SERMON ON THE MOUNT Matthew 7

 The Sermon on the Mount begins in Matthew chapter 5. I am presenting chapter 7 here. Go back and read chapters 5 and 6. This requires some effort. 

If you are thirsty, this is the well from which I draw my water. Come, drink of it.
Nothing good will come to you without effort.

The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter 7                      NKJV

Do Not Judge

 ¹ “Judge not, that you be not judged.

² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

 

Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking

   ⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

¹² Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

 

The Narrow Way

   ¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

 

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

   ¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

 

I Never Knew You

   ²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

 

Build on the Rock

   ²⁴ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:

²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.


²⁶ “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:

²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

²⁸ And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,

²⁹ for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

FATHERS DAY

“The cheaper the punk, the gaudier the patter” - Sam Spade about the punk gunsel Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon. That's what we got these days, a buncha cheap punks.

Let me start this way, with observations on my growing up and hanging around with my dad. He came from Europe and grew up outside of Chicago. He liked horses, was always working with them, training and taming and settling them. And trading them. His friends included an eclectic mix:  Hungarian Gypsies that were hard Balkan boyos; some minor mob guys - Dagos - small timers from the Cicero area that were mostly bootleggers and bookies, connected but not heavy;  some machinists and workers from the EMD/General Motors plant, various town guys most of whom went to WWII and came back. What all these fellas had in common was morals, sense of community, honor, strength, the good old virtues. They vibed calm, deadly if necessary; do the right thing always, no speaking falsely, word is my bond. No showboating or colorful language tossed around just to hear themselves talk, no hey look at me how important I am sort of conduct. The Polack that ran the junkyard, he still dressed like a Polack even though he came home from the Pacific with a sack full of ears and a face full of shrapnel. "Wat? Wat? I went dere. I done some tings, I come home. Dat's it."

 Sometimes my dad would stash some thoroughbreds for the bookies, keep ‘em hidden to stack the odds at some racetrack or other. Once and a while he would help one of them haul a car to dump into some quarry in Lemont, where it would just … disappear. He never knew if the car had, uh, anything else in it; didn’t want to know I guess, let them guys sort it out amongst themselves. He’d go out with the Gyppos to deal horses, he’d have a wad of hundreds in his pocket and I saw him shove a pistol in his back pocket once when he didn’t think I saw.

The point is, my dad hung around with some serious people; I guess he made his bones somehow or other, I never knew and he wouldn’t say, but the guys always gave him respect. He never bragged or swaggered or acted all tough and the guys he was with, they didn’t either. I watched this when I was around my dad; he didn’t expose me to any heavy action that was going down but I saw stuff during the more social get-togethers. These guys were by no means exceptional or heavy-duty. They were just regular fellas, living life and doing things the right way, same as all over the country, men of that generation, Americans to their last breath. What they didn’t do was talk like some kinda punks that had paper brains. They didn’t have to. They knew their strength and were secure with it.
I learned from this that first comes the man. His reputation follows like dust down a country road.  It's not like that these days. A lot of guys in my generation, Boomers if you will, their reputation is concocted and sent in first, like a brass band marching into town ahead of the circus. It is fear-driven. Large promise and poor performance might be their mantra.



 
And all the awareness, the, ah, touchy-feely sensitivity these days is like an albatross. Damn the pusher man. With the advent of all the psychotropic drugs, the turn on/tune in/drop out horsecrap of the 60s, began our societal decay. Do you think them guys back in the 30s, they worried about the cultural mix? As if what was happening in some yocky-dock country in the Balkans - ooh, the Muslims are this, the commies are that - as if that was gonna affect them having a roof over their heads and food on the table for their families? If you didn't work you didn't eat. That's pretty basic. Didn't have to think about injustices to migrant workers or whether women were getting paid the same or whether queers could get married. They weren't reluctant about calling some folks deadbeats, moochers, parasites, like, gee, it's gonna hurt their feelings. People back then (including the women folk who were a hell of a lot stronger than the men sometimes) people had some clear understanding of morals, civic duty, work together-ness. The kids even knew it: if you're in the lifeboat, it is best to have your hands on the oars.


