AFTER THE RESURRECTION

To begin today I’d like to share with you the Lord’s Prayer as spoken in Jesus’ tongue of ancient Aramaic.

Awoon dwashmaya
Nith kadashe schmakh
Teh they mulkootha
Neh way say wee a nakh
Aikana dwashmaya op bar ah
How-lan lahma
Dsoon kanan yow-mana
Wash woklan hau bain
Aikana dap h’nan shwakan l hiya wayne
Wla ta'lan l'neeseeyona ella pasan min beesha
Mitol delahe mulkootha
Oo hailah otesh boktha
La alim almein amen

Although people like Mel Gibson are fixated upon the agony of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, it is stories like that of the resurrection that followed the crucifixion that have underwritten the ability of the teachings of Jesus to not only survive, but to have tremendous impact over 2,000 years after Jesus walked the earth.

Today I thought we'd talk about what to do after the resurrection is over and the excitement subsides. I'm certain that you know what I'm talking about. We've all had experiences of uplifted perception, of increased awareness, of ascended consciousness that take us to heights that heretofore have been unknown to us. Whether it's an “aha,” a healing, a realization of some truth, or even a personal experience that might be likened to a resurrection of spirit, there is a downside which can potentially lie in wait.

Now I don't want you to get me wrong here by thinking that I'm saying that whenever good stuff happens that one shouldn't expect it to last. I'm not saying that at all. And the reason that I am not approaching this subject from that perspective is that to do so would be to walk into a trap. It would be to assume that the source is outside of ourselves, that we are in bondage to the world of appearances. And that is not true.

Of course, the world of appearances is very tempting. In fact, it is constantly tempting to us. Notice that I said “tempting to us” rather than “tempting us.” That's because I refuse to grant to the appearance the power of self-existence. The influence of appearances is very hard for us to escape since we are constantly seeing them, and hearing them, and tasting them, and smelling them, and touching them, and thinking about them. No wonder we become so easily seduced by them. But, for us to anthropomorphize the world of outer appearance, to humanize it, is to decide that it exists in and of itself. That gives it a power that it does not, in reality, have. Look at the words again: “world of appearance.” It isn't anything other than what it “appears” to be and we are the ones who determine the particulars of that appearance. Think of it as “what it looks like,” rather than “what it is.”

John Strickland, Senior Minister of Atlanta Unity, told a story once about a friend of his whose stepfather had recently died. The friend was close to his stepfather and he had been working his way through his thoughts and feelings about the transition. His natural father was also not feeling very well and he had visited recently with him, having an increased awareness of physical mortality due to the recent passing of his stepfather. Then one day he ran into a friend who said, “I was just talking with your mother and she told me that your father died and I wanted to say how sorry I am.”

Well, this man went into a tailspin. His heart began pounding. There was a tremendous emptiness inside of him. Missed opportunities flashed through his mind. He had not only lost his stepfather but now he had lost his natural father, as well, and he hadn't even known about it until after the fact. Why hadn't his mother called and told him right away? Of course, as you might have figured out already, this was another case of mistaken identity. The man's mother had told the friend of the recent passing of “her current husband,” the man's stepfather. Not thinking about the natural father, the friend had merely expressed his condolences regarding “your father.” He failed to include the word “step” and a man's life momentarily collapsed due to the misunderstanding created by a missing four-letter word. The reality of circumstance had little to do with the son's reaction to the news of the “death of your father.” It was his perspective on the world of appearance that counted.

That true story is exemplary of your life and of my life. Unless we're constantly on the alert, appearances can get the better of us and turn our world upside down. “Constantly on the alert.” Golly, that can sound sort of ominous. But, let's take it easy. It's just a world of appearance. Let's not over react.

That's certainly what happened to Jesus' disciples immediately following the crucifixion. They got so caught up in the emotional turmoil surrounding Jesus' death, that all of the beautiful messages of truth that he had been teaching and sharing with them were forgotten as if they had never existed. It is reported that the disciples ran and hid, denying that they even knew Jesus. And, of course, when we think about it, we find it understandable how one can forget what one knows when under extreme duress.

When I got out of the Navy, several lifetimes ago, I was extremely depressed. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. In fact, it was depressingly evident to me that my life, to date, had been an absolute, total waste. I had never done one single thing of any value. So I spent a lot of time in bed, sleeping. Then one day I opened the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers only to discover 23 small boxes, neatly stacked in the back of the drawer. Each box contained a medal won either by my brother or by myself for superior musical performance in district and state competitions in Florida when we were both in high school. I had won medals for performance in Marching Band, Concert Band, Orchestra, Ensembles, and even for Solos.

Seeing those medals reminded me that I had also been International President of the Youth of Unity. I then remembered talks I had given and classes I had taught. I had performed on radio, stage and television. It was like a floodgate had opened and the memories came rushing back in. I was reminded of a Rod McKuen line, “I put a seashell to my ear and it all comes back.” For me, opening the bottom drawer of that chest was like putting a seashell to my ear. Sometimes we need a reminder, a jolt to help us get back in touch with our awareness of who and what we are.

After the resurrection, and specifically after the ascension, I wonder what it must have been like for the disciples. They had to go out, once again on their own, and spread the gospel, spread the word, spread the story about Jesus and his teachings. And they had to do it knowing that there were people who would kill them in order to silence them. I think that the orthodox Church would like us to believe that they went out there and excelled every day. Each day they showed up for work and they spread the gospel and that's why they are seen as saints.

I don't understand why the Church has insisted over the years in separating us from one another. It takes the stories of human beings, albeit often extraordinary in their actions, and it turns those people and their stories into icons, thereby sublimating their humanity and distancing us from them. That's what the Church has also done within its own leadership. They are put so high up on a pedestal that it's almost a temptation to throw stones at them to try to bring them down to the level of others. Our media is very good at perpetuating that kind of action nowadays: putting people on pedestals so they can later be brought crashing down.

But, putting the pedestals aside, the reality is that people are people. Human beings are human beings. Some of us may handle the vagaries of our reality better than others, and yet that can change with time. It's that change and how we deal with it that I want to examine today. The foregoing thoughts that I've been sharing have been a buildup to talking about that change in our focus that can come with the habit of time and that can distance us from remembering the truth about ourselves.

Recently a renowned evangelist has claimed that he feels as though his life had been wasted, that he has not lived up to his potential. I think we slip into these self-denigrating views of ourselves from time to time because we become too complacent in our lives. One of the roots of that complacency springs from a false belief upon our part in unachievable absolutes like “perfection.” The problem arises when we fool ourselves into thinking that we've “made it,” not realizing that it's merely another step along the endless way. Whenever we get to a place where we feel as though we've finally “arrived,” we need to be very careful, for we might be setting ourselves up for a challenge beyond what we might wish.

