The Book of Matthew

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus speaks with wise teachings to either His disciples or others as He teaches and heals.

     This could have been me! What do His words tell me? 

 

Chapter 4 - “Repent... “Come and follow Me.” 

Chapter 5 – “Blessed are you when people say evil against you because of me.” -  “Rejoice and be glad...your reward is in heaven.”  - “You are the salt of the earth...but if it loses it saltiness, it is no longer good for anything.” – “Love your enemies and pray for them.” – “Do not swear, simply say yes or no.” 

Chapter 6 – “When you give to the needy, do not announce it.” – “When you pray, close the door, and pray to the Father, who is unseen.” – “Pray, ‘Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed by thy name.’ ” – “If you forgive others, your Heavenly Father will forgive you.” – “Do not worry, but first seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness.” – “You cannot serve both God and money.”  

Chapter 7 - “Do not judge, or you will be judged.” - “First, look at the speck in your own eye, before looking at the speck in your brother’s eye.” - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” 

Chapter 8 - Jesus heals - “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” 

Chapter 9 - “Your faith has healed you.” - “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” 

Chapter 10 - “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it...you will be given what to say.”– “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul...be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” - “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” – “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  

Chapter 11- “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” 

Chapter 12 - “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” 

Chapter 13 - “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” 

Chapter 14 - “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Chapter 15 - “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what come of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 

Chapter 16 - “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” 

Chapter 17 - “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there.’ And it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

Chapter 18 - “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Chapter 19 - “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” - “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” 

Chapter 20 - “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave -just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Chapter 21- “Have you never read, From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise.” 

Chapter 22 - “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Chapter 23 - “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. Al the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Chapter 24- “Watch out that on one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.” - “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” 

Chapter 25 “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” 

Chapter 26 - “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

Chapter 27 - “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, and gave up His spirit

Chapter 28- “Go...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you... I will be with you to the very end of the age.” 

 

The Light

In our modern day homes, it is so easy to flip a switch. How about in our life? 

The Light 

 

When it gets dark, I itch to flip a switch.

I need the light for me to see;

It’s a diffuser for the chooser-

One of changing the dimming light to one that is bright.

There is no need to let the dark sneak in and kiss my cheek.

The dark is only a temporary glitch, for I can flip a switch,

When the heart is weighed down with a frown.

I can be led by laughter, instead.

There is no need for evil to abound within the day.

I can go the other way.

I need not let my light become a nasty darkened blight.

I need not let the dark dim my spark.

It’s the light, not the strife, that makes a happy life.

It’s the light that lifts the spirit, not the darkness with fear in it.

It’s the light that makes the joy flow, not the dark that creeps in slow.

For the dark there’s a fix;

A switch to solve this glitch.

Just look to the Light!

And, God is Light!

 

Mary Crisp Jameson  4/10/2026 

 

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 NIV

 

Symbolic Youth Part 2

This is a follow-up on my poem about Symbolic Youth. I needed so comfort myself with my on-coming gray-hair days, so I looked up scriptures pertaining to age. They are as follows: 

 

Proverbs 16:31 “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.” 

Proverbs 20:29 “The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the spendor of the old.” 

Isaiah 46:4 “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have

    made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue.”

Ruth 4:15a “He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.” 

Leviticus 19:32 “Stand up in the presence of the aged, and show respect for the elderly and

    revere your God. I am the Lord.”

Job 12:12 “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long-life bring understanding?” 

1 Timothy 5:1-2 “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. 

    Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger sisters, with absolute

    purity.” 

Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  

Job 32:7 “I thought, ‘Age should speak; advanced year should teach wisdom.’”

 

 

 

Symbolic Youth

Ecclesiastes 11:10 tell us, “So then banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.” According to the author of my Bible Study, we are to just get on with living no matter the age. I have to add here that, “God’s got this!” --meaning the youth or the old-age thing. 

Symbolic Youth

 

As a youth I was complacent about half trust,

Just marking time to be grown and out on my own.

I was living life in its simple form which was a teenager’s norm.

Then life took place, and being older didn’t offer so much grace.

I looked back to my teen years and found myself in tears.

I began raging over this process of aging.

When did these gray hairs grow in?

What made this double chin?

My face has sprinkles of wrinkles.

My body is beginning to creak and groan,

And my forearms are no longer toned.

The sagging skin around my knees, I no longer wish to be bared,

 and my hearing is impaired.

My hair is thinning, and I am no longer grinning.

I am getting forgetful, and it’s making me fretful.

Oh, how I long for those teenage years with no debts in arrears.

And where, oh where, are the days of my youth,

When I had legs that were strong and could run,

When I had no cancerous skin from the sun,

When I had less hair that is white,

When I had better eye-sight,

When I had more teeth to number,

Less time needed for slumber, 

And when I had no pain from a walk down the lane?

Where, oh where, are those carefree days as, into the mirror, I gaze?

 

Mary Crisp Jameson  4/7/2026

 

“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name...who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:1,5 NIV 

 

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find pleasure in them’ - before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop...” Ecclesiastes 12: 1-3a NIV

Mercy

I stumble often. I am so glad that God has mercy and forgives me. I know this because of Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” 

     But just what is mercy? And shouldn’t I show mercy just as God shows mercy? The dictionary’s definition is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.”  I read another definition as “undeserved forgiveness and unearned kindness.” 

     I took the word “Mercy” and did the following acronym to show what I need to do to have mercy toward someone. 

 

M aking a space in the heart for undeserved forgiving

E ntertaining love for one you need to forgive

R ecognizing the need to forgive 

C losing the book on the deed done in order to forgive

Y ielding up pride in order to forgive

 

    The only way to be able to have mercy is, first, to pray about it. Let God do a work in me. 

 

 

The Empty Tomb- Passing Through

The Empty Tomb -Passing Through

I have often heard and even said, “We are just passing through.” There is truth to that and an example was given:  

     When I look at the example Jesus gave me, I find ways to live my life that have meaning; whereas, if I live in my fleshly nature, I find as Solomon said, “All is meaningless!” However, with God and belief in Jesus, I find what gives peace and comfort to my “passing through.” 

     Jesus’s example in His “passing through” was in His earthly walk, and in the empty tomb. He arose and went to be with His Father, making clear that all who believe in Him will also rise to be with the Father in eternity. While in His earthly human form, He was just passing through.

     I will, one day, experience this when my soul leaves my body to enter a new doorway of life and will, one day, receive my heavenly body and my earthy tomb will be empty! I was only, on earth, passing through.

    

The Yoke

I think of a yoke as a heavy load or a burden. AI says that “a yoke was primarily used to connect two draft animals (usually oxen) together in order to pull heavy loads.” 

     When I contemplate Matthew 11:29 (NIV), “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls,” I can’t help but think of the yoke of my sin that Jesus took onto His shoulders at the cross.

     We all have yokes, like health issues, financial burdens, and laborious ones, but Jesus said, “take my yoke.” That means He will lighten the burden. 

     I suppose the paradox to that would the fact that we are a restless people, especially, if we don’t put God first and have Him in our lives. Without Him, we are seeking, searching, yearning, and creating heavy labor and burdens.

     We can, however, enjoy what labor we have. I, personally like to be busy. I enjoy my labor as long as it is not burdensome. One author I read used a phrase, “wear out rather than rust out.”  I do not believe I will wear out or rust out if I just rely on God. It is good to be yoked to God. He lightens my burdens. 

     I am so thankful Jesus took my yoke of sin, and He is still willing to lighten my load, give me His love and rest for my soul.