Who is my Family?


Introduction:

There is tremendous loneliness present in millions of American people, and no doubt people all over the planet.  Hundreds of millions of people experience loneliness on a regular basis, perhaps billions.  Much of what the west calls, "modern life", promotes and encourages human loneliness.  As the wealth of any group of people increases, the individuals who make up the group tend to become more selfish in order to hold onto what they have.  When people see no natural need for each other - natural meaning assistance with providing food, clothing or shelter or protection from natural threats - they will tend to pull even further away from each other.  Even without material wealthy, people are just fearful and mistrusting and usually do not extend trust (or in reality, love) to anyone but their blood or legal relatives.  Add to that electronic entertainment and the shallowness of short little snippets of electronic communication, and you have what you have in America and many other nations... people no longer sharing their lives in any significant way at all, nor even having significant communications.  The concept of "community" in the U.S. is little more than a housing development or houses located near each other...the people are certainly NOT 'communing' together.

Do you, dear reader, have a true friend in your life who really knows you well - who knows who you truly are- and who will stick with you no matter what?  Truly 'no matter what'...not just some difference of opinion you might have with them or an argument or minor inconvenience like losing a job and needing to live somewhere for a while.  'No matter what' would include you being falsely accused of something - or wrongly disliked or hated - and being rejected from all of your existing 'social circles' and your friend being excluded as well from all their existing 'social networks'.  Would your friend be willing to walk alone with you and lose all the relationships you both hold important including your natural families?

That would be a love that would be real...a love that is working and functioning properly when this happens...

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.."

John 15:18-19

Please read the above in context.  He means what he says, and he says the same thing in John 17.  If we have become disciples - that it if we have been born from above, had our spirit made alive, and have entered into faith in Joshua and the Father HE reveals - then we have in fact been "chosen out of the world".  Again, the world is the people who don't believe Joshua or who use their religion to create a 'Jesus' that blesses what THEY want.  When we stop 'living' in the world - which is to say we take off the rose colored glasses and start to see things has they really are (according to our new Standard, Joshua's teachings) - we will become different and we will speak the truth about things...about religioin and politics and laws and economic systems and educational systems etc.  And we will be hated for saying essentially, 'the world that you are a part of is evil...please leave it and come follow the Light with us'.  This is what Joshua teaches about this world we live in and the people of the earth.

Please listen to Joshua as he focuses on one of the two primary obstacles that people face when it comes to either truly following him or some version of not truly following him...one's natural or legal family...

 

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to 'SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD'. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent me."

Matt 10:34-39

 

If anyone comes to me and does not put second his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.    And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.."

Luke 14:26, 33

 

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go. "And Joshua said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." And he said to another, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But he said to him, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." Another also said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home." But Joshua said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is not fit for the kingdom of God..."

Luke 9:57-62

 

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first."

Matthew 19:29-30

 

“While he was still speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to him. Someone said to him, 'Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you.' But Joshua answered the one who was telling him and said, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward his disciples, he said, “Behold my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Matt. 12:46-50

So, what is unclear about these teachings of the Light?  Those sayings apply to all people of all times and are a primary part of the "difficult way" the Light speaks of.  There are few natural families where the parents and sibling truly love one another...very few.  If you have a natural relative that truly loves you, then you are fortunate, but if they are not doing the Father's will, then they are still not part of Joshua's Family.

So, we must ask ourselves, 'Who is our Family'?  Furthermore, we must answer with truth and courage.  Our "family" is those people we spend the majority of our time with and whom we live together with and share our lives with.  It is really that simple.  Are you willing to admit that your family is NOT other disciples of Joshua?

Who will love me and care for me and walk with me in the Life Joshua speaks of after I am rejected by my natural family for loving and believing Joshua?  Those who refuse to listen to Joshua, the One who knows love?  Those who substitute shallow bible/christian religion and its occasional shallow meetings with people you are NOT sharing your lives with, for true love?

Don't you want to experience his Life among real people who are actually living like real brothers and sisters and thus sharing their daily lives, all that they have and their Father's work?

Listen again, but carefully with a heart to receive the Son, for you have just read the answer:

“And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Behold my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Matt. 12:46-50

The will of the Father is to listen to and follow the Son and make others who listen to the Father through the Son our Family!

The reader might ask, 'are you saying that I have to leave, turn my back on, forsake my family in order to follow Joshua?' The answer is no, I don't say that, rather Joshua says that, you just read his words, remember?  However, if others are also willing to follow HIM instead of play church in christian and bible religion, then we have the hope of seeing this come to pass in our lives when on this earth:

 

“Joshua said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”

Matt. 12:46-50

Or, we can continue to deceive ourselves and play 'church'...we can trade that which is eternal (love) for that which is temporal (religious rituals or shallow social clubs).

Yes, it is true that others need to also obey these teachings of Joshua for the "hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms" to come to pass.  But look at the reward for faithfulness - "and in the age to come, eternal life".  To seek after something less, or to settle for something less means we would have to be unfaithful to the Father and thus be disobedient to His Son.  What should we expect if we are unwilling to do what the Father through the Son asks?  To be rewarded?  Why would we not do what is necessary to help all the people around us destroying themselves and their lives and living for foolish things and missing out on the Life of love?

How can you find a new Family on earth to fulfill the new command with?  How can you avoid the self-made pain, emptiness and futility that comes to those who hear the Words of the Son, yet refuse to obey and instead participate in the counterfeit that people call 'church'? By being willing to DO this:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, IF you love one another."

John 13:34-35

By the love of God you will experience through other disciples as you partake of a little flock and walk along the narrow Way together.  Not only will you have true friendship, companionship and love, but you will then be in a place to be used by the Father to reproduce more children and members of His Family and thus have God's love spread to others where you are.

And what work will the Family members do?  Then Joshua came to them and said:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.   Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matt. 28:18-20

The Words of the Light of the world above mean what they say.  Are we willing to receive them and thus his Father, himself and each other?

Before we can walk after Him, we must truly let go of everything in this life that holds us back from total surrender and abandonment to the Father's Son and His plain commands.  This is especially true of two things:

1. Our religious (or 'church') beliefs, ideas, practices and traditions;

2. Our natural and legal families and relatives.

We can't follow Joshua and at the same time be part of the counterfeit christian religious system which explains away his commands and works quite hard at nullifying them.

Nor can we follow Joshua and be with (hang out with, have as our friends) those who refuse to also follow Joshua.

Nor can we follow Joshua and maintain good relationships with those who refuse to follow him, unless we ignore him (do not confess him before men, speak his Words consistently and do what he says), and if we ignore him, we do not love him.

If we seek to love one another as he commands, we cannot do that alone - we must seek out other true disciples, and share our lives and start to serve him together.  We must not deceive ourselves by hanging around people taking the label 'christian', but who will not actually make Joshua their leader.  Joshua plainly says, "If you love me, obey my commands." (John 14:15)  So many use as an excuse to not follow Joshua, 'well, these other christians (or natural family members) need help, so I'll stay around and love them by trying to get them to see'.  This is merely another popular justification for not following Joshua. In response to this excuse, Joshua says...


"As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' Joshua replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.' He said to another man, 'Follow me.' But the man replied, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father.'  Joshua said to him, 'Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.'  Still another said, 'I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good bye to my family.'  Joshua replied, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God'."

Luke 9:57-62

Whose 'love' is true?  Joshua' and those people obeying him out of love for him, or the person disobeying Joshua out of supposed 'love' for others? Oh, the so many who forsake Joshua and his Family, and instead cling to the world (especially christian religion) and those natural or legal relatives who refuse to follow Joshua as he defines it.  It is not what we say we believe, but rather what we do that defines us, and we are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

The Creator's primary will is that people love one another as His Son defines it.  That cannot happen unless those who claim to follow Joshua obey his new command.  The truth is, if YOU refuse to forsake those people or things that are keeping YOU from obeying the new command and thus first living with and for other followers of Joshua, then YOU don't love Joshua, not matter how much you deny that or fight against its truth.  You cannot be part of the desperately needed Peaceful Revolution unless you can find the strength, courage and love to DO what Joshua says!

Do you desire to be "fit for service in the kingdom of God"?  If you desire to love your Father back, then please contact us, and become part of the Peaceful Revolution and one of Joshua's Families!

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