When I was younger, I used to have a problem with the concept of “perfection.” Whenever I would hear someone use the word, I would cringe. To me, the way in which it was used sounded like a place of divine stagnation. And then, one day, it dawned upon me, perfection is not a destination, it's a process, it's a direction. Realizing that, it then becomes apparent that perfection is different for everyone because everyone is on a different path going in their own unique direction. Oh, the ultimate goal may be the same, but let me ask you, “Do you know what your ultimate goal is?” I wouldn't be too quick in responding. Personally, I don't think that “ultimates” are relevant to our awareness at this level of existence. They're beyond our comprehension.

There is just too much variety in this life experience for there to be “ultimates” of which we can even be aware. And yet, certain aspects of more orthodox thinking would have us believe that that is what reality is all about: achieving the ultimate in the here and now and reaping the benefits in the “afterlife.” But this game of life is not like a game of football. There are no winners and losers. There are only an infinite number of players each of whom is ultimately a winner. The game, therefore, is not about who's going to win. The game is about the playing. It's like taking a Zen approach to life in the sense of being in the here and now and dedicating ourselves to doing the very best that we can with the present moment and the actions and the thoughts and the emotions that are linked to that moment.

But the difficult thing about the present moment is that it is not static. We no sooner get into the total awareness of the present moment before it has already become a part of the past, only to be replaced by a new present moment extracted from the infinite field of possibilities that make up the future. And we have to begin all over again to be here now, to be totally in the present moment. And, oops. That present moment has already faded away, only to be replaced by this new present moment. And that is the reality of living in this world of appearance. It is in a constant, infinite state of unfoldment. To paraphrase Lenny Bruce, "Don't leave the door open. Oops, there goes the cat." And, of course, the door is always wide open.

What drives the personal fabric of the unfoldment of the scenario of energy manifestation as far as our own individual awareness is concerned, is the choices that we make. I'm not talking here just about the big choices, like should I change jobs, or should I move, or should I get involved, or uninvolved, in a particular relationship. I'm talking about the never-ending, ongoing string of choices that we're constantly making. We rearrange the way we're seated in our chair. We stop and clean our glasses. We go in another room and get something to drink. We pick our nose with our fingers instead of with a Kleenex. We cross our legs. We stop reading this E-Letter while we think about having something to eat. We are constantly choosing, constantly deciding, constantly acting upon our choices and our decisions.

Each of those choices, each of those decisions, each of those actions is like a new beginning. It is a new effort. And yet, it is something that we're used to doing because we're doing it all of the time. All of the time. Deciding, choosing, acting. This is not static. This is the very energy of life in glorious expression through our action and our awareness. It does not tarry, it does not pause, it moves relentlessly onward and outward affording us an endless series of opportunities to once again redefine our reality through the choices we make, through the perspective that we choose to hold in our mind's eye.

I'm certain that just as that is the reality of our existence, so was it the reality for the disciples' experience in those early days of the development of the spread of Jesus' teachings, each day beginning again, every moment starting anew. No static “we've found the truth and now we're home free,” but rather a realization that each and every moment, as brief as it may be, offers us once again the opportunity to embrace our realization of God's presence within us and throughout our total experience. Or, we can choose to have a bad hair day.

I have known people personally in my lifetime who, after ascending the highest of heights, seemed to plummet into an abyss from which they found it too difficult to recover.

About a decade ago I had the experience of being laid off and being unemployed for the next 13 months while I applied for 600 jobs before finally getting hired. On a few occasions during that year I slipped into depression. Realizing early on that I might possibly become depressed about my situation, I had prepared a way to rescue myself from the abyss. I had deliberately placed a copy of Joel Goldsmith's book, “Art of Meditation,” right next to my bed. There is so much positive, uplifting truth in that book that I knew I could not read it and remain depressed. Yet, on more than one occasion, knowing full well that my “Goldsmith lifeline” awaited me within arm's reach, I actually, deliberately put off picking up that book for as much as 24 hours. Although I knew how to rescue myself, I consciously hesitated while continuing to wallow in total despair.

If it were not for my awareness of the infinity of life and its possibilities, I, myself, might never recover from the initial sadness at the misfortune that sometimes befalls others. But, the memory of the resurrection reminds me that there are still experiences of grandeur that await us all, no matter how separate from God we may sometimes feel.

Jesus assured his followers that he would send a “Comforter” to be with them. Do you find yourself sometimes wondering when the Comforter is going to finally come for you? Well, “awake thou that sleepest,” the time is now at hand to recognize that the Comforter is already come. It is the awareness of the Christ within each and every one of us. And as we consciously decide to invest more of our time in the realization of the Christ within us, and in our oneness with God, the Comforter becomes more real to us.

After the resurrection, the disciples and other followers of Jesus had to discover what everyone has had to realize and accept since then, that putting the principles to work in our lives requires constant, deliberate, positive practice. And although it is not easy, once we get into the practice of regularly communing with the presence, we discover that it also isn't hard. It just constantly requires of us to become anew once again with each moment.

The old saw from the 70’s still applies: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Now is the only acceptable time. Choose this moment to rise above your chosen bondage to the world of appearances and instead let the glory of the universe shine in and through your life.

Now, once again: Choose this moment to rise above your chosen bondage to the world of appearances and instead let the glory of the universe shine in and through your life.

And, once again: Choose this moment to rise above your chosen bondage to the world of appearances and instead let the glory of the universe shine in and through your life.

That’s it. Now go out and live it to the fullest.



- posted by Charles DeTurk @ 12:01 AM

 
"A RADICAL IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH"

Let’s begin today with the Lord’s Prayer as spoken in Jesus’ tongue of ancient Aramaic.

Awoon dwashmaya
Nith kadashe schmakh
Teh they mulkootha
Neh way say wee a nakh
Aikana dwashmaya op bar ah
How-lan lahma
Dsoon kanan yow-mana
Wash woklan hau bain
Aikana dap h’nan shwakan l hiya wayne
Wla ta'lan l'neeseeyona ella pasan min beesha
Mitol delahe mulkootha
Oo hailah otesh boktha
La alim almein amen

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 1-16, we read:

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up to the mountain; and as he sat down, his disciples drew near to him.

