I read the first letter of St. Peter, our first Pope, this morning... remember him? He preached on Pentecost, after speaking in tongues with the others gathered to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then when all the visitors to Jerusalem gathered about the house that the 120 Messianic Believers (Followers of Jesus) were in, all the 120 were all acting like a bunch of "Pentecostals"!

So then St. Peter stood up and told the curious thousands around the house that they were not drunk with wine but filled with the Holy Spirit!

And he preached The Message of Jesus starting at Joel's prophecy about the coming of the Holy Spirit in the last days, and when he finished preaching salvation to the thousands gathered around the 120 Believers, three thousand visitors to Jersalem repented, gave their lives to Jesus through St. Peter's sermon, and were baptized in water, got filled with the Holy Spirit, and joined themselves to the First Church of Jersalem! Alleliua!

And I was reading about all the various trials and sufferings that those who follow Jesus go through, and if one is not suffering for Jesus maybe they are not really following Jesus as they suppose?

Now Jesus gives us inner joy and baptizes us in His Holy Spirit, Whom the Father has sent for us to be filled to overflowing with! But those who follow Jesus and are filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit do suffer through many trials, temptations and persecutions for their faith, and all the while they are in this life!

Such extremes aye?

Such extreme God blessings!

And extreme trials and sufferings all the time!

And extreme inner joy through the Holy Spirit!

Extreme persecutions!

And the extreme cost of taking up our own crosses, forsaking all else, the world, its desires, and everyone else, and then daily following Jesus as if He is all and our all!

Such extremes!!!

Maybe that is what causes people who are called to be priests, to truly be a "Holy Priesthood"?

And maybe that is what it takes for those chosen to be a "Royal Nation" to truly walk that choosing out?

It is extreme to "follow in the steps of Jesus" isn't it?

I was thinking about Jean Piaget's Child Development Psychology, and on some of the issues I could see how one could not develop normally, if they were not allowed to learn things like "Object Permanence"... for instance?

I thought a lot about the various aspects and issues but decided to write in my blog about this one particular issue.

So if a child goes to bed for the night or for a nap, or to school, or away for any reason, and when he awakens or returns; and his pet is gone, each one, is gone, every time he gets one, and every pet is always "running away", and his toys disappear often, as do his personal belongings, and his pictures of Jesus and similar pictures that he loves so much, and nothing is ever the same and things are always changing, and his bed and bedroom is never in the same place... and he finds out that it has been the adults at home who have been selling off his things, buying him new pets and belongings and then selling them off again, and doing the same process frequently through his childhood, and even every time he makes new friends at one parish and school, he is moved off to a new one, and then another one, and the adults in his life and raising him cannot decide which school or parish they want him to attend, or even which parish they like the best for themselves to call their own 'home parish'?!

Wouldn't that affect a person's Psychological Development just a bit aye?

Only a bit?

Maybe?

Are you one of God's priests or not aye?

I read the Book of Hebrews yesterday, and the author contrasts the differences between those who are holy and those who are not. And he is so bold as to even declare that "Without holiness no one will see the LORD!" So if you do not see Him nor are you EVER going to see Him, how can you be His priest? Just asking!

Do you know that God chose all of His people to be priests but onlu the Levites were finally allowed to be His true priests and to receive tithes from among the people?

The Levites were the list vile of God's chosen people, so they ended up being the one tribe from all twelve that could be called "priests".

If all of God's people ended up "priests" then the world would've been witnesses to a whole race of priests who served the LORD mightily and in full holiness!

Now people like to preach that all who name themselves Christians, whether they live right and true before God and before the whole world that is watching them, or shamefully in both the eyes of the LORD and in the world that mocks them and their God!

But I put forth that only those who love Jesus and have forsaken the world and all that it has to offer, and have overcome the brunt of sin in their lives, and have truly taken up their own crosses daily and followed Jesus, can really be a race of priests unto the LORD!

Could I be wrong?

And if "Without holiness, no one will EVER see the LORD"? Can you even be considered a "Christian", little alone a "priest of the LORD Most High", if you are still all vile in your sins and perverted in all of your own daily acts, thoughts and deeds aye?

I mean, can a child raper be any thing good in the eyes of a Holy God, or can a murderer dwell in His presence? Or a greedy person or group of thieves speak His praises? Or can those who practise hatred towards others also sing of the goodness of God?

"Do we now call good evil, and evil good, and proclaim that those who break all of God's Laws should continue in their awful deeds and still go free? And all the while ridicule those who do only good and seek godly justice?"

I am told that people cannot help what they do, and therefore should all go free!

And I am told that vile acts are done by those who "are only human after all!"

And that would mean that the vile man Joseph Duncan (baby raper and murderer) should go free, and that after all he is "only human"!

But I say that how can anyone that thinks so be a true "Christian" or be a "priest unto the LORD God Most High" either one or even both?!

"Priesthood of Believers"! Like anyone is? Like just anyone can be?

No matter how they live or how they act? Go and ask a Levite about all that aye?

Just live how anybody wants, and say they "believe" and now they are a "priest"?

Satan "believes in God too"! Is Satan a priest of God now as well?

"Demons believe in God too, and they tremble!" Are Demons now members of the "Priesthood of Believers"? Yes, Demons are priests now! And so is anyone who "believes in God"!

Do how you want, and do not act right, and now you are a priest!

Who's out? Nobody? Oh, only Atheists! Anyone who believes in God is a priest! But Atheists claim to not believe in God, so they are not priests! But EVERYONE ELSE IS a priest of the LORD God Most High!

Now EVERYONE line up at your churches and start collecting tithes from all the Atheists! They should be here any minute now to give you your priestly support so you can serve God as His holy (whoops! unholy, not 'set apart') priests!

I read St. James letter to the Church today, and he said that those with faith perform acts of mercy and have mercy ministries to the poor and to those in need; while others only hoarde up wealth and goods in the last days and claim to have faith, but do nothing that real people of faith do, like acts of mercy and being merciful as a ministry to those in need and to the poor.

And St. James says that those who only gathered up wealth and goods, and even neglected others... even those they should've paid for their services to them, will weep and wail and howl in their misery while they fade away like a puff of smoke and are never seen among the living again!

Or something like that? Now do the wealthy who perform not acts of faith but only hoarde their wealth and goods disappear from 'blessed memory' and are forgotten in this message, or does it mean that they go to eternal judgement for their lack of faith, and weep and wail and howl from there, while "their flesh is consumed"?

So if you have a ministry of mercy to those in need and the poor, then you are truly one with faith!

Or if you only perform acts of mercy towards those who are poor and in need, then you are a person of faith!

But if you preach and hoarde wealth and goods, or simply hoarde wealth and goods and never do any good for anyone in tangible and practical measures, then you have no faith at all; and your end or your eternity will be filled with sorrow and judgment for you greed and for your lack of faith!

So which truly is the "Faith Ministry"? The 'ministry' that does good for others and helps the poor and those in need; or the "Ministry" that collects offerings and tithes only and preaches for more and more, and hoardes it all up until the day of wrath "in the last days" aye?

"As the body is dead without the spirit,
so is [the] faith [ministry] without [practical] works!"

--St. James [paraphrased]

Go there and tell me what you think too?

http://pewforum.org/surveys/pentecostal/?gclid=CLXZ8duj14kCFQOnTAodD3ex1A

You may have to copy and paste it in your address line to go there though?