Book of Luke with Commentary

Part 7
The “Good News”, the “Gospel”, is not being taught by the churches, religions, denominations or teachers of the Bible. Fuzzy, meaningless phrases such as, “Saved by Grace”, “Unconditional love of God”, “Jesus in me”, “Just believe”, “It’s a relationship with Jesus” and many more are being taught as the “gospel”. What is amazing is that not one of those phrases are found in the Bible. They are made up, feel good phrases to draw you into a church so they can steal your money and your eternal life. We live in a “coddling” environment. God wants us to be men and women who can stand up for the truth, not be coddled invalids. However, Jesus stated that we are to teach “them to obey everything I have commanded you”. This was just before leaving earth to go back to His Father. He commands us to teach only what He has commanded. Just prior to His death and after His death, the obsession of His heart was His Law. Yet none of the churches, denominations, religions, pastors, ministers or teachers of the Bible obey Jesus. None are teaching people to “obey everything I have commanded you”. So what did Jesus command us?
  • Stop sinning: John 5:14
  • Be perfect: Matthew 5:48
  • Obey the Commandments to get your eternal life: Matthew 19:17
That is the gospel according to Jesus. He went about teaching people to stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments to get eternal life. There is no other “gospel” taught anywhere in the Bible. The “good news” is the fact that we can live as Jesus lived: perfect, sinless and Commandment keeping. Nothing else will get us into Heaven. If you want Heaven, you must live by the Law of Heaven. If you want to live here on earth, you live by the laws of this earth. Up to this point in the book of Luke Jesus was teaching in synagogues. However, by this time the religious authorities from the “General Conference” in Jerusalem were making it harder and harder for Jesus to teach the truth in the churches. Therefore, Jesus simply went from town to village teaching the gospel. Luke 8:1 to Luke 8:56 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. And there it is. Shut out from the churches he went “from one town and village to another”. What Jesus told Mary is the essence of the “good news of the kingdom of God”. That we must take responsibility for our salvation living by faith in obedience to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Every word of the Ten Commandments. The Good News from the Kingdom of God is that we can live in obedience to the laws of the Kingdom of God. We can stop sinning, be perfect and keep the Ten Commandments for our eternal life. All of this is possible if we put our will to it and let the power of God work within us to accomplish this task. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. Jesus doesn’t do it for us, He strengthens our will as we direct our will to live in obedience to Him. “Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness. “God wishes us to have the mastery over ourselves. But He cannot help us without our consent and co-operation. The divine Spirit works through the powers and faculties given to man. Of ourselves, we are not able to bring the purposes and desires and inclinations into harmony with the will of God; but if we are ‘willing to be made willing,’ the Saviour will accomplish this for us, ‘Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ 2 Corinthians 10:5.” AA 482. Many teach that Jesus will change us at His coming and then we will be in Heaven, in a perfect environment, and God will keep us from sinning. That is not possible! We have freedom of will. Lucifer was in Heaven, the perfect environment, and through the free will God granted him, he chose to sin. God can’t take one person to heaven who refuses to live the perfect, sinless and commandment keeping life. We must attain perfection here if we plan to live it there. We must choose not to sin. Jesus chose not to sin. “If we were defective in character, we could not pass the gates that mercy has opened to the obedient; for justice stands at the entrance, and demands holiness, purity, in all who would see God. Were justice extinct, and were it possible for divine mercy to open the gates to the whole race, irrespective of character, there would be a worse condition of disaffection and rebellion in heaven than before Satan was expelled. The peace, happiness, and harmony of heaven would be broken up. The change from earth to heaven will not change men’s characters; the happiness of the redeemed in heaven results from the character formed in this life, after the image of Christ. The saints in heaven will first have been saints on earth.” SpTA01b 20. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. Many “give” as long as they get a tax break or get something from their church in exchange. These women, and all who supported Jesus and His disciples, had no tax breaks and received nothing from Jesus but His love. They gave out of love for Jesus and His truth. This was true heart-work. True sacrifice. While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” How’s your farming? Where are you throwing the seed of God? Are you wasting your time throwing it where it will be trampled on? Do you throw it where others eat it up but it does nothing for their growth? Have you been throwing your seed to those who make you feel good by accepting it quickly and making a show of it, but it only lasts a while and then it withers and they die out. When we throw out the seed, we must also take along a watering can to “moisten” the seed. We need to teach people how to drink in the water of God. Throwing our seed among thorns is very risky. Bad company, says Paul, corrupts good character. And so it does. We must teach the new growth to move out of thorny neighborhoods in order to thrive and grow. Have you found good soil to cast your seed upon? Have you watered it, provided good fertilizer, and protected it as it grew? An interesting observation is, Jesus didn’t criticize the farmer for scattering his seed so widely. We are all called to sow. We can’t be tossing out one seed at a time to make sure it only lands on “good soil”. No, he scattered it and let nature take care of the rest. Our job is to scatter. We do what we can, but in the end how the Word of God is accepted is in the “soil” it landed on. Even God can’t change that. Each of us must be responsible for our own salvation. This ministry scatters widely. Some fall where the truth is trampled on, eaten up, overgrown by thorns and make a quick show of growth. I thank all of you for your love in supporting this ministry in its scattering of God’s seed. Joe and I gather names off the internet. We then prepare and mail them. Then we wait for the Spirit of God to water. This year we scattered to over 7,400 inmates. As they respond I do my best with my little watering can to sprinkle them to help them grow. I pray they stretch their roots deep into the soil of the truth and look up into the Light of Jesus. When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ Do you have the “knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God”? What is that knowledge? What are the “secrets”? Why are they secret? That last may be the easiest to understand. They are “secrets” because people refuse to see and understand them. Even though they have eyes and ears, they refuse to see and understand. To them the secrets are locked away. Most religious programs on TV and the internet, churches, pastors and teachers are seeing, but do not see. They talk a lot, but they do not understand. Therefore, once we have walked backwards, it become easy to unravel the secrets. Jesus has given the answer to the secrets. He told us to stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments to get our eternal life. But few are willing to see and understand the truth. Therefore, it remains a secret to them. “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. How simple! Yet how difficult religions make it. The “seed” is covered over with human wisdom, man-made requirements, church dogma and silly traditions, rituals and rites. Instead of scattering the “Word of God”, we scatter information about our churches, our pastors, our beliefs and our religions. All we need to do is scatter the “Word of God”. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. So what is going on here? Let’s break it down into points.
  • The devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
  • They have no root
  • Choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures
  • Noble and good heart
That about sums up all the categories of life. That would be doubt. Listening to religious or scientific programs that are not teaching truth. Listening to warmongers and ministries that gossip. They gossip about the church, the people, the government and anything else that makes them sound so important and educated. Nothing but obedience is important for our eternal life. Time with Jesus. They don’t dig deep and root themselves into the Word of God. They just sit in church listening to the pastor tell them nice things. But when the winds of persecution, temptations or opposition come against them, they wither and dry up. God has opened the way for many to receive the book “Change Your Life Biblically”, and yet, they look at the titles of the chapters and think, “I know that” and go on. But they don’t “see”. The Spirit of God dictated and directed the information in CYLB for our day: us. Are you listening? We must mature in Christ. We cannot let the things and worries of this world overpower our maturing growth in our walk with God. Spend hours a day with Jesus in His word. Rely on Him when worries and temptations come upon you. He will deliver you and strengthen you. Don’t go hoarding food, etc. Jesus didn’t tell His disciples to do that. Trust God. Live perfectly through obedience in Christ and our maturity will grow in faith and trust. Persevering. That is the fifth step in 2nd Peter’s 8 steps to perfection. In the first three scenarios they did not put into practice the eight steps of second Peter. It is only in persevering in our knowledge and practice of the truth that we will produce a crop of fruit in our character development. Our salvation lies in persevering in Christ. Never give up! Persevering is accomplished in two basic areas. The first is in our own lives. We are to persevere in changing every area