“And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

“Blessed are the humble (poor in pride; unassuming), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be well satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when men reproach you and persecute you and speak against you every kind of evil, falsely, for my sake,

“Then be glad and rejoice, for your reward is increased in heaven; for in this very manner they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“You are indeed the salt of the earth; but if the salt should lose its savor, with what could it be salted? It would not be worth anything but to be thrown outside and to be trodden down by men.

“You are indeed the light of the world; a city that is built upon a mountain cannot be hidden.

“Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, so that it gives light to all who are in the house.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Recently I was buying some new tires. The sales person and I got to talking. He asked me what I do, and I told him that I’m a minister. He asked what church. Then he told me about recently running into the minister who had performed his wedding many years ago. It was a Lutheran wedding. The sales guy, John, had grown up with a Catholic and an Episcopalian for parents, so he had a Lutheran wedding. He seemed to think that it made some sort of sense.

John then proceeded to tell me that there wasn’t that much difference between the churches. And I told him that just the other day someone had been telling me that they were part of a Catholic church here in town that was pretty liberal in its message and services. And then I asked if he knew that several years ago the Pope had announced in two of his weekly audiences that heaven and hell are not places, but rather that they are states of mind, states of consciousness.

A look of shock came over his face. “Then where will I go when I die?” he asked. And once again I was reminded of how different our viewpoints and perspectives can be. In order to grasp what Pope John Paul said in those audiences requires a tremendous shift in consciousness for those believers who were taught to believe that there was a place other than this world of appearance to which they are ultimately headed. So, when we die to the flesh, if there’s no place called heaven and there’s no place called hell, then what happens? Where do we go?

Well, my friends, I believe that we are in the midst of a worldwide shift in consciousness wherein we are coming to discover and understand the answers to just such deep questions. And in this new perspective that is sweeping the world, there is an individual who, surprisingly enough to some people, is helping to lead the way in understanding this new understanding. That person is, of course, Jesus, himself. Yes, the man, from whom has sprung the greatest religious system the world has ever known, is at the forefront of the shift in belief that is shaking the very foundations of the church founded upon his teachings. There is a radical loose within the Christian Church today, and there’s no way for the church hierarchy to get rid of him for he is the founder of the church itself.

You know, they say, “you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Well, you can take the church away from the teachings of Jesus, but you just can’t take the spirit of the Christ out of the church. For 2,000 years, the church that formed after the death of Jesus has struggled to maintain a totalitarian control over the people and the teachings and their dissemination. And because of that absolutist control, the teachings have been protected all these centuries so that they can finally break free from the constraints of a system based upon the belief in appearances.

This morning’s scripture is the beginning of what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. I don’t feel that most people have ever heard that entire Sermon. Today is the exception. I want to share with you today the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, filled as it is with its radical teachings. The book of Matthew continues:

”Do not suppose that I have come to weaken the law or the prophets; I have not come to weaken, but to fulfil.

“For truly I say to you, Until heaven and earth pass away, not even a yoth or a dash shall pass away from the law until all of it is fulfilled.

“Whoever therefore tries to weaken even one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but anyone who observes and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

“You have heard that it was said to those who were before you, You shall not kill, and whoever kills is guilty before the court.

“But I say to you that whoever becomes angry with his brother for no reason is guilty before the court; and whoever should say to his brother, Raca (which means, I spit on you) is guilty before the congregation; and whoever says to his brother, you are effeminate (brutish; abnormal), is condemned to hell fire.

“If it should happen therefore that while you are presenting your offering upon the altar, and right there you remember that your brother has any grievance against you,

“Leave your offering there upon the altar, and first go and make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your offering.

“Try to get reconciled with your accuser promptly, while you are going on the road with him; for your accuser might surrender you to the judge, and the judge would commit you to the jailer, and you would be cast into prison.

“Truly I say to you that you would never come out thence until you had paid the last cent.

“You have heard that it is said, You shall not commit adultery.

“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

“If your right eye should cause you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you (stop envying); for it is better for you to lose one of your members, and not have all your body fall into hell.

“And if your right hand should cause you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you (stop stealing); for it is better for you to lose one of your members and not have all your body fall into hell.

“It has been said that whoever divorces his wife, must give her the divorce papers.

“But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is departed but not divorced, commits adultery.

“Again you have heard that it was said to them who were before you, that you shall not lie in your oaths, but entrust your oaths to the Lord.

“But I say to you, never swear; neither by heaven, because it is God’s throne;

“Nor by the earth, for it is a stool under his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of a great king.

“Neither shall you swear by your own head, because you cannot create in it a single black or white hair.

“But let your words be yes, yes, and no, no; for anything which adds to these is a deception.

“You have heard that it is said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

“But I say to you that you should not resist evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“And if anyone wishes to sue you at the court and take away your shirt, let him have your robe also.

“Whoever compels you to carry a burden a mile, go with him two.

“Whoever asks from you, give him; and whoever wishes to borrow from you, do not refuse him.

“You have heard that it is said, Be kind to your friend, and hate your enemy.

“But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless anyone who curses you, do good to anyone who hates you, and pray for those who carry you away by force and persecute you.

“So that you may become sons of your Father who is in heaven, who causes his sun to shine upon the good and the bad, and who pours down his rain upon the just and the unjust.

“For if you love only those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same thing?

“And if you salute only your brothers, what is it more that you do? Do not even the tax collectors do the same thing?

“Therefore become perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

“Be careful concerning your alms, not to do them in the presence of men, merely that they may see them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

“Therefore when you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, just as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the market places, so that they may be glorified by men. Truly I say to you that they have already received their reward.

“But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

“So that your alms may be done secretly, and your Father who sees in secret, shall himself reward you openly.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who like to pray, standing in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you that they have already received their reward.

“But as for you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber and lock your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret shall himself reward you openly.

“And when you pray, do not repeat your words like the pagans, for they think that because of much talking they will be heard.

“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need, before you ask him;

“Therefore pray in this manner: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.

“Give us bread for our needs from day to day.

“And forgive us our offences, as we have forgiven our offenders.

“And do not let us enter into temptation, but deliver us from evil (wrong, wickedness, error). For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

“For if you forgive men their faults, your Father in heaven will also forgive you.

“But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive even your faults.

“When you fast, do not look sad like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces, so that it may appear to men that they are fasting. Truly I say to you, that they have already received your reward.

“But as for you, when you fast, wash your face and anoint your head,

“So that it may not appear to men that you are fasting, but to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures buried in the ground, a place where rust and moth destroy and where thieves break through and steal.

“But lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys and where thieves do not break through and steal.

“For where your treasure is, there also is your heart.

“The eye is the lamp of the body; if therefore your eye be bright, your whole body is also lighted.