Say what you want about the WPA or the CCC. See what those guys have in their hands? Shovels, not syringes. And they ain't too fussy about the color of a man's skin. How he swung a pick is what counted.

We are breeding out the strengths and virtues that can keep our nation together. I think I am a pretty good guy, but I am not half the man my father was. Blow wise to this: we are not, any one of us, half of what our parents were. Oh yeah, we got the iPods and the internet, the SUVs, we are so cool our lips turn blue just shooting the breeze. But we don't have anything worth keeping. Look around you, folks, is this still a nation of strong free people?





You think there are many today who could do what all these guys, like my dad and his pals, could do what they did? Enlist in the Army, Navy, whatever, and go "over there" and win the war? The military we got now is good. Good soldiers, winners, but they are somehow different. Current military choose it as a career, figure on being in for a long time, it becomes their life. The guys back then, they dropped whatever they were doing, put their lives on hold, went over and (most of 'em) came back and picked up where they left off. 

YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET

What bothers me about all the disaster stuff (and I include the economy, just like a hurricane or something) what bothers me is that we don't have the moral fabric to withstand troubles. Back in the '30s everyone for the most part believed in God or at least obeyed the don't steal, don't kill guidelines of the Commandments. Back then we helped each other if only in some small ways, but we did not hurt each other. 

Today we have thieves stealing A/C units from animal shelters, doors from rest stop toilets, train rails, wire and cable, etc. What do you  think they're gonna do, the food runs out? They will steal the pennies from a dead man's eyes. There will be a period of panic and looting and rioting starting from the urban core. Once the shops are emptied and burned down the mob will turn to people and families nearby.

And btw, all the preppers stocking up on food, setting up a mountain retreat, they are not all like the heroes in Patriots who read the bible, believe in the Constitution, fair & square type folks. There are plenty bad guys can figure how to stash food and ammo and wait 'til the crash comes. Jackals know how to hunker down during a storm too.

Viet Nam was my war. I learned how to blow things up and kill people. I haven't forgotten how to do it.

 

It will not matter what causes the crash; I think it will be more of a slow slide, but there will be a point of no return. Just like my dad said about women: you know how far to go with them ... when you've gone too far.

All the preparation might come to naught. Picture some shrewd preppers, got the cabin, the water filters, the cases of beans, so forth up the country someplace, and they're sitting at a Starbucks downtown, being all clever, when boom boom out go the lights. They get stuck with gridlock scramble and whoa, left their pistol in the vehicle and all of a sudden it is too late even for them. Some poor shmoe wearing one boot and one shoe, he and his wife and kids, they walk out of town (bicycles would be even better) and they stumble across the empty fortress. 

 

You know who's gonna make out the best? The hill folks of Appalachia, the hard-scrabble poor folks, the reservation Indians, all the people for whom poverty would be a step up. They will not even notice most of The Fall.

Folks like this will do OK

LIONS and JACKALS

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda (or al-Qa'ida, pronounced al-KYE-da) surpassed the IRA, Hamas, and Hezbollah as the world's most infamous terrorist organization. The latest terrorist Muslim group is ISIS.

Gradually increasing its hold on Middle Eastern countries, Muslim organizations have invaded and taken control of large tracts of land. Lately they have started infiltrating the countries of Europe and the United states by slipping in with refugees. Illegal immigrants.

Add up the European KIAs and missing in action and so on for WWI and WWII; none of it makes any sense. Tilt yer head and squint just so and it looks like a civil war. Two generations of select young men gone. No wonder Europe is like it is, the best breeding stock either dead, maimed or insane. By and large the descendants of the unfit, or their wives, or their "partners" run the place now. I notice the Muslims streaming into this vacuum are largely warrior stock.

Warrior stock, and breeders too. The Imam or whoever is encouraging these warriors to breed with women in the host countries. Half a Muslim means all Muslim.

