You don’t need to have a plan.

Valentine transformation

“You don’t need to have a plan and you do not need to know precisely what this new world will look like. You simply need to be willing to live by the Truth.” ACOL Treatise 3:16.2 pg 325

Our entire world is goal oriented. We are taught very early on that if we want to make it in this world we have to have a goal. And of course this makes perfect sense. If I want to write this blog I have to have the desire and the goal to do so. If I want to eat I better decide to go to the store and get some groceries. If I want to have a successful life—however that looks for me—It would be really good to know what it looks like and set up some plan to get from here to there.

Not having a plan does not mean not doing or not following through on desired means. It means doing without attachment to preconceived outcomes. To do and to let be.

Jesus also said: “If you keep on doing/obeying what I have said, you are truly my disciples. You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. Goal→Action→Outcome.

The only thing Jesus asked us to do is Love. Love God and our neighbor. If we keep on doing this every moment—that is the only time we can Love is in the moment—the outcome maybe exactly what we had planned OR it maybe something else entirely. But it will be the Truth of who we are and the situation right at that particular instant. Whether we like it or not is really irrelevant but it will be what it is. If we live what is, in love, in the moment without attachment to the next moments we will know the Truth and we will be free of all fear. There is no fear in love.

So can I Love this moment and the next and the next? Do I build on a foundation of love or one of fear? The project built on love each moment of the way will be the Truth of who you are. I do this with the knowledge that I don’t know precisely what this new world will be.

John 8.31-59 Some insights into the means to spiritual growth. 2

SRF Garden Sunset
(Spiritual Realization Fellowship)

I’ve decide to change the title of this series into a more positive approach, from obstacles into how to grow spiritually.

The last post on this topic pointed out that spiritual pride can get in the way of growing spiritually. So a good place to start our journey toward Oneness with God is in the Spirit of humility. That no matter what I have been told or how much I have read how many retreats or seminars I have attended I really don’t know anything.

The toughest pill to swallow is, Truth cannot be found in books or sermons. Truth can only be found in the doing. Then we will know for ourselves what the Truth is for me. Jesus points out that if you “obey what he has said” then we will know.

Enter Pontious Pilate: “What is the Truth”

Jesus’ answer: “Silence” So much can be said when we keep our mouths shut. It has always been a wonder to me that so much can be said about what we can’t explain. But we/I keep trying. Jesus tells us the Truth is discovered in the doing. Here is my verbal stab into the dark.

The end of attack. The actions are the flowering of the seeds of thought, the effects of a mental desire and the clouds which hide the Light of the Son of Heaven. Only Love is real. We may have gained some truth but truth without Goodness (action) is cold and dead. Truth without Goodness is attack. Truth and Goodness equal Love in action.

Yes there is only One Truth. It is Solid, the Cornerstone of Heaven, the Rock that people stumble over, unchangeable, unassailable and without compromise. However as the cornerstone or foundation is not the entire building Love and Goodness must be the building, the Fathers House. Love and Goodness can only stand on the Foundation of Truth. This is the Reality of Heaven.

Jesus could say he is the Way, the Truth and the Life because he was the full realization of God incarnate which is Love and Goodness. Love is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one can enter a heavenly life without Love. We leave all attack behind and enter the Gates of Heaven, here and now.

God is Love, God is Goodness, God is Truth and if we do theses things we will never die. We have moved from death into life.

We can only know the Truth when we do everything in Goodness and Love.

In these verses he says several times “I am doing only what my Father has shown me”(Love and Goodness). He points out the people have another father, not Abraham as they were told, in the physical, but in the spiritual realm they are offsprings of another thought system. The system of the world that believes in separation from God. Jesus came to teach them how to be one with God again but they have to leave their old thought system behind—their entire worldview actually—and do what Jesus says.

Is Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Life. He categorically denies his own Goodness/God. He never said he was Love. He did say he was the Light of the World and to follow him (do what he does) and we too will have the light that gives life. (Jn. 8.12) The Light of The World also tells us “we are the light of the world” (Matt 5.14) He is the way-shower illuminating our hearts and minds so we can be like him, One with God. (see John 17)

Now to leave you with the immortal words of poet and philosopher Leonard Cohen: When his audience answered in the affirmative that they wanted to know the secret, the truth of everything, he said: “de dom dom, de do dom dom”

I am a unique, special individualization of God

Birth

“I am a unique, special individualization of God, and my whole purpose for being is to be a vehicle, a channel, for the expression of my inner self….Remember I am here for one purpose only, and that is to find my way back to the Father’s house—to be the True Self-expression of the infinite.” The Superbeings

Yes back to the basics, the foundation of my life and Spiritual practice—”to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to me.” Jesus

There is no reason to be concerned about anything or how things will turn out. Even though I have ideas of how my life will unfold I must surrender ALL of them. That is what Jesus meant when he says; “all these things will be given to me.” Maybe they will come to me just as I planed and maybe not, who knows? “This or something better,” as the saying goes.