“But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be dark. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how much greater will be your darkness.

“No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will honor one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (wealth).

“For this reason, I say to you, Do not worry for your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor for your body, what you will wear. Behold, is not life much more important than food, and the body than clothing?

“Observe the birds of the sky, for they do not sow, neither do they harvest nor gather into barns, and yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not much more important than they?

“Who is among you who by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“Why do you worry about clothing? Observe the wild flowers, how they grow; they do not get tired out, nor do they spin.

“But I say to you that not even Solomon with all of his glory was arrayed like one of them.

“Now if God clothes in such fashion the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow falls into the fireplace, is he not much more mindful of you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry or say What will we eat, or what will we drink, or with what will we be clothed?

“For worldly people seek after all these things. Your Father in heaven knows that all of these things are also necessary for you.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will look after itself. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.

“Judge not, that you may not be judged.

“For with the same judgment that you judge, you will be judged, and with the same measure with which you measure, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you see the splinter which is in your brother’s eye, and do not feel the beam which is in your own eye?

“Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take out the splinter from your eye, and behold there is a beam in your own eye?

“O hypocrites, first take out the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to get out the splinter from your brother’s eye.

“Do not give holy things to the dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine (do not speak words of wisdom to fools), for they might tread them with their feet, and then turn and rend you.

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.

“For whoever asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door is opened.

“Or who is the man among you who when his son asks him for bread, will hand him a stone?

“Or if he should ask him for fish, will he hand him a snake?

“If therefore you who err, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

“Whatever you wish men to do for you, do likewise also for them; for this is the law and the prophets.

“Enter in through the narrow door, for wide is the door and broad is the road which leads to destruction, and many are those who travel on it.

“O how narrow is the door and how difficult is the road which leads to life, and few are those who are found on it.

“Be careful of false prophets who come to you in lamb’s clothing, but within they are ravening wolves.

“You will know them by their fruits. Do they gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles?

“So every good tree bears good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, neither can a bad tree bear good fruit.

“Every tree which does not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire.

“Thus by their fruit you will know them.

“It is not everyone who merely says to me, “My Lord, my Lord, who will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

“A great many will say to me in that day, My Lord, my Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out devils and in your name do many wonders?

“Then I will declare to them, I have never known you; keep away from me, O you that work iniquity.

“Therefore whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, he is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock.

“And the rain fell and the rivers overflowed and the winds blew and beat upon that house; but it did not fall because its foundations were laid upon a rock.

“And whoever hears these words of mine, and does them not, is like a foolish man who built his house upon sand.

“And the rain fell and the rivers overflowed and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell, and its fall was great.

“And when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were stunned at his teaching.

“For he taught them as one who had power, and not as their own scribes and Pharisees.”

Now that’s what I call a sermon. And so it is. Enough said. Time to get busy.

- posted by Charles DeTurk @ 12:01 AM

 
"THE LILIES VERSES THE MACHINE"

To begin today I’d like to share with you the Lord’s Prayer as spoken in Jesus’ tongue of ancient Aramaic.

Awoon dwashmaya
Nith kadashe schmakh
Teh they mulkootha
Neh way say wee a nakh
Aikana dwashmaya op bar ah
How-lan lahma
Dsoon kanan yow-mana
Wash woklan hau bain
Aikana dap h’nan shwakan l hiya wayne
Wla ta'lan l'neeseeyona ella pasan min beesha
Mitol delahe mulkootha
Oo hailah otesh boktha
La alim almein amen

Matthew 6:24-34

“No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and like the other; or he will honor one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (wealth).

“For this reason, I say to you, Do not worry for your life, what you will eat, and what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you will wear. Behold, is not life much more than food, and the body than clothing?

“Observe the birds of the sky: for they do not sow, neither do they harvest or gather into barns, and yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not much more important than they?

“Who is among you who by worrying can add one cubit to his stature.

“Why do you worry about clothing? Observe the wild flowers, how they grow; they do not get tired out, nor do they spin.

“But I say to you that not even Solomon with all of his glory was arrayed like one of them.

“Now if God clothes in such fashion the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow falls into the fireplace, is he not much more mindful of you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, or say, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or with what will we be clothed?

“For worldly people seek after all of these things. Your Father in heaven knows that all of these things are also necessary for you.

“But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will look after itself. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.”

Today I want to talk about Deepak Chopra. Are you all familiar with Deepak Chopra? Do I need to talk a bit about who Deepak is? Quite honestly, both Sherri and I are amazed each time we run into someone who has no idea who Deepak is. He has had numerous books on the best seller's lists for decades. He has presented programs on PBS that usually wind up as being selected by the audience as Best of Festival. Dr. Chopra is well known within the healing and spiritual communities for cutting edge approaches to integrating spirituality and correlations in quantum mechanics into every aspect of our lives.

Years ago my mother would talk excitedly about Deepak and his latest book. And I would nod, dutifully, and think to myself, “someday I’ll find the time.” Then she passed away. In going through her things, I discovered that a nurse had borrowed a copy of mother’s copy of Deepak’s “Body, Mind & Spirit,” including the videotape. I went ahead and gave her the original because of all the good work that she was doing. Sometime later I began to become aware of what Deepak was saying and I wanted that BMS package, so I went to the store to buy it for myself. Out of print.

Then he published, “Creating Affluence,” and “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.” They both shot to the top of the bestseller lists. I got my own copies and read them. I began teaching classes on both of the books. One Christmas I gave copies of both books to 100 couples and individuals whom I knew in Albuquerque through the Amway business. It’s interesting to note that a couple of people actually returned the books, suggesting that I give them to someone else instead.

Have any of you ever read “Creating Affluence”? Well, in the book, Deepak recommends that we read, or listen to, the second chapter of the book every day. Furthermore, he states that if we do as he says, that the repetition of those statements in that chapter will cause a change in our consciousness that will dramatically alter our lives.

Do you believe that such a thing could be so, that merely repetitively reading statements can change our lives? Well, I don’t believe it myself. I know it to be so. I have seen the proof in my life and in the lives of those around me countless times.

But, the problem is, that we won’t do even what we admit is so simple. Oh, sometimes people will play with it for just a bit before announcing, “it doesn’t work for me.” But, friends, it works. Even if you don’t believe that it works, if you have the guts, and the fortitude, and the stick-to-itiveness to keep at it, you will wake up one day and realize that not only have your thoughts and your feelings changed, but that your life have changed, those around you have changed, the whole world has changed.

