Would you listen?

If Jesus were to give a sermon in your church today, would you pay attention? Or would you be too busy listening to the other teacher(s)? (Thank you, Doug for pointing that out to me)

Jesus said He was the only teacher.

Jesus told us to follow Him (not anyone else).

And He said that He spoke His Father’s words and followed His Father’s commandments.

Do you?

And if you don’t… who are you following and why?

Jesus taught us about conduct of life and spirituality. He taught us God’s Love Rules. He explained why they are important. 

And He lived according to these rules to show us how it is done.

Thank you Jesus, I love you for your sacrifice. I love you for your exemplary life and for the example you set for us to live a sinless and love-filled life.

Conversations with a family member about what is meant when we’re told to ‘invite Jesus into our hearts’ motivated me to study the Bible in-depth. 

The answer to this question was not readily available and inspired me to continue with my Bible studies. 

In the process, five common Christian myths were busted and I discovered what true love is all about.

I’ve bundled my findings in ‘The Truth, Love & God Series’ and just launched book three in this trilogy; ‘The Core Message of the Bible in a Few Pages – God’s Love Rules: The Truth About The Good News (The Truth, Love & God series Book 3).’

I’m always eager for genuine and constructive feedback.
You can contact me on my website www.mimiemmanuel.com.

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MY BOOKS AND A FREE VIDEO COURSE – To download a copy of MY STORY OF SURVIVAL click here. For a copy of MIMI’S BOOK LAUNCH PLAN, click here. For a copy of GOD HEALED ME click here. For a copy of THE HOLY GRAIL OF BOOK LAUNCHING click here.  For a free video course on how to write a bestseller, click here. To join my launch party click here.

NEW BOOKS RELEASES, INTERVIEWS, AND REVIEWS – As a member of the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance and as a member of the Christian Indie Authors Reading Group and as the current Administrator of  Christian Authors Worldwide, This is FUN! Mimi’s Launch Party and co-administrator of OMEGA nonfiction writers I share new book releases, interviews and reviews with my readers. Stay tuned!

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all rights reserved copyright myemmanuel 2020

Mary and the alabaster box.

Her sins are forgiven for she loved much.

Some say that there are a couple of different eye witness accounts of the event of “Mary and the alabaster box” in the Bible. We think that there may be four versions. The first account is by Matthew, the second by Mark and we believe the third and fourth accounts are given by Luke and John. Have a read and see what you think for yourself.

Dr James Tabor who is Professor of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina (Christian origins and ancient Judaism) has an interesting blog post on Mary for those who like to read a more in-depth study on the different versions.

What we know is, that when Jesus says that we’ll be remembering Mary, he isn’t talking about his mother. Jesus is talking about another woman called Mary and he says that “her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.”

Mary and the alabaster box

We love the story about Mary and the alabaster box so much that we decided to do a song about it. Years ago when we started to read the Bible in earnest we were so excited to discover GOD’s rule book. As in, pfew … there are indeed standards in place that we are supposed to live up to as lovers of GOD’s Word. And we were no less excited to find that, hey, there is forgiveness if you do the best you can and yet occasionally muck up.

Mary and the alabaster box
lyrics from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

She put the ointment of spikenard very costly.
She put it on his body for his burial.
Mary wrought a good work on Jesus.
Let her alone.
She done what she could.
Mary wrought a good work on him.
An alabaster box of very precious ointment.
She poured it on his head as he sat at meat.
She done what she could.
She wrought a good work on him.
Mary wrought a good work on Jesus.
Let her alone.
She done what she could.
Spikenard very costly.
With her hair she wiped his feet.
She did it for his burial.
It’ll be told for a memorial.

Matthew’s version

She hath wrought a good work upon me.

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.

When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

Mark’s version

Let her alone; why trouble ye her?

She hath done what she could.

And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

Luke’s version

Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much

Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?

And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

John’s version

Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

Jesus reiterated what the prophet Ezekiel told us centuries ago.

Scripture tells us about GOD’s grace and His forgiveness and long-suffering nature. On the Sabbath yesterday we listened to another excellent Torah Pearl hosted by Jono from TRUTH2U Radio with guests Keith Johnson and Nehemia Gordon. And one of the references which was mentioned with regards to God’s forgiveness is in Ezekiel where we are told that what counts is the actions we take today. What matters is not where we were or what we did in the past. What matters to the Creator of Heaven and Earth is who we are today. And the actions we take this very day is what determines our destiny.

Jesus prophesied that Mary’s actions would be remembered.

Jesus said, “this, that this woman hath done, shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” If we assume that the four different versions mentioned above all relate to the same event, then Jesus spoke about Mary the sister of Lazarus when he said these words. Jesus did not say that we’ll be remembering and honouring his mother who was also called Mary.