What I hear in this saying of Jesus is to picture how I want my life to go, how I want things to be, write it out in as much detail as I can imagine, desire it and own it in my mind’s eye—then Surrender the whole basket of good I can see, to God—give it up, let it go, and flow with life without a care in the world. Trust God completely in all things and for all things. I do those things put in front of me each day and be open to new inspiration and new direction with a surrendered heart and a clear mind trusting completely in God. No worries, no fears, not trying to force anything and in Peace and Joy look forward to “all these things being added to me.”

I walk thru life confidently and at Peace in the knowledge of the complete provision from God in every area of my life.

The source of my very life is God. There is no Life in my body, it is only a container energized by the Holy Spirit. This inner life is Perfect, Whole and Complete lacking in nothing.

To borrow from the Eagles:

I get a peaceful easy feeling whenever you are around because I know I’m already standing on Holy Ground.

I get this feeling that I know you as a lover and a friend, I hear this voice whisper in my other ear, I’m standing on Holy Ground.

Day 31 of The 40 Day Prosperity Plan

Borrego, Slot Canyon

Day 31 of The 40 Day Prosperity Plan

“God is lavish, unfailing Abundance, the rich, omnipresent substance of the universe. This All-Providing Source of infinite prosperity is individualized as me-The Reality of me.”

What else is there but God? It has been said that the difference between Jesus and us is that for Jesus there was only God. He saw no difference and no separation between him and his Father. He said; “I only do what I see the Father doing.” and “I don’t do anything on my own, the Father does all things through me.” also, “I and the Father are one.” For Jesus there was no other Life, no other relationship and saw only God in everything.

Some people in recent times have tried to ‘prove’ Jesus never existed or they say they are searching for the ‘historical Jesus’ a Jesus less than is recounted in the stories of the New Testament, a more human non miraculous being. They claim the Apostles made up, embellished and surrounded with superstition the actual person of Jesus.

But I think it would take a person or several, in this case, who were themselves at or above the consciousness level of the one they created to have had such a long standing effect upon the history of the world. How could a first grader just learning math write a fiction about such a person as Einstein. And if they made Him up or embellished the events why would they die for a fiction?

Of course there are many theologies written about Him; who he was and his actual relationship to God but these are mans attempts to understand someone incomprehensible. What did he mean when he said; “I and the father are one.”? The beauty of Jesus is that we can decide for ourselves. We don’t have to subscribe to any particular ideology. He does say we can do the same and greater things by following his example of relationship with the Source of all Life.

The only thing that mattered to him was God and then he said you go and do the same. When nothing else matters but God we to can write the ‘story’ of Jesus as expressed through me, “the Reality of me”

This is the Word/Substance becoming flesh in us.

God’s giving without measure

God only does one thing-Give and his giving is always without measure, totally and completely ALL of itself ALL the time. The Spirit of God in us gives without restraint and never partially. This totality is available ALL the time never waivers and never changes in any way for any reason. Gods giving is total Love and completely Good ever abundant for our rich supply. Our place is to receive and give as much as we want without coercion or guilt but in Joy and Gratefulness.

“God is lavish, unfailing Abundance, the rich omnipresent substance of the universe. This ALL-Providing source of infinite prosperity is individualized as me-the Reality of me.” John Randolph Price.

Spiritual Growth, A Metaphor

Proverbs 27.19 “You see your face in a mirror and your thoughts in the minds of others.”

James 1.23 “If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror”

1 Corinthians 13.12 “Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don’t know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us.”

Spiritual growth is like standing in front of a mirror with a giant spotlight directly in back of me, like one of those used at grand openings that illuminate the sky. It is shining directly at the mirror and is so bright I can not look at the light or its reflection in the mirror. In order for me to stand in front of the mirror I must get as close to it as possible with my nose touching the glass. But still light is leaking around me especially my head and I must put on sunglasses to tolerate the light. I find one pair of sunglasses will not do so I add layer upon layer of dark plastic until I can tolerate the light. My eyes will naturally adjust and once I get comfortable I am able to live there in what I think of as light but really it is still dim darkness. After a while I get used to the intensity of the light and feel comfortable enough to peel off a layer of dark plastic this causes somewhat of a discomfort but it is tolerable. This is done over and over until all the plastic is removed and I can actually remove the sunglasses. However my nose is still up against the mirror. Now as my eyes adjust to the brilliance leaking around my head I begin to see my face clearly but not my entire body. As the desire grows to see all of me I take my first step backwards toward the light. I know to turn around would blind me but my goal is to see in the light so I keep moving. As I back closer and closer to the source of light I see more and more of my reflection in the mirror but a strange thing begins to happen, the farther I get from the mirror I begin to disappear into the light. The light is surrounding me, swallowing me, enveloping me until eventually all I can see is the light and I have disappeared. And yet I know I am still me. I have disappeared and yet still here. “You are the light of the world.” Jesus, Matthew 5.14

Thought for the day

Is this a true statement?