Now, I’m not going to get into the why and the how of the whole world changing just because we repeat some statements over and over again and again. I’ve explained how it happens in the past and I’ll explain it again because repetition is good, but I’ll do that some other day. Today I want to deal with the truth that is within what Deepak shared in his book, “Creating Affluence.”

I knew from experience that most people, and by most I mean over 95%, won’t read chapter two of Deepak’s book once a day for even 3 days. Furthermore, I was certain that most would not even read it once a week. So, when I taught classes on chapter 2 of that book, and the series runs for 27 weeks, the first thing I would do in every class is to read chapter 2 aloud, in its entirety. That way I knew that every one who attended the class was getting exposed to the truths in chapter 2 at least once a week.

And, oh yes, people’s lives changed and the world changed.

When Jesus talks about considering the flowers, the lilies, and how they grow, he’s not talking about using them as an example of what to do in the sense of “doing nothing” and everything will come to us. Instead, he’s talking about the intention behind what we do. Why do you do what you do? Most of us do what we do because of repetition. And so our lives have become like one big machine. Yet, we won’t use repetition to change what we do. I actually used to say, “I don’t want to use repetition to change myself because it will make me like a machine.” Well, hell, that was nothing more than the machine itself talking.

When we consider the flowers, we should realize that they are focused upon what they do and they do it to their best, no matter what the circumstances. The toil and the sowing in our scripture refer to the belief of the ego that it can do it all. The only thing the ego can do is talk. Period. That’s it. Nothing more. Just talk. And yet we all let our talk, and the talk of those around us, run our lives, making us like automatons, like machines.

Isn’t it about time we were lilies? Well, I want go give you lilies some real good fertilizer today, so I’m going to follow Deepak’s direction and share with you the second chapter of his book, “Creating Affluence.”

“The A to Z Steps To Creating Affluence”

“What then are the states of awareness, the information and energy states that give rise to the experience of wealth in our lives?

“For the sake of convenience, and to make it easy to remember, I have listed them in order as the A-to-Z steps to creating affluence.

“In my experience, it is not necessary to consciously practice the attitudes I am about to describe in order to materialize wealth. Using effort to consciously practice an attitude or to cultivate a mood is unnecessary and can cause stress and strain. It is important only that we know what these A-to-Z attitudes are, that we know what the steps are, that we be aware of them.

“The more we become aware of them, the more this knowledge gets structured in our consciousness and awareness. Then it is more likely that our attitude and behavior will change spontaneously, without any effort on our part.

“Knowledge has organizing power inherent in it. It is simply enough to know, to be aware of the principles; the knowledge will be processed and metabolized by our bodies, and the results will be spontaneous. The results do not occur overnight, but begin to manifest gradually over a period of time.

“If you will look at this list and read it once a day, or listen to it on tape every day, then you will see the changes that happen spontaneously in your life and the effortless ease with which wealth and affluence come into your life.

“‘A’ stands for all possibilities, absolute, authority, affluence, and abundance. The true nature of our ground state and that of the universe is that it is a field of all possibilities. In our most primordial form, we are a field of all possibilities.

“From this level it is possible to create anything. This field is our own essential nature. It is our inner self.

“It is also called the absolute, and it is the ultimate authority. It is intrinsically affluence because it gives rise to the infinite diversity and abundance of the universe

“‘B’ stands for better and best. Evolution implies getting better and better in every way with time, ultimately getting for ourselves the best of everything.

“People with wealth consciousness settle only for the best. This is also called the principle of highest first. Go first class all the way and the universe will respond by giving you the best.

“‘C’ stands for carefreeness and charity. A billion dollars in the bank, without the experience of carefreeness and charity, is a state of poverty. Wealth consciousness, by definition, is a state of mind. If you are constantly concerned about how much money you need, then irrespective of the actual dollar amount you have in your account, you are really poor.

“Carefreeness automatically leads to charity and sharing because the source from which it all comes is infinite, unbounded, and inexhaustible.

“‘D’ stands for the law of demand and supply whatever service we are here to give, there is a demand for it. Ask yourself, “how may I serve?” and “How can I help?” The answers are within you. When you find those answers, you will also see and know that there is a demand for your service.

“‘D’ also stands for dharma. Each of us has a dharma, a purpose in life. When we are in dharma, we enjoy and love our work.

“‘E’ stands for exulting in the success of others, especially your competitors and those who consider themselves your enemies. Your competitors and enemies will become y9our helpers when you exult in their success.

“‘E’ also stands for the principle that expectancy determines outcome. So always expect the best and you’ll see that the outcome is spontaneously contained in the expectation.

“‘F’ stands for the fact that in every failure is the seed of success. In the manifestation of the material from the non-material, of the visible from the invisible, a fundamental mechanics is involved. This is the principle of feedback.

“Our failures are stepping-stones in the mechanics of creation, bringing us ever closer to our goals. In reality, there is no such thing as failure. What we call failure is just a mechanism through which we can learn to do things right.

“‘G’ stands for gratitude, generosity, God, gap, and goal. Gratitude and generosity are natural attributes of an affluence consciousness. Since the only thing to go after is the best, the principle of the highest first, why not adopt God as the roll model? After all, no one is more affluence than God, for God is the field of all possibilities.

“There is a precise mechanism through which all desires can be manifested. These four steps are as follows:

“Step one: You slip into the gap between thoughts. The gap is the window, the corridor, the transformational vortex through which the personal psyche communicates with the cosmic psyche.

“Step two: You have a clear intention of a clear goal in the gap.

“Step three: You relinquish your attachment to the outcome, because chasing the outcome or getting attached to it entails coming out of the gap.

“Step four: You let the universe handle the details.

“It is important to have a clear goal in your awareness, but it is also important to relinquish your attachment to the goal. And the goal is in the gap, and the gap is the potentiality to organize and orchestrate the details required to affect any outcome.

“Perhaps you recall an instant when you were trying to remember a name, and you struggled and struggled, but with no success. Finally, you let go of your attachment to the outcome, and then a little while later the name flashed across the screen of your consciousness. This is the mechanics for the fulfillment of any desire.

“When you were struggling to recall the name, the mind was very active and turbulent. But ultimately, out of fatigue and frustration, you let go and the mind became quiet and slowly quieter --- perhaps so quiet that it was almost still --- and you slipped into the gap where you released your desire, and soon it was handed to you. This is the true meaning of ‘Ask and you shall receive,’ or ‘Knock and the door shall be opened to you.’

“One of the easiest and most effortless ways of slipping into the gap is through the process of meditation. And there are many forms of meditation and prayer that can help us to manifest desires from the level of the gap.

