metamorphosis we go through to become Christ-like, to hit the Mark with our behavior and our thoughts, is replete with light-filled phases.

This command to be exceedingly generous presupposes such a light-filled phase that makes you aware of the limitless wealth of God and by relation, you, His child and heir.

He said in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you (read: memorize these commands,) ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Also, the begging angle is, “Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you…” and “Now ask and keep on asking and you will receive so that your joy may be complete.” Luke 11:9 and John 16:24.

If someone prays to you for something, give it or lend it.

You are a child of God and you have a responsibility to answer prayers as He does.

If you don’t think you can afford it, then walk over to the light and look harder. Give it anyway.

The Lord will repay you.

No. 18 Have You HUgged Your Backstabber Today?

“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:44 

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.” Luke 6:27-36

Do you have an enemy?

Is there or has there ever been someone in your life who obviously hates you and wants evil to befall you? Someone who puts his or her foot out to make you trip when you walk by or someone who tells lies to ruin your reputation? Has anyone poisoned your coffee lately?

In nature, the sun rises, and the rain falls on you both. Human nature is more selective. Human nature only wants to shine where there is already light. Human nature prefers to make the dark even darker. Human nature makes you behave like your enemy, fight back and try to win by hurting him more, or if you are the sinister passive-aggressive type human nature makes you subvert your enemy.

Jesus Christ, in His luminous supernatural superman way, tells you to walk on water. He tells you to override human nature, even the passive-aggressive type, by loving in tangible ways the person who wants to destroy you. Why?!

This command begins to make sense when you understand that He is telling us to be the light of the world as He is. We too are required to destroy darkness. Love of enemies is the litmus test for immortality.

I hope you have no enemy, but if you do, that you can love him or her. Some enemies will dissolve as fast as the wicked witch of the west. The more insidious enemies, will see the overtures as weakness and go for the kill. Don’t worry; this is when being superman really comes in handy.

Love your enemies; our world needs more supermen (i.e.: luminous, immortal, supernatural children of God) in it.

No. 19 Go Thief!

Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Luke 6:30

Are you getting the picture yet?

The person that Jesus is describing through His commands is like Teflon, nothing sticks! Nothing can tarnish this heart of gold. All offenses, slaps on the face, backstabbing enemies, pushy tyrants, thieves and beggars, all simply slide away as fast as a downhill skier.

Jesus demands generosity for reasons very different than your average televangelist. The televangelist wants to enrich his kingdom, or simply pay his bills and so (s)he offers you in return the hope of a high yield investment that God will pay you (on his/her behalf.)

Jesus doesn’t want a Ferrari. There are no malls where He lives. Jesus wants you to be generous to bless as He does and to practice letting go of your money or time.

He wants you to untie yourself from ropes that shackle you to this earth. A child of God must be able to rise when God calls on that Fearsome Day of the Lord.

To rise to meet Jesus in the air at His Second Coming requires the ability to let go easily. Let go of your goods; let go of your money; let go of your resentment. Practice letting go in thirty seconds! Now, can you do it…in five?

Give it away, or let them take it from you. Don’t ask for it back. Don’t call the police. Don’t judge the beggar; let God do that, just give.

Allowing people to take from you gives you one more opportunity to trust. See God smile.

No. 20. Actors Need Not Apply

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1

The author of Reality is as entertained by literature and theater as you and I.

Beware! We venture out into the danger-zone when we mix theater with reality, that is when we lie or when we only pretend to pray, or when we perform acts of kindness in order to be seen or liked by others. God the Father strictly guards Reality.

The most intimate relationship each of us has is with our Father who art in heaven. He lives in our hearts and hears our every thought and word. He watches over our every move, and guides us through our conscience. Married or single, a person cannot have a more intimate relationship than with God, no matter how popular (s)he may be.

Intimacy is one to one; nothing more, nothing less, nothing else, never.

A crowd of people worshiping God together looks like a gaggle of balloons each connected by its own string in God’s hand. Church service may unify our voices and minds, but as harmonious as it is, the liturgical prayer is still one to one.
God created us as individuals; He loves us and cares for us …one by one.

To practice piety before others to be seen by them is pornography.

I wonder if some people who do this don’t realize how offensive their act is to God. I wonder if they simply do not know about the exquisite beauty of the pure 1:1 relationship with God the Father. How sad.

For this command, the Mark is invisible to everyone but you.