“In the Scriptures God says,

“I swear by my very life

that everyone will kneel down

    and praise my name!”

Rom 14.11

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Omni-Benevolence part 2

Omni-Benevolence part 2

            An important man asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?”

Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. You know the commandments: ‘Be faithful in marriage. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. Respect your father and mother.’” Luke 18.18-20

“Only God is good.” Then Jesus goes on to point out a good way to conduct ones life. A life of giving not taking.

God does only one thing, give.

There are things that are impossible for God to do. He cannot be other than himself. He will never violate his nature. God never kills anyone because he is life itself. God will never take anything from you because he is the giver of all things and is never depleted. God is truth itself and there is no falsehood within him. God will never disrespect any true relationship because all relationships demonstrate the Oneness of himself. The father and mother relationship is God himself demonstrated and seen in all human relationships to a greater or lesser degree according to the consciousness of the participants.

According to Emanuel Swedenborg woman is the personification of the Goodness of God. And man the Truth of God. And every marriage is the demonstration of the marriage within God of goodness and truth. Woman and Man or Goodness and Truth are the givers and sustainers of life just as the earth is the giver and sustainer of our physical life. God called his creation “Good.” He called it good because everything he does reflects who he is in every detail.

Emanuel Swedenborg also points out that Truth is the issue of, comes from, Good. In today’s world we believe truth is first and of utmost importance. But it was Jesus who was the issue of Mary who calls himself the Truth. He is the second Adam. The first Adam was the issue of the earth—his body only—but did not become human until God gave (all giving comes from the feminine the giver of life) him the breath of life and he became a living Soul. The order here is important because when truth gets separated from goodness and becomes the most important and is seen as the creator of the good, it becomes unloving, not giving, hard, dogmatic and believes it is the only way and will in the end attempt to kill the good. This is played out in the New Testament with Jesus’ relationship with the religious authorities of the day. This pattern continues to be repeated over and over again throughout religious history  and seen again in today’s conflicts. The religions who believe their doctrine is the only way to God demonstrate it by keeping their followers trapped by fears of a punitive afterlife. When truth becomes the first in importance the doctrines of men are created. This results in what Jesus calls “lip service” where our hearts are far from God and goodness and lives are destroyed in the misguided attempt to keep the faith pure. (Matt. 15)

But we must have balance. If we have only goodness without truth we end up in the other extreme of anything goes. Without truth to guide our way we can end up participating in activities that will eventually kill the good in us. Just as truth alone results in heartlessness so goodness alone can also destroy our love. Permissiveness is just as destructive as legalism.

The Goodness of God is a balanced goodness because he is both good and true in perfect balance this combination produces a perfect justice which is always active within the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient moment.

The conflicts we see throughout history are men’s attempts to balance the extremes of permissiveness and legalism. Unknown to most people it is God in the background holding all things in balance. The truth is that evil has no power and is the servant of the good. A lie cannot be true. All falsehood disappears in the revelation of the truth. Two and two equals five will simply disappear when the correct sum is given and so to evil vanishes in the light of goodness. In its weakness, evil tries to force others into its service through fear, bullying and coercion by taking away the freewill of its servants. This blustering of the ego/sin nature will always be defeated in whatever form it appears. The seeming power of evil is like the flame of a match compared to the sun. All of the evil of the entire human race throughout all time is like a handful of sand thrown into the ocean according to Isaac of Nineveh.

As people of faith we do need to decide for ourselves how best to take a stand against evil without creating more evil in return. This we must do in our own conscience there is no hard a fast rule as some would have us believe. Strange as it may seem the goodness of God gives us the soldier and the pacifist both can “fight” and both may die in the service of defeating evil. Death is not the enemy nor is it the end as it is impossible for life to die. There is only life. The shedding of the physical—which was never alive in the first place—is the necessary step into experiencing real life, like walking out the door of your house to experience the sunshine.

“God’s love goes forth not only to good people but to evil people. So it is that God loves not only those who are in heaven, but also those who are in hell, for God is everywhere and forever the same.”
True Christian Religion 43 Emanuel Swedenborg

                “Unless truth is lighted up by good, or unless faith is lighted up by kindness, there is nothing but darkness.”
Arcana Coelestia 4844.4 Emanuel Swedenborg

Antoinette Tuff and the Averted School Shooting: God’s Love in Action

Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life

Last week, on Tuesday, August 20, 2013, Michael Brandon Hill, 20, walked into an elementary school armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. The elementary school was the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Georgia.