“‘H’ stands for happiness and humanity and the fact that we are here to make all humans we come into contact with happy.

“Life naturally evolves in the direction of happiness. We must constantly ask ourselves if what we are doing is going to make us, and those around us, happy. Because happiness is the ultimate goal. It is the goal of all other goals.

“When we seek money, or a good relationship, or a great job, what we are really seeking is happiness. The mistake we make is not going for happiness first. If we did, everything else would follow.

“‘I’ stands for the power of unbending intent or intention. It is to make an unchangeable decision from which it is impossible to go back. It is singlemindedness of purpose. It is a well-defined purpose not countermanded by any other conflicting desires or interest.

“In order to acquire wealth --- or for that matter anything in the physical universe --- you must intend it, make a decision to go for it. The decision is unchangeable with fixity of purpose, not countermanded by anything. The universe handles the details, organizes and orchestrates opportunities. You have simply to be alert to these opportunities.

“‘J’ stands for the fact that it is not necessary to judge. When we relinquish our need to constantly classify things as good or bad, right or wrong, then we experience more silence in our consciousness. Our internal dialogue begins to quieten when we shed the burden of judgment, and it is then easier to access the gap.

“It is important, therefore, to get away from definitions, labels, descriptions, interpretations, evaluations, analyses, and judgment, for all of these create the turbulence of our internal dialogue.

“‘K’ stands for the fact that organizing power is inherent in knowledge. Knowledge of any kind gets metabolized spontaneously and brings about a change in awareness from where it is possible to create new realities.

“For example, becoming familiar with the knowledge in this book will spontaneously create the conditions for wealth and affluence.

“‘L’ stands for love and luxury. Love yourself. Love your customers. Love your family. Love everybody. Love the world. There is no power stronger than love.

“Also, adopt luxury as a lifestyle. Luxury is our natural state. Adopting luxury as a lifestyle sets the preamble, the preconditions for the flow of wealth.

“‘M’ stands for making money for others and helping others make money. Helping others make money and helping other people to fulfill their desires is a sure way to ensure you’ll make money for yourself as well as more easily fulfill your own dreams.

“‘M’ also stands for motivate. The best way to motivate other people to help you fulfill your goals is to help them fulfill their goals.

“‘N’ stands for saying no to negativity. My friend Wayne Dyer, the famous author, taught me a simple technique for this. Whenever he has a negative thought he silently says to himself, ‘Next,’ and moves on.

“Saying no to negativity also means not being around negative people. Negative people deplete your energy. Surround yourself with love and nourishment and do not all the creation of negativity in your environment.

“‘O’ stands for the fact that life is the coexistence of all opposite values. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, up and down, hot and cold, here and there, light and darkness, birth and death. All experience is by contrast, and one would be meaningless without the other.

“A wise seer once said, ‘A man born blind from birth will never know the meaning of darkness because he has never experience light.’

“When there is a quiet reconciliation, an acceptance in our awareness of this lively coexistence of all opposite values, then automatically we become more and more nonjudgmental. The victor and the vanquished are seen as two poles of the same being. Nonjudgment leads to quietening of the internal dialogue, and this opens the doorway to creativity.

“‘O’ also stands for opportunity and open and honest communication. Every contact with every human being is an opportunity for growth and the fulfillment of desire --- one only has to be alert to the opportunities through increased awareness. Open and honest communication opens the channels to realize those opportunities.

“‘P’ stands for purpose in life and for pure potentiality. We are here to fulfill a purpose. It is up to us to find out what that purpose is. Once we know our purpose then the knowledge of one’s purpose leads to the insight that we are true potentiality.

We must be able to state our purpose in very simple terms. For example, my purpose in life is to heal, to make everyone I come into contact with happy, and to create peace.

Knowing our purpose opens up the doorway to the field of pure potentiality because inherent in our desire are the seeds and mechanics for its fulfillment. The Vedic seer states, ‘I am the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be, and my desires are like se3eds left in the ground: they wait for the right season and then spontaneously manifest into beautiful flowers and mighty trees, into enchanted gardens and majestic forests.’

“‘Q’ is to question: to questions dogma, question ideology, questions outside authority. It is only by questioning what people take for granted, what people hold to be true, that we can break through the hypnosis of social conditioning.

“‘R’ stands for the fact that receiving is a necessary as giving. To graciously receive is an expression of the dignity of giving. Those who are unable to receive are actually incapable of giving. Giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe.

“Giving and receiving do not have to be in the form of material things. To graciously receive a complement or admiration or respect also implies the ability to be able to give these to others. And absence of respect, courtesy, manners, or admiration creates a state of poverty irrespective of the amount of money you have in the bank.

“‘S’ stands for spending and service. Money is like blood; it must flow. Hoarding and holding on to it causes sludging. In order to grow, it must flow. Otherwise it gets blocked and, like clotted blood, it can only cause damage.

“Money is life energy that we exchange and use as a result of the service we provide to the universe. And in order to keep it coming to us, we must keep it circulating.

“‘T’ stands for transcendence, timeless awareness, talent bank, and tithing. My personal experience is that without transcendence, life has no beauty. In order to live a full life it is necessary to go beyond all boundaries.

“As the Sufi poet Rumi has said, ‘Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’ I feel that my experience of transcendence through the practice of meditation gives me an inner stability and silence that is not overshadowed by any activity. That silence stays with me so that no outer experience can overshadow the awareness and experience of the self.

“‘T’ also stands for timeless awareness, as opposed to time-bound awareness. Time-bound awareness occurs when we relinquish the self for the self-image. The self-image is the social mask, the protective veneer behind which we hide. In time-bound awareness our behavior is always influenced by the past and by anticipation and fear of the future. Time-bound awareness is burdened by guilt and sorrow. It is rooted in fear. It causes entropy, aging, and death. Timeless awareness is the awareness of the self.

“The Vedic seer says, ‘I do not worry about the past and I am not fearful of the future because my life is supremely concentrated in the present, and the right response comes to me, to every situation as it occurs.’ This is also the state of bliss. The self is not in the realm of thought. It’s in the gap between our thoughts. The cosmic psyche whispers to us softly in the gap between our thoughts. This is also what we call intuition. Time-bound awareness is in the intellect; it calculates. Timeless awareness is in the heart; it feels.

“‘T’ also stands for talent bank. In order to maximize creativity and offer the best service, it is good to develop a talent bank or a coterie of individuals with unique and diverse talents and abilities and whose individual talents, when added together, are more than the sum of the parts.