The conditions are right for a Nationalist movement here in the United States. The movement has already taken hold in Germany, Belgium, other countries in Europe. The welcome mat for refugees has been abruptly pulled in, replaced with fences and razor wire.

Along comes the Iron Legion. From their website:

 "There is something very wrong with the modern world. A lot of people can feel it, a troubling sensation that something isn’t quite right. It might come to them when they are enduring the commute to work, packed into train carriages like cattle, or tapping their fingers on the steering wheel while they’re staring at the rows of glowing red brake lights in front of them. It comes to them while they are sat at their desk doing the same old things they did yesterday, for eight hours straight, desperately trying to pay off their degree or their mortgage or the credit card debt that they were promised would make them happy. It comes to them when they’re dozing in a room lit up by the television screen, when they are falling asleep in bed with their laptop. They know something is wrong but they don’t know what it is, but they know it is getting worse."

"The Iron Legion exists for the men who are seeing their communities, traditions and identities being eroded and attacked and want to fight back. We exist for the men who know that something must be done but don’t know where to start. We exist for the men who know that the politicians only serve themselves, not the people of our great nations. The Iron Legion is a brotherhood that gives support and leadership to men."

As Simon Wolfe defends his Iron Legion he offers a place for men that …want a mission. They want to be part of something which has a great purpose…

 I would think of The Greatest Generation going out there and saving Private Ryan. All blue skies and don’t sit under the apple tree. The  support of the citizens was a confluence of events and circumstances and timing that gathered such men in our country and offered them a mission: to keep the world safe for democracy. Unfortunately that confluence cannot be replicated in this country at this time. Too many splinter groups and special interest factions and too much disdain for values like patriotism.

What I see is the possibility of a Fourth Reich, one that’s going to last a thousand years or so. The rise of a Nationalist movement would stand a better chance of success after doing a little house-cleaning here at home. The German movement got rid of any dissenters and strongly urged the indecisive to join the movement or get on the cattle cars. The Russians did likewise, with trains to Siberia. We don’t have a vast wilderness so quick deaths and shallow graves would have to suffice. We do have plenty of Caterpillar D-10s.

SERMON on the MOUNT Matthew 6

 This writing can stand alone, or be taken in bits and pieces, but there is a narrative thread here.

The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter 6                                        New King James Version (NKJV)

 

Do Good to Please God

6 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ³ But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

 

The Model Prayer

⁵ “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. ⁷ And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

⁸ “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. ⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
¹³ And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 

Fasting to Be Seen Only by God

¹⁶ “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ¹⁷ But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Lamp of the Body

²² “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

You Cannot Serve God and Riches

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.


Part three will be posted a little later. If you want to read it in a bible I would be pleased. 

DOWN AROUND MY PLACE 2

OK, I went back to the default settings on the camera. the pix turned out better. I reckon the camera is smarter than me. Well, for the pictures. I dunno, maybe for a couple more things.

This is the area in which I live. Hostile environment, no water, thirty-five miles from the Mexican border.




Coming back from the range last week I stopped on the road five miles south of town, a mile or so west of the two-lane that runs down to the border, and shot these pix.

I posted on this a few days ago; here are some detail pix and my usual excellent commentary. There are a lot of people that died without ever hearing my voice. Don't be numbered among them.

North: overlooking sorghum fields stripped after harvest. That mountain, elevation 9750 ft. is about 25 miles north of town. The highest elevation in our part of the state. Ruins of a fort there from the Indian days, Butterfield Stage Lines ran past there as well.
 

South: These mountains 30 miles south are on private ranch property, beyond them the border. All the ranchers down that way can tell stories about illegals desecrating the land, wrecking windmills and wells, ripping fences and gates. The ranchers like AKs. Cheap and cheery, they make good, uh, varmint guns.