I want to make this distinction because I was raised a Catholic. As a Catholic I was taught to pray to Mary the mother of Jesus. This meant for me that I kneeled down in Catholic churches in front of mother Mary statues. As a child, on my way to school,  I would often walk into the church, light some candles in front of a mother Mary statue and kneel down on a pew before I’d say my ‘Hail Marys’. This is all right and proper according to the Catholic faith.

During my childhood after we’d been to ‘Confession’ we were told by the priest to say a certain amount of ‘Hail Marys’ and ‘Holy Fathers,’ in order for our sins to be forgiven. The amount of these prayers depended on the multitude and size of our sins. I was educated by nuns. My sins were many, as you can imagine for any primary school aged kid, and therefore my affinity with Mary with the alabaster box great.

What did Jesus say about Mary?

What I am interested in today is not what the Catholic church says about who to remember and how, but what God’s Word and particularly Jesus himself says about remembering Mary (and the alabaster box). Jesus does not tell us to kneel in front of a statue of his mum and pray to her. Jesus tells us that we’ll remember Mary the sinner, a woman who made mistakes, just like I did as a child, and most of us still do a lot of the time.

The good part.

The great part about this event described in Scripture is that Jesus tells us that Mary did a good work, that she did what she could. and for the people around her to leave her alone and not criticise her actions. Mary is called a sinner, which shows us that she mucked up, and probably more than once. Yup, I can relate.
And this Mary anointed Jesus ahead of his burial, and kissed and washed His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Jesus says, don’t trouble this woman, she has done a good work on me.

We’re told by Jesus that we’ll remember a Mary who made mistakes but also loved much and had faith. She simply did what she could. And we’re told that because of her good work, love and faith,  her sins were forgiven and Jesus tells her to go in peace.

That means there is hope for all of us. And I reckon that is good news, if ever I heard any.

About loving one and other

The following joke by Emo Philips has been voted the funniest religious joke of all times.

Loving each other

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!”

He said, “Nobody loves me.”

I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”

He said, “A Christian.”

I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?”

He said, “Protestant.”

I said, “Me, too! What franchise?”

He said, “Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”

I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

Believers are commanded to love one and other

Believers are commanded to love one and other. The Commandments tell us this and Jesus summed it up just as His Father did, by saying, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

Jokes are usually funniest when they resemble real life. Many religious people find it easy to love each other when they are in agreement on the doctrine, but as soon as there is the slightest disagreement many of us are happy to threaten each other with hell fire.

My teacher taught me to continue loving people when I’m in disagreement with them too. In Scripture we are not asked to love each other, but we are ‘commanded’ to love one and other. Jesus said that his disciples can be recognised by the love they have for one and other.

And yet one of the scariest things for me is to share my love of Scripture with others. Why is it scary to share my love of Scripture particularly with other believers? Because many believers think that the only right way to believe is ‘their’ way. This is beautifully illustrated by Elmo’s joke as mentioned above.

The Bible tells me that God knows the heart and that we are not to judge each other. Many people turn away from religion because of the hypocrisy. Just the other day I read a lovely quote by a religious man who said that he ‘put all the books aside.’ And now his religion is  “Never be the source of anyone’s misfortune and never pass up the opportunity to perform a charitable deed.” That is all.  By Carl D’Agostino. I think that sums the teachings up just nicely.

A star rating is just someone’s opinion and beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The above joke by Elmo tells us that religion is no joke and that there is a lot of room for improvement. The following three scenarios highlight the inanity to expect others to see anything at all the same way as we do ourselves.

Scenario one

Whenever I go to Amazon books and read the reviews about any given book, it never ceases to amaze me how many different opinions are given for any particular book. Whilst many people may hit the five star button, there’s usually also a fair few who hit the one or two star button. And all that this shows me is that human beings tend to have different opinions about the same thing.

The five star opinion nor the one star opinion make the book necessarily a good or a bad book. The star rating is just a measure of someone’s opinion about the book.

Scenario two

A friend brought in her new puppy dog the other day and the neighbour’s child ran out crying after the puppy jumped up at her and licked her. The child thought that the dog attacked her whilst in reality the dog was trying to make a new friend.

A little later, whilst my daughter was sitting on the floor playing with the puppy, the child’s mum walked in and asked if this was a guide dog in training.

The first person thought that the puppy was an vicious monster, the mum thought that the dog was a guide dog and my daughter saw the same animal as a playmate. Could they all be right at the same time?

