Beloved,
Nearly 80 years ago, in the sands near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, a shepherd boy found a sealed jar. Inside were thirteen ancient codices — over fifty texts hidden for sixteen hundred years. Books like the Gospel of Thomas, the Secret Book of John, the Book of Thomas the Contender, the Exegesis on the Soul, and the Authoritative Teaching.
They are not Scripture as you and I know it, but they are a mirror. And that mirror speaks with startling clarity to our own time, to the tired habit so many of us carry of living on excuses, pointing outward, and refusing to own the path HaShem has placed before us.
The message of these books is simple and piercing: we have fallen into a deep sleep of forgetfulness. The world, with all its noise and powers, tells us to blame fate, to blame our upbringing, to blame the system, to blame others. But inside every one of us is still an indestructible spark of the Living Father. Liberation does not come from an outside excuse. It comes from an inside awakening, gnosis, a true, living knowledge of who you really are and Whose you are.
The kingdom is already inside you. The only thing keeping you from it is the refusal to look.
The Sleep We Choose: When Ignorance Becomes Our Excuse
The Secret Book of John tells a story that feels painfully modern. It says an ignorant power named Yaldabaoth cast humanity into deep darkness and bound us with "a chain of forgetfulness and ignorance." From that forgetfulness came "every iniquity and injustice... and great fears."
Doesn't that sound like the life built on excuses? "I can't because of my past." "It's not my fault." "They made me this way." When we live that way, we wrap ourselves, as the text says, in "the garment of the interior of Hades." It is not that we are too weak. It is that we have agreed to stay asleep.
But hear the encouragement hidden right there in that same book. In the middle of that darkness, the divine Forethought calls out to the sleeper:
"Arise, and remember that it is you who has heard, and follow your root... And guard yourself against the angels of poverty and the demons of chaos and all those who ensnare you. And be watchful of the deep sleep."
Dear friend, you have already heard. That little tug in your heart as you read this that is the remembrance. The direction is so practical: Arise. Remember who you are. Guard your heart. Stay watchful. No one else can wake up for you while you choose to sleep.
The First Act of Responsibility: Know Yourself
This is where Yehoshua's voice in the Gospel of Thomas thunders with love:
Logion 3: "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds will precede you... Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."
And again:
Logion 70: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
This dismantles every outward excuse. Not the leaders, not the government, not your family history, not the culture can bring the kingdom to you. The work begins when you finally have the courage to hold the mirror up.
The Book of Thomas the Contender says it like a pastor to his own flock: "Examine yourself, and learn who you are, in what way you exist, and how you will come to be... For he who has not known himself has known nothing."
There is no more room for, "That's just how I am." Today, while you still have time in this world, you are invited to examine, to own, to bring forth. HaShem has already planted the good inside you. Your responsibility is to bring it forth.
The Two Great Traps: Ignorance and Ease
The Exegesis on the Soul tells of a soul who wandered, prostituting herself to everything the world offered, until she finally woke up. How did she wake up? Not with more excuses. She woke up with repentance. She sighed. She confessed. She wept over the years spent in darkness. The text says, "The beginning of salvation is repentance."
Excuses keep us dirty because they refuse to name what is true. Accountability cleanses us because it tells the truth in the depths where God is listening. God does not hear a performance. He examines "our inner selves and the bottom of our heart."
And the Authoritative Teaching names our greatest enemies with two simple words: "ignorance and ease."
Ignorance says, "I don't need to seek God. I don't need to ask where I truly belong." And ease says, "Don't struggle. Stay comfortable. Don't contend." My dear friends, ease is the soft bed where excuses grow. Accountability will never grow there.
The Invitation: Practical Steps to Walk Out of Sleep
The teachings of Jesus do not leave us in abstraction. They call us to action, and that action is profoundly dignified.
Here is the awakening path:
1. Stop outsourcing the kingdom. Stop waiting for a perfect pastor, a perfect government, a perfect spouse, or a perfect past to make you whole. Turn inward. The Father's image is already within you.
1. 2. Examine yourself without blame. In prayer today, ask: Where have I used an excuse to protect myself from truth? Where do I need to cast the beam out of my own eye before I look at another?
3. Bring forth what is within you. You have a gift, a light, a piece of the Kingdom that only you can bring forth. What you hide will haunt you. What you bring forth in obedience will save you. Start small. One honest act today. Practice holy watchfulness. Excuses will come back. That old sleep is heavy.
When it returns, hear that voice again: "Arise and remember." Arise again. And again. Grace is not a one-time waking; it is the power to wake up every time you fall asleep.
A Final Word From My Heart to Yours
Dearest Loving Faithful,
I have walked with many who carried heavy loads of excuses, some for years, some for decades. I have seen the quiet sorrow that settles when a soul keeps pointing outward and never turns the mirror inward.
These codices from Nag Hammadi do not scold us. They hold up a lamp and gently say, "Open your eyes."
If you have spent seasons blaming the past, the people around you, or the weight of circumstances, hear this as a firm but loving word from a fellow traveler: the door to freedom swings on the hinge of personal responsibility. No one else can walk through it for you.
And here is the beautiful encouragement: the moment you take even one honest step — confessing the excuse, examining your own heart, bringing forth the good that HaShem planted inside you; you will discover that mercy has been waiting longer than your denials ever lasted.
You are not a product of the archons' chains. You are not an accident of history. You are a child of the Living Father who has forgotten, and who can now remember. So I am praying for you today. Not that life would suddenly become easy, but that you would awaken to the dignity of your calling.
Arise. Know yourself. Own your path. Walk in the Light.
The Father who placed His image in you is still speaking, still calling, still ready to meet the soul that finally stops making excuses and starts walking home.
Walk in Faith, go in His grace and know that YOU are loved,
Pastor Mark