Hill fired only six shots.

No one died that day. No one was even injured.

Why not?

Because in the front office of the school, that troubled young man met Antoinette Tuff.

And Antoinette Tuff loved him into laying down his weapon and surrendering to the police.

But if you ask her, it was God’s doing.

Antoinette Tuff: A Vessel for God

Yes, Antionette Tuff was one of three school staff who had received training for handling potentially dangerous situations.

However, she was not even supposed to be in that place at that time. Here’s a segment of her interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, in which…

View original post 1,076 more words

Omni-Benevolence part 1

Omni-Benevolence part 1

          In my theology classes I do not remember talking about Omni-Benevolence. There was always the traditional Al powerful, All-knowing and Present everywhere God but not the specific phrase Omni-Benevolence. Of course “God is love” was mentioned all the time and emphasized as the reason behind ALL of Gods actions as seen in the Bible. I just find it curious an “ALL GOOD GOD” did not accompany the three traditional Omnis.

Omni-Benevolence is the most important of the Omnis. In fact it is the one major revelation of God that is not automatically apparent when viewing the natural world which could account for “Omni-Benevolence” not being accounted among the Omnis. Also in our need to anthropomorphize God an ALL good supreme being is a difficult concept to grasp since we rarely see in man or nature examples of this quality. Nature can be extremely cruel, unforgiving, impersonal and destructive. And that is just nature. Human nature can take on such a turn of evil upon any slight or offense real or imagined. The endless struggle for sustenance and the watching out for predators both animal and human plus random acts of unprovoked violence often leaves people so afraid they won’t leave their own homes. Life does not appear to be ‘good’ ALL the time.

If there was any quality of God that must be ‘revealed’ to us it is that God is good. An all knowing, all powerful and all present God who is also good and loving and kind ALL the time is really counterintuitive. In scripture we often find an all powerful God being the instigator of many events we consider not good at best and when looked at thru modern eyes downright evil.

The first mention of ‘goodness’ being associated with God found in the Bible is in Genesis when God finished creating the world he called it good. This linking the works of God to goodness was part of the oral traditions of the Hebrew people probably long before it was written in the middle 5^th century BCE. It appears though this goodness was always provisional based upon the behavior of His chosen people. They had to be commanded to love their God and to treat others as best they could. Commanding obedience or else sets up a relationship of fear not of love. Obviously submitting obedience to a good ruler is much better than a murderous dictator however the idea we will be punished for not submitting rankles in the hearts of people who love freewill and are naturally prone to want to live as they please. Hence all the ups and downs of the Hebrews described in the Jewish scriptures as the result of the conflict between a Good God who orders subservience and people who exercise their freedom of choice.

This ‘good world’ created by God was often seen as the very instrument God would use to punish disobedience making God seem not so good at all.

Gods commands to love him first and completely and to treat our neighbors like we would want to be treated is of course for our own well being as well as our neighbors if followed as a rule of life would indeed lead to a very harmonious society.

All I’m trying to point out here is we do not have any idea what an all good being is. We are cemented in the world of duality a world of good and evil. This was the lie of the serpent that we would be like God if we came to know both good and evil. Believing that God “knows” evil would not make him an ALL good God. In my view real knowledge and being are the same thing. In God there is no knowing about like we humans know about many evil things but are not evil ourselves. We are kinda of all mixed  up about the whole good and evil conundrum, sometimes showing great acts of both goodness and evil. Many heroes in our mythologies and current dramas are the ones who battle their own evil tendencies and once conquered become the savior of the day. This is not God though. An ALL good God has no evil tendencies to conquer. God does not know evil nor does he know about evil. Evil could never enter his mind.

This knowing that I’m talking about is like we know how to walk. We are walking beings. It is our identity as humans. We rarely think about it unless something happens which interferes with this aspect of out being. Even learning how to walk would not happen if it weren’t a part of out genetic inheritance. Having two legs is part of the definition of humanness.

God is good and does not know evil. God was good before creation. Creation comes out of his goodness. God never changes and so would not change after humans decided to not follow his injunctions. God had no reason to be angry before creation and we have not made him angry after creation. It is we who are trapped in the world of duality and believing we are like God in knowing both good and evil. This is not the truth.

Here is an interesting quote from the 7^th century CE saint Isaac of Nineveh; “A handful of sand, thrown into the sea, is what sinning is, when compared to God’s Providence and mercy. Just like an abundant source of water is not impeded by a handful of dust, so is the Creator’s mercy not defeated by the sins of His creations.”

More on the Omni-Benevolence of God later.

Have a blessed day everyone.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