East: More mountains, poppies bloom on the south slopes in Spring; mountain lions and ibex up in there, hunters get after 'em and realize that a 200yd shot means a half mile up & down to get the carcass. Needless to say they usually leave them where they drop. The coyotes don't mind. The determined ones bring back the head if there is any kind of rack. A state park, some rock-hounding, several homes in the gap between the big ones to the right (rugged) and the little (gentler). Kinda remote, more than half an hour away from a loaf of bread. Beyond the mountains gets you to Texas eventually, with miles of salt flats in the way.

West: Red Mountain some 20 miles west, so called to differentiate it from Black Mountain, not in the pix. Black Mt. has a lot of lava rock which lends the color. Red Mt. has, um, dirt and rocks. Beyond the mountain Arizona a couple hours away. We have prevailing west winds all year long and in the Spring, when the land is pretty dry, we get strong west winds pushing dust that will close highways, local roads, even the interstate (I-10) and bring us a lot of Arizona real estate (airborne). The dust storms are enough to make grown men cry, women tremble, children run and hide, dogs to bark and horses to bolt in sheer panic.

A local joke: one day the wind stopped blowing and all the chickens fell over. 

 

 

 

 

DOWN AROUND MY PLACE

I live down in by the border in New Mexico. Sometimes it is bleak, sometimes the magnitude of the landscape is amazing. Having a sixty mile horizon can humble a person. Sunsets can be a gift from God if the skies are a bit cloudy.

The Native Americans, we call them "Indians" since that's what they call themselves, they can get real spiritual here. The Anglos, sometimes referred to as Gringos, the land could break their hearts. The Hispanics, mostly Mexicans, they get called Meskins but not in a derogatory way. They're more used to the environment down here. When I think about it, what we call each other gets pushed aside since there are Mexicans that go back three or four generations and Anglos that grew up side by side with them, fighting Nature, rejoicing it, simply being ordinary folks. During WWII all the able-bodied men went to war and none of them were even aware of ethnic differences. They were Americans.    

I can't imagine what the Spanish monks and Conquistadores must have felt back in the 1600s. Humble maybe.

One feeling I want to convey is the vast flat hostile terrain. Distance perception is warped. Look at a thing and think it is close and it is 20 miles away. It must have broken many settlers or soldiers that had to travel. "Oh, look honey, there's the mountains" and they'd see them all day for a week before getting to the foothills. Twenty-five miles a day was typical unless the mule died or a wheel came unstuck or some Injuns objected to the intrusion.

 I used a Canon Power Shot SD770, one of those PHD (push here dummy) cameras that fit in pocket or purse and do well for us grabbing quick pictures at Eastern Star meetings. The Brocker likes it because she don't have to do anything more than point and click the thing. I use the macro function when I take pictures of some of my shootin' irons. I think I screwed up the setting for these three pictures. I got into the settings, chose the little mountain icon that means landscape, or infinite or something and the shots came out clear but the color washed. Hmph, where's Eisenstein or Arbus when ya need 'em? Anyway I will go back to the default normal standard typical chimpanzee settings and leave my creativity at home. Using a camera is not something I want to go to school on. I left these pictures high resolution so you can clip 'em from me. Send ten dollars as a courtesy, er, fer each pic.

 

Well pump: out here nothing grows unless you water it. Unless you count the cactus which will grow anywhere, anytime. When SHTF, never mind gold coins or SUVs or even ammo, water trumps all else. Unless you use the ammo to steal the water, but it would be a fight to the death. I gots the rambles, hang on: Our water table was maybe 90' twenty years ago until some farmers got too clever and planted alfalfa, they can get three mebbe four cuttings a year, and the water table fed from underground aquifers that originate in Colorado, the level dropped to 250-300'. When the county proposed putting meters on the wells they were considered as Revenuers and you know what happens to them.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This guy powers his pump with electric, most common, and he has a diesel back up. There are a lot of windmills around here and none of them are painted all kindsa queer colors. They are working windmills that usually keep cattle tanks topped up. Some are used for household. Interesting, when you scan the landscape wherever you see trees there is water. Believe me, 40' trees do stand out in all the busted-ass flatlands. Older technology has ditches along the borders of the fields and a siphon system conveying into open furrows along the crop lines. This is of course inefficient due to evaporation but cheap and simple. Think: 100 year old method. Newer fields have underground drip lines, soakers. A lot of the ground, you have the topsoil, a foot or foot and a half, and then you got caliche, which everyone down here thinks is a clay but it is, of course, calcium carbonate which binds clay, sand, rocks, beer cans, whatever into a miserable hard heart-breaking (back-breaking too) layer which discourages digging. Them poor bastards a hunnert years ago would have all they could do to scratch out seed furrows let alone dig down. Of course when you get past about a yard down it clears up some. Imagine doing work like that in hundred degree weather with the wind blowing and the 'yotes got your chickens and the mule is on a hunger strike and pa, pa, junior got bit by a rattler and ... um, rambling, yes.