“ ‘T’ also stands for tithing. Tithing means giving away a certain portion of your income without conditions or strings attached. When you give, a vacuum is created that attracts even more of what you have given away. As Emerson said, ‘Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.’

“‘U’ stands for understanding the unity behind all diversity. Unity consciousness is a state of enlightenment where we pierce the mask of illusion which creates separation and fragmentation. Behind the appearance of separation is one unified field of wholeness. Here the seer and the scenery are one.

“We experience unity consciousness when we are in love, when we are with nature gazing at the stars or walking on the beach, listening to music, dancing, reading poetry, praying, and in the silence of meditation.

“In unity consciousness, we slip through the barrier of time into the playground of eternity, as when we say, ‘The beauty of the mountain was breathtaking; time stood still.’ Then you and the mountain become one. At a very deep level of awareness, we know that you and I and the mountain and everything else is the same Being in different disguises.

“This is the state of love --- not as a sentiment, but as the ultimate truth, at the heart of all creation.

“‘V’ stands for values: truth, integrity, honesty, love, faith, devotion, and beauty. The great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore says, ‘When we feel beauty, we know it as truth.’

“Without values, there is confusion and chaos. When values disintegrate everything disintegrates. Health disintegrates, poverty attains dominance over affluence, societies and civilizations crumble.

“When we pay attention to these values that society has always held sacred, then order emerges out of chaos, and the field of pure potentiality inside us becomes all-powerful, creating anything it desires.

“‘W’ stands for wealth consciousness without worries. Wealth consciousness implies absence of money worries. Truly wealthy people never worry about losing their money because they know that there is an inexhaustible supply of it.

“Once, when we were discussing a world peace project with my teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, somebody asked him, ‘Where is all the money going to come from?’ and he replied without hesitation, ‘From wherever it is at the moment.’

“‘X’ stands for expressing honest appreciation and thanks to all who help us. We must never pretend appreciation, but if we feel it, then we must express it. The expression of gratitude is a powerful force that generates even more of what we have already received.

“‘Y’ stands for youthful vigor. We experience health when our identity of who we are comes from reference to the self. When we identify with objects, whether these are situations, circumstances, people, or things, then we relinquish our energy to the object of reference. As a result, we feel lack of energy and vitality.

“When our identity comes from the self, then we keep our energy to ourselves. We feel energetic, we feel powerful, and we experience youthful vigor.

“‘Z’ stands for zest for life. It is to appreciate life in all its vitality and exuberance. It is to know that there is only one life that expresses itself in myriad forms. To see that life is to know that power is in the present moment. It is to know that I am that, that you are that, that all this is that, and that’s all there is.

“Tagore once said, ‘The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day and dances in rhythmic measure. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth into numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of flowers.’ He calls this ‘the life throb of ages, dancing in my blood this moment.’ To be in touch with this life throb of ages dancing in our bleed this moment is to have zest for life. It is to face the unknown with carefreeness and freedom.

“The unknown is the field of all possibilities in every moment of the present. And this is freedom, beyond the known of past conditioning, beyond the prison of space, time, and causation.

“As Don Juan once said to Carlos Castaneda, ‘It does not matter what our specific fate is, as long as we face it with ultimate abandon.’ This is carefreeness. This is joy. This is freedom. This is zest for life.

“So there you are. These are the stepping-stones to unlimited wealth, the A-to-Z of prosperity. Once again, you do not need to consciously cultivate a mood of these attributes. You need only to be aware of them.

“Read the list daily, or just listen to it on tape, and you will see your life change and become an expression of affluence, of unboundedness, abundance, infinity, and immortality.

“Create as much wealth as your heart desires. Fulfill every material and nonmaterial desire. Create wealth and spend it. Spend it lavishly and then share it and give it to others. Give it to your children, to your family, to your relatives, to your friends, to society, and to the world. For wealth is of the universe and it does not belong to us --- we belong to it.

“We are privileged children and the universe has chosen to share its bounty with us. We only have to give our attention to affluence and it will be ours. Attention is all that counts.

“A great seer from India once said, “You are where your attention takes you. In fact, you are your attention. If your attention is fragmented, you are fragmented. When your attention is in the past, you are in the past. When your attention is in the present moment, you are in the presence of God and God is present in you.

“Simply be aware of the present, of what you are doing. The presence of God is everywhere, and you have only to consciously embrace it with your attention.”

And so, there you have it, my friends. I have bought and given away over one hundred copies of this book and over one hundred copies of its companion, “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.” In addition, I have made countless copies of a tape of myself reading this chapter and given it away all over the country. Furthermore, I have read, and listened to, and taught what is in this chapter more times than I can fathom. It has dramatically changed my life and lives of all those who have heeded its wisdom.

Most of the people that I have shared this with have done little or nothing about it and their lives have demonstrated that fact. But some have had the courage to dive in and have faith that these steps will work in their lives, and they are reaping the benefits.

Which one will you be? The choice, as always, is yours and yours alone. My wish for you is for all of the blessings that your heart and your mind and your life can entertain.

- posted by Charles DeTurk @ 12:01 AM

 
"IT'S TIME WE TALKED ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS"

To begin today I’d like to share with you the Lord’s Prayer as spoken in Jesus’ tongue of ancient Aramaic.

Awoon dwashmaya
Nith kadashe schmakh
Teh they mulkootha
Neh way say wee a nakh
Aikana dwashmaya op bar ah
How-lan lahma
Dsoon kanan yow-mana
Wash woklan hau bain
Aikana dap h’nan shwakan l hiya wayne
Wla ta'lan l'neeseeyona ella pasan min beesha
Mitol delahe mulkootha
Oo hailah otesh boktha
La alim almein amen

My thoughts today are related to Matthew 9:1-9.

“So he went up into the boat, and crossed over and came to his own city.

“And they brought to him a paralytic, lying on a quilt; and Jesus saw their faith, and he said to the paralytic, Have courage, my son; your sins have been forgiven.

“Some of the scribes said among themselves, This man blasphemes.

“But Jesus knew their thoughts; so he said to them, Why do you think evil in your hearts?

“For which is easier to say, Your sins have been forgiven, or to say, Arise and walk?

“But that you might know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, then he said to the paralytic, Arise, take up your quilt and go to your house.

“And he rose up and went to his home.

“But when the crowds saw it, they were frightened, and they glorified God, because he had given such power as this to men.

“And as Jesus passed from that place, he saw a man whose name was Matthew, sitting in the custom house, and he said to him, Follow me; and he got up and went after him.”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Consciousness. It’s something that happens every once in awhile. You know what I mean. Don’t you have recurring times when you think very deeply about something that you don’t think about all of the time? Of course, none of us thinks about anything all of the time, except men, of course, and that one thing that they’re always thinking about. You know, “gee, I wonder what’s for dinner?”