Scenario three 

Standing on the shore line one day my cousin pointed to a boat in the distance and said that he could see the coast guard. My brother who was standing next to him and expecting one of his sailor friends to drop by, insisted it was a yacht. His ten year old son peering through his new binoculars could only see a pirate ship.

All three of them were looking at the same boat at the same time.

Please don’t push me off the bridge

Considering the three above given scenarios; what makes us think that we are ever going to be in agreement over religion, denominations or churches, temples and synagogues? We all have different viewpoints and different religions, yet we are all human beings who share this planet and our stories in order to be of benefit to one and other.

I’ll be talking about God’s Word and how it has impacted my life and why it works for me and my family. What I have learned in the process is that everyone will give their own interpretation about their own religion or lack thereof. Yet in the end it is all about what is in a person’s heart.

I love GOD’s Word because it has given me a template to live by and it answers every single question I’ve ever had. I am very grateful and keen to share this with anyone who wants to hear because God’s Word kept me alive and has given me hope for a new life and new future and I know it will do the same for others too.
I am tentatively taking my first few new steps.

Please don’t push me off the bridge.

all rights reserved copyright myemmanuel 2014

Happiness And Love Are Closely Intertwined

Some people are always smiling and seemingly happy whilst others seem to struggle their way through life. After a few decades of hard slog combined with much good fortune and a fair drizzle of mishaps I think I got a little bit more of a handle on ‘it.’

Happiness and love are closely intertwined in that firstly it is never between you and ‘them’ but always between you and your Creator. Don’t worry about ‘them’, worry about your soul and your spirit being right with your God.
And secondly happiness is similar to love in that the perks and rewards are bundled in with the giving and not with the receiving.

My little ditty on happiness

This may not be a great eye opener to anyone but it inspired me to write the following little ditty on happiness.

Happiness quotes and the science of happiness

Check out these 101 happiness quotes compiled by Henrik Edberg and the Surprising Science of Happiness by Dan Gilbert on TED with more than 9 million views so far plus another nine inspiring talks on TED about What makes us happy?

Happiness is equal to or greater than the events of your life minus your expectation of how life should be.

Mo Gawdat says that Happiness is equal to or greater than the events of your life minus your expectation of how life should be. He elaborates on this in “Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Uncovering the Joy Inside You” by Mo Gawdat.

Despite acknowledging your happy list, the reason we are then often unhappy is because we are trained to look at the events of our life in a way that is not truthful leading Gawdat to determine the ‘675 model’.

The model states that there are six illusions that blur our view of the real world: thought (believing you are your thoughts), self (believing you are your body, emotions, beliefs, name, achievements, family or possessions), knowledge, time (thinking too much about the past or future), control and fear. 

Next, there are seven blind spots that make us miss the truth when we look at life: filtering, assuming, hunting, memories, labels, emotion and exaggerating. When we factor this into the equation, this is often how we see life events therefore blurring what those events actually mean.

“Fixing the six and the seven gets you to remove the reasons for your unhappiness,” he explains. “When you do that long enough, you start to realise it is silly because life mostly meets our expectations.”

Finally, there are five truths which we must accept: that now , change, love and death are all real as is the last truth: grand design, the belief that nothing is random and life generally follows patterns, laws, rules or science.

By considering the five truths, even if life events are harsh, they are not unexpected because they are simply the truths of life. 

“When you focus on these five truths, you feel happy most of the time,” Gawdat says. 

You can purchase Mo’s Book on Amazon.

Jimmy created BeHappy101.com

Jimmy created a website filled with resources to help people get happier. He also created a mathematical formula as follows,

Jimmy calls this the Happiness Formula. His site has all sorts of goodies such as “Happiness Builder Strategies” to create your happiest possible life!

Advice on Happiness from Life Hacker

Happiness is a choice.

At each moment of the day, you make a decision, whether you realize it or not. It’s the result of your attitude towards life. And whatever it is—positive or negative—it affects all the events, people, relationships, and basically whatever it is that you encounter in your life.

So, if you’re living a complicated life with so many things to do and no time for yourself, it’s your fault.
If you have exactly what you’ve wanted and are thankful for it every day, you’re the one to blame.
If you’re surrounded by negative people, have a job you hate and can’t even sleep at night because of the many thoughts that pop up in your head constantly, no one else is responsible for that but you.
If you’re doing what you love, work hard but still find time for yourself and those you love, it’s due to a choice you’ve made at some point.

But there’s good news. Whatever your situation is, you can change it.

Happiness is absolutely possible at any time, it’s free, doesn’t depend on age, looks, career or income. Everyone deserves it and it doesn’t need to be found, reached, created, or anything else that requires effort.
To read more about Life Hacker’s Happiness Formula you can visit their website.

all rights reserved copyright myemmanuel 2014