A light in A World filled with "Lights"

     Jesus was notorious for using parables to get His gospel message across to the crowds who gathered to listen to Him. All the parables are great, but in my opinion the best and most meaningful parable that applies to this book is "The Sower of the Good Seed." This parable can be found in three out of the four Gospels, and unlike other parables it is told pretty much in the same way in each gospel. Below is the parable as it is written in Mark chapter 4:  4  Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.   2  He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said:   3  “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.   4  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.   5  Some fell on rocky places, where ...

  During the early Christian persecution in the Roman Empire, many Christians standing on death row were asked to merely burn a pinch of incense in front of the Emperor's statue. If they would do this their lives would be spared. They were told they didn't even have to mean it. All they had to do was just go through the motions of accepting a Roman god! In response, most Christians refused and were martyred because they realized only Jesus was worthy of their love and worship. And no worldly compromise whether a handful or pinch size was worth risking their eternal soul.     Here in America, about 1,950 years later, we live in a culture that is ramming pinches of incense into our mouths. The thing is we don't have to swallow. And we mustn't swallow. Our culture has disbanded prayers to Jesus Christ in our schools. It has indoctrinated pre-marital affairs and gay lifestyles to our youth. It has created an identity crisis for males and females through diversity classes...

     An individual who lives and promotes the Christian lifestyle will always have others pitted against them because of their lifestyle. As Christians we are called to love our enemies.  Jesus says in (Matthew 5:44)," You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’  But   I   tell   you,   love   your   enemies   and   pray   for   those who   persecute  you."  The best way to learn how to love our enemies is examining and following the way God the father, and God the Son loved their enemies.        Did Jesus have enemies? The answer is a resounding yes. Jesus had a lot of enemies and almost every human that was born was born an enemy against his Beloved Father. Adam and Eve created separation from God, a separation without His Grace that would be eternal for every human being that would ever live. But God did not give up on us. He came to us and s...