Anyway, when I talk with you here on Sundays about how every thing is spirit, that’s really just the beginning of the story. For it is not just the generality of spirit as the source of everything that makes life what it is, but the uniqueness of our experience that thrills us and chills us. And that experience is real for us because of our consciousness. So, that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

The other day I was listening to some tapes of Brian O’Leary made back when I met him in 1994. He did two lectures at the time, one on the “Second Coming of Science,” and the other on the “Green Revolution.” Brian, if you’re not familiar with him, is a physicist from Princeton, a former Astronaut, an astronomer, and a seeker of truth.

He told us how he had come from a background of “ic.” He had been a materialistic, deterministic, scientist who could only accept that which was “provable” through scientific means. Then he went to a seminar in 1979 and had an experience that altered his perception and set him upon a road of new discovery. Now, the reason I mention Brian is because he said something which I don’t even recall from my memory of the time, but which stood out for me on the tape of that talk.

We’re all familiar with Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2. It, of course, means energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. A more succinct way of saying that is that energy equals mass expanding omni-directionally at the speed of light. That’s what the c2 implies. From this equation, we have come to understand that every thing in the universe is composed of energy. Matter is actually energy expressing as interference patterns. A simplistic example of how this works is what happens when you misalign two polarized filters. A polarized filter is actually a filter with a fine mesh of parallel lines. Light comes through the filter between the lines.

When we hold two polarized filters together, as long as their lines are parallel with one another, the light comes through as though normal. But if we begin to turn one of the filters, the light coming through the two filters starts being cut off until finally when the filters are in relation to one another so that their lines are perpendicular to one another, there is no light coming through the filters at all. The amount of light that we see, therefore, is dependent upon the amount of interference created by the two sets of parallel lines in our two polarized filters.

Well, as energy expresses itself in an infinite number of ways, it creates patterns of interference when it impinges with other expressions of energy. These patterns of interference momentarily trap the energy in its expression so that it is no longer expressing omnidirectionally at the speed of light. And we call it matter. And that’s what the whole physical universe is made of.

So E=mc2. Another way of verbally expressing that is that matter, when released from the interference pattern that creates the impression of its existence, returns to a form of pure energy. And during the past century, that equation has driven much of the exploration of our physical reality. However, there is a piece of the picture missing. The equation is not complete. This is an aspect of reality of which I have long been aware, but it was Brian O’Leary who helped me see how it fits into Einstein’s famous equation.

There is a second “C” in the equation. Now, Brian just mentions it as a “c”, but I wish to point out that it is a capital “C.” That “C” stands for Consciousness. Now where do you think it goes in our Einsteinian Relativism equation? Well, in a classical linear way of thinking, there is no way we can add the “C” of consciousness to this equation, and perhaps that’s why the scientists have had such a difficult time acknowledging the existence and importance of consciousness all of these years.

Well, I’m going to reveal that the “C” goes right above the equal sign. Actually, I prefer to think of it as embracing the equal sign. The reason for this is, as I have explained before, consciousness affects the outcome. In other words, we get what we look for. And what that means for our equation of relativity is that the transformation of energy to matter and matter to energy is affected by the expectation of the observer, the consciousness of the experiencer.

Now, in a manner of speaking, Brian says that we seem to have a built in “cop” of sorts, whose job it is to deny this reality as far as our awareness is concerned. In other words, every time we think we understand this concept of our creative power in determining the world in which we live, this inborn cop pops up and denies it all. And denies it very convincingly. It is not a dramatic denial. It doesn’t need to be. We have lived with this denial part of us for our entire lives. It is like a part of us because it “is” a part of us. If we had to give it a name, we would probably call it ego, because its purpose in denying this reality of our creative responsibility is to protect the ego’s egotistical belief that it is in charge of protecting us from that very reality.

I can not stress to you enough, or enough times, how important it is for us to understand the importance of this new equation. By your very consciousness you are a co-creator with God of the garden of reality in which you live. This truth is implicit in the teachings of Jesus. He doesn’t use the term consciousness, however. Instead he uses the word, faith. As I shared with you last week, the basics of Jesus’ teaching was, “the kingdom of heaven is within you…..love God…..love your neighbor as yourself…..your faith has made you whole…..go forth and sin no more.

When we get down to that line, “your faith has made you whole,” this is a line that Jesus is quoted as having said time and time again. “Your faith has made thee whole.”
Whenever people tried to glorify Jesus for the works, the miracles, he always pointed out that it was not him, but the Father that was the originator of the works. But for those who experienced the miracles on a personal level, his response was that it was the faith of the individual that was responsible for the miracle.

Now, if we fully understand what Jesus is saying here, then we see that the source of all is the Father; it is God. Jesus is not the source; God is the source. But you might say, “but what about when it says in John “whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.” And you would be right. What about when it says in John that Jesus claims that actions performed “in his name” will result in success. Well, let me tell you something about the book of John. Of the four gospels, the four books of the Bible written with supposed firsthand experience in telling the story of Jesus, it is ONLY in the book of John that we find Jesus using “I am” statements.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life; he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live.” You won’t find that, or anything like it, in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. “I am the true vine.” “Whatever you ask in my name…” It is the book of John that laid the foundation for the bulk of our worship of Jesus the man, even though that worship was in direct contradiction to Jesus’ reported wishes and teaching.

This is not to say that John should be ignored. We don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We just want to keep things in perspective. In many ways, there is a lot more truth and a lot more depth of truth in the book of John than there is in the other three gospels. But in order to present that depth of truth, it was necessary for John to flesh Jesus out into a character who could bear the weight of these new aspects of truth.

In our two scriptures this morning we have the classic story of Jesus and the cripple who was made to walk. This is a miracle performed at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It is also, according to Matthew, when he first meets Matthew, the tax collector, and asks him to follow him and to become his disciple.

There are some key things to note here. The first is that when Jesus makes note of the faith of those who bring the paralytic to him, he says, “Have courage, my son; your sins have been forgiven.” It is in Jesus’ recognition of the belief of the paralytic and his companions that he is moved to declare that the man’s sins are forgiven. Sin, of course, is thinking, feeling, or doing wrong, or missing the mark. What has the man’s sin to do with his being paralyzed? Apparently everything, for Jesus, when questioned by the scribes, “in their hearts,” declares their thinking to be evil and then equates the man’s sin with his paralyzed condition. Glory, hallelujah. What power of perception; a direct connection between