When I first came down here I admit I was a bit prejudiced toward the migrant workers, lined up in the grocery store to buy a bag of fried chicken and a six pack to have on the shuttle bus back across the border. Then I laid hundreds of feet of 2" PVC for computer communications, had to bury it 18" and a dinky little Ditch Witch to help; I erected a few service masts and so forth ... you see the punchline don't you? My attitude changed for these migrant workers out there all day picking chiles, cotton, melons, onions, and other truck farm veggies all day every day hunnert degrees and wind and scorpions and caustic all over their hands they don't even wipe the sweat or they'll go blind. Sigh, learned a huge lesson in giving respect where it is earned.

Some local mountains: 20-30 miles away, of some minor fame and attraction; ibex, some cats, goats, there are some caves, misguided miners thought the hills were full of gold, bust yer ass for six months and end up with an ounce. One town guy killed his wife, bashed her head in with a table lamp (maybe the winds drove him nuts, like in France when they got the Mistrals and murder is exempt from capital punishment, under Napoleonic Law IIRC, anyways he wraps her body in some carpeting and carries her up in the Floridas mountains and dumps her in an abandoned shaft. Problem was, the parcel got stuck about 20 feet down and it was not long before it was discovered and gave the fuzz evidence to convict the mook. He was all "What? what? She up and ran off on me" and people figured, he's such an asshole anyway she prolly did. Until they found the rug-wrapped corpse. Some Boy Scouts or something, up there sneaking around, gonna go down the mine shaft just like their Scoutmaster told them never ever to do. Also rumors of finding small cannons and gold stashed by Conquistadores travelling through. Rumors.

 

Irrigation: water being the lifeblood of the area, many different methods of irrigation for the crops. Here a wheel configuration, pivots in a 200 foot circle or so, well at the center. Be interesting overhead, see the green circles and dead zone all around the perimeter.

 

There will be the rest of the story in a day or two.
 

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SERMON on the MOUNT Matthew 5

I'm going to post this in three installments. There's a lot of content and it is not to be skimmed over. Those of us with God in our lives won't feel uncomfortable. Any of you readers that do not have a spiritual alignment, please read anyway. I don't want to hear minds slamming shut on this stuff. Think of what is being said in terms of Universal Truths. Put these words into some context that you feel comfy with. Don't worry, ain't nobody gonna jump out and brainwash you, make you sell flowers in airports; you won't have to drink any Kool-Aid or anything.

Matthew 5-7   New King James Version (NKJV)

 

The Beatitudes

5 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. ² Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    For they shall be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    For they shall inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    For they shall be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    For they shall obtain mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    For they shall see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    For they shall be called sons of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
    For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. ¹² Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
 

Believers Are Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Christ Fulfills the Law

¹⁷ “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. ¹⁹ Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Murder Begins in the Heart

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. ²³ Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵ Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. ²⁶ Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

Adultery in the Heart

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Marriage Is Sacred and Binding

³¹ “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³² But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

Jesus Forbids Oaths

³³ “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ ³⁴ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Go the Second Mile

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. ⁴⁰ If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. ⁴¹ And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴² Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Love Your Enemies

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

On to Chapter 6