of our lives to become like Jesus. Perfection in the little things as well as the big. Persevering until Jesus comes. The second is persevering in our “seed scattering”. We must never let an opportunity go by without sharing the beauty of the perfection of Jesus to those around us. We must persevere in sharing the Word of God to all around us. I like to use this ministry as an example. Not only am I persevering in my own life to attain to the perfection God wants of me, but I persevere in scattering seed to all who ask. Every request that comes into this ministry I try my best to respond with the Word of God. Since 1997 I have been persevering through every difficulty imaginable to put out God’s Word. I am thankful for those who have persevered in supplying the funding for this ministry. There are many ways we can all persevere in doing the work of God. “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. How silly! Don’t you think? And yet, I wonder what Jesus thinks of us? We have such a great light given us to shine to the world. What are we doing with it? Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. I pray we are putting the Light of Jesus on a stand that all may see it. May all who “come in” to our presence “see the Light”. Are you standing on a “stand” or hiding under a church roof? For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. I am sure we have all done things we thought were “hidden”. Things we did not want to “be disclosed”. Then we discovered that it was not “concealed” and eventually “brought out into the open”. How embarrassing. How much trouble our deeds brought upon us. When we keep vivid before us the understanding that angels are recording everything we say and do, what a difference it would make in our lives. Even in today’s world, everything we say and do online is recorded and preserved. It will come back to haunt you. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” We need to “consider carefully how” we listen. We need to be very circumspect in all we do. I’m learning this also. Our feelings and emotions can do so much damage to our lives and the lives of others. By living in obedience to the laws of God we would avoid so much damage to our lives and to others. Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” Have you noticed in our study of Luke how he ties together the concepts being played out? As an example, above we have Jesus’ mother and brothers coming to see Him. Why? Well, they were in a storm of anger because Jesus was not cooperating with the church. Waves of indignation and hurt were rolling over their lives because Jesus wasn’t listening to them or the church leaders. It was a good thing they were not able to get to Jesus because of the crowd. If they had, maybe the storm within them would have brought about bad consequences. So Jesus calmed the storm by stating that His true mother and brothers “are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice”. That one statement threw out the church and every church leader. His mother and brothers understood and went home. One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” The storms of life can put us in great danger. If we allow our emotions, feelings and the storms of life to swamp us, we might drown. When we see or feel the squalls of selfishness and temptations coming down upon us, go to the Master and tell Him. Don’t try to fight it yourself. Whether the storm is physical, psychological or spiritual, God is not bothered by the storms in or around our lives. All we need to do is trust and obey. He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. How true in our lives. “Where is your faith?” When I try rowing through the storm, I then remember, I’m going to drown if I keep trying to do it on my own. That is when I remember I am in the boat He asked me to enter. I am going where He has commanded. Then I get down on my knees and ask Jesus to calm the storm in my life. He rebukes the wind and the raging waters are stilled. That’s when I noticed that I had left my “life preserver” of faith on the dock. “He got up”. We need to follow His example. He didn’t cower. He didn’t try to swim away from the problem. He didn’t even step out of the boat to walk on water towards land and leave the disciples to drown. He did not abandon His disciples. We need to remember that for our lives. He is with us as long as we are doing what He has commanded us. Since He is with us, there is no circumstance in which He will abandon us. Just be still, trusting and obeying Him. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” When Jesus calms the storms in my life, storms I truly think will end my life, I am in “fear and amazement” of the power, love and kindness of Jesus towards me. I am so undeserving. Yet, He continues to shower me with His blessings. He will do the same for each of you as you pick up your “life preserver” of faith and take it wherever God has commanded you to go. Fear not, Jesus is always there for you when you are in the boat He has asked you to be in. Just live in obedience and all the storms of life will be stilled. At this point, did you understand about the storm? The emotional storms in His mother and brothers, and the physical storm bursting upon the boat? It doesn’t matter where the storm is or what it is made of, Jesus can calm all storms in our lives. They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. Of course, as we work for Jesus we move from one storm to another. Why? Because this world belongs to Satan. He is the storm maker. Jesus is the storm calmer. We will be confronted with many types of storms. Madmen, demon-possessed men, naked men, mothers, brothers and those living among the walking dead of this world may confront you. They may even cry out, shouting at the top of their voices. Stand up. Don’t run. Stand your ground in love. Sin and sinners cannot stand against the power of God. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Sometimes we think we have the situation under control and all locked up. But then a storm breaks out again and causes us more trouble. Don’t worry, give it to Jesus. These constant storms help to build our characters of faith for Heaven. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. Interesting concept here. Revelation tells us something about this “abyss”. “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. . . They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer). . . Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. . . The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. . . And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.” Revelation 9:1, 2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3 Could it be that at the time of this incident, only a few evil angels have been allowed out of the abyss? Could it be that at a future date, more and more will be allowed out as the world rejects God? I wonder if that time is soon upon us? As the world rejects God there is nothing left to hold back the Abyss. A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. It appears Jesus complied with their request by sending them into the pigs instead of the Abyss. It appears that if they had been commanded to go into the Abyss, they would have been held there and would not have been able to destroy until let out. Whatever the Abyss is, it is a place that even the evil angels don’t want to be. When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. “And they were afraid”. At first they were afraid of the wild, demon-possessed man. Now they are afraid of him “dressed and in his right mind”. Lots of fear going on here. I am sure their fear was more of uncertainty of the situation and the power used to work such a miracle on the man. Two kinds of fear here. One being the change that took place in the man. After all, who was this who could do what a whole country could not do? Secondly, Jesus had just destroyed their very profitable bacon business. How often has the “unknown” brought fear to us? How about the perceived destruction of your economic future? Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. How sad. Their first response was to remove the “unknown” from them. After all, raising and selling pigs was big business. Possibly a third of the towns income had jumped into the lake and drowned. That was bad news. Would this stranger bring more disasters to them? Do we react much the same way in our lives? How often has something we loved and cherished been removed from our lives only to find out later that it was for our good? And that which was removed actually opened the way for us to receive greater blessings from God. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. I know how easy it is to want to remain with Jesus in prayer, Bible study and listening to good music. But Jesus asks us to “tell how much God has done for you”. Let us follow the example by going “all over town” telling people “how much Jesus had done” for us. Are you not telling people “all over town” because Jesus hasn’t delivered you from sin? If Jesus hasn’t done anything for you, isn’t it time to let Him do for you? Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. Well, if a pagan centurion can have his servant healed, I’m much better than him, maybe Jesus will heal my little girl? This is the only Jewish leader, as recorded, to accept the healing power of Jesus into His home. How sad. The love of Jesus was so foreign to the “people of God” they could not understand it or accept it. Instead, they drove Him away. I think we also do the same in our churches and lives. The town’s folk had just driven Jesus away for healing a man. Here was Jairus falling at the feet of Jesus pleading with Him to heal his daughter. Two very different reactions. At this point in time, I really don’t think Jairus cared if Jesus was the Messiah or not. I don’t think he cared about doctrine. I don’t think he cared if Jesus was a regular churchgoer or not. The only thing on his mind was his sick daughter. Could it be that we have too much nonsense in our minds and not enough practical Christianity to find the favor of God? Are you too busy wasting your time with conspiracies, theoretical and theological nonsense instead of kneeling at the feet of Jesus and asking Him to heal your sick soul? As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Are you noticing the sequence here? Luke is trying to make a point, whether consciously or unconsciously, that while the church was so busy with all its doctrines, debates, arguments, rituals, church services and traditions, people who could care less about all of that were being healed by Jesus. This woman could care less about church doctrine. She wanted to be healed. She didn’t tell Jesus about all the good works she did. She didn’t tell Jesus how faithful she was in her church attendance. She didn’t recite all she knew about Bible doctrine. She just had faith to come up unnoticed, behind Him, and “touched the edge of His cloak”. Her faith was acknowledge and she was healed. Get out of church, go to Jesus and be healed. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. Jesus knew! Yet, He had to make a point. Touching Him or His garments, or honoring His hometown or his birthday or resurrection, or touching a statue of Mary or Jesus, or any “thing” would not heal the sickness of your soul. That is why everything the churches do today are all pagan. It is all idol worship. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” Have you ever watched the crowds at Easter services, Christmas programs, shrines and other pagan rituals and events? Lots of crowding and pressing. But none of the crowding and pressing against Jesus, or symbols, did any good for anyone except one poor lady. She had faith. But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Out of all those pressing in and crowding about Jesus to see, gawk and “touch” Him for His “fame”, only one person was recognized by Jesus as drawing power out from Him. Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Do you want to be healed? Do you want eternal life? Stay away from the crowds, the churches, the pagan rituals, traditions, services and nonsense. Go quietly to Jesus in faith and feel the power of God fill your life. And yes, it was the faith that healed her. As earlier, we read where it was the faith of Mary that saved her. Faith is the only power in us to assure us of healing and saving. Our faith. Our work. Our obedience to Jesus. Paul understood this relationship. He stated, “Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake.” Romans 1:5. Jesus told the people to come unto Him. The majority did not come as Jesus wanted them to come, and hence, they did not receive the power Jesus offered. But those who came in faith found that power and were healed and saved. While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Ok, back to Jairus. I am sure by now he was beside himself with anxiety. “When will Jesus stop attending to the crowd and get to my home? Hurry up Jesus, we don’t have much time before my daughter dies. Hurry!” Do we feel the same apprehensions sometimes? I’m learning to be far more calm and peaceful resting in the assurance that all will work out for good if I just trust Jesus. After all, life does not revolve around me and my wants. There are others just as needy. I’m learning to love them too and let Jesus love them also. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Jairus could have said, “Enough! You had your chance! She is dead! What more can you do?”, and walked away. But he believed Jesus and trusted Him even though he had no idea what that entailed. When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.” I believe Jesus left the other disciples outside for crowd control. It would not have been respectful for Jesus to bring hundreds of clamorous people into the house of Jairus. Very disrespectful! Think of the damage that would have been done by all those gawkers. We need to leave the church-crowd and go to Jesus. Now that the noise of the crowd is behind Him, Jesus is confronted with the hired wailers and mourners. It all must have been very jarring on the spirit of Jesus. Talk about testing His patience and self-control! However, kindly and respectfully, Jesus asked them to “stop wailing”. Why? “She is not dead but asleep.” To Jesus, death is nothing more than a little sleep. The dead person is not alive in heaven or in hell. The dead person isn’t in limbo. A dead person is “sleeping” and waiting to be called back to life by the “Life-giver”: Jesus. They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. And so it is. People laugh at us when we tell them the truth. But instead of standing around arguing with them, Jesus ushered them out and demonstrated the truth of His word. We also are not to fight, argue or debate the truth. All we need to do is live it and demonstrate it. Then, true to His humble nature, Jesus asked them “not to tell anyone what had happened”. Why? Truth doesn’t need a sideshow. It doesn’t need to be paraded. No one would believe it anyway. After all, they don’t believe today. They don’t believe the girl actually died. They don’t believe Jesus when He tells us that death is just a sleep. The churches today have no belief in Jesus. Only in their pagan beliefs, rites, rituals, services and ceremonies. When Jesus tells our dead, rotten bodies, to get up, let us put aside our dead bodies of the world and take on the Spirit of God and stand up in the power of God. Yes, most will be astonished in the “new” you. But that is the power of God. Rejoice and don’t let anyone take it from you. Live in the new life Jesus offers you.