>Tell me, what do you think of the Pope?


He is a sinful man, like all of us, in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ through repentance to be saved.

There are some teachings of Jesus which come to mind:
Matthew 23:8-11 - "8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant."

And Mark 15:37-39 - "37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God."

The veil was the divider between the Holy of Holies, and the rest of the temple. Only the High Priest could go in there and make an offering unto God, and only once per year. But when Jesus died, the veil was torn in two from top to bottom, signifying there are now no barriers between God and man, through the man Jesus Christ.

Jesus said on the cross, "It is accomplished," meaning He had saved men, He had taken on their sin, and He was now dying to pay the price of our sin. Jesus died, went to Hell, and on the third day rose again and ascended into Heaven where He forever lives, an eternal sacrifice for our sins, that we may live eternally.

All men upon this Earth are in the same boat: We are born sinners, and until we receive Jesus Christ into our hearts, God's condemnation already rests upon us. But the instant we receive Him we are eternally redeemed, we are saved. We still have struggles here in this world. We still stumble and fall because of our sinful flesh, and the many spiritual enemies which are working in an attempt to steal away our victory. But God is able to save to the uttermost, and He is able to rescue us from these temptations and traps when we press in to Him continually, in prayer, in faith, seeking diligently and truthfully to be His servant. He will never place more upon us than we can bear up under, and He always provides a way out of every temptation of sin.

The Pope needs Jesus, the same as you and I need Jesus. We are all Brethren (those who believe in Jesus Christ, and follow His teachings, and obey His commandments). And Jesus told us, "We will know them by their fruit." And whereas Ephesians 4:11 and I Corinthians 12 indicate that, just as there are different parts of our body, there are different roles for people in the body of Christ, we are all still the same body, the body of Christ, if indeed we are. If we try to graft ourselves on artificially, such as by gluing on a missing toe ... that doesn't make it part of the body, for only a toe can be a toe, no matter how much the prosthetic might outwardly look like a toe. The body knows what is of the body, and what is foreign.

All people who believe in Jesus are brothers (and sisters) in Christ. We serve the same God, being led by the same spirit (His Holy Spirit), and all people everywhere will be transformed by the renewing of their mind under the spiritual influence of His Holy Spirit, so that we will become more and more like His Son, Jesus, in the way we live, teach, walk, and do. It is a process called sanctification and for some of us hard-headed sinners it takes a long time for us to become transformed, and we stumble many times, but it is an ongoing process from within, one where God meets us where we are and leads us on that straight and narrow path unto Him, forever.

God's guidance in our lives is absolutely essential. We are totally lost, totally blind, totally naked, totally without hope, totally depraved without His presence in our lives. And because we who are that way before coming to know Jesus Christ are still following a leading spirit, the devil and all of his anti-Christ ways, we won't even know it. All things we think we do are justifiable in our own eyes, in the eyes of our fellows, even within our own minds, because our minds are tied to the flesh without God's Holy Spirit to lead us to truth, and they believe falsely as through the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where sin first came in. Ever since we have known both "good and evil," because they ate from the tree of "The Knowledge of Good and Evil," whereas before they knew only good.

Jesus, in Revelation, says it this way, to the members of a church, no less, imagine how much worse those who profess not to believe, Revelation 3:17-22, "17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

Jesus advises us to seek of Him, and purchase of Him, and gain proper white raiment that we may be clothed, salve for our eyes that we might see, and these being of His kind, of the spiritual kind, without which we are lost.

We all have an appointment with eternity. "It is appointed once for a man to die, and then the judgment." Where we will spend eternity depends on whether or not we received the spirit of truth here upon this Earth, accepted Him, accepted Jesus as our Savior, were saved and born again of the Spirit, that we may enter in to Heaven forever. Or not.

Many more are they which are going to Hell, than are going to Heaven. Do not be one of them. Seek to find Him while it is still called "today". Ask Him to be your God, your Savior, your Redeemer, and your Teacher here upon this Earth, that you might walk the streets of gold, wanting for nothing, in His Holy, Brilliant, Loving presence, forever, knowing only peace, love, and joy, with all of God's enemies having been put down forever, being restored to the beautiful three-fold beings God created you to be (soul, body, spirit).

May the Lord bless you to understand, and keep you as you seek Him in your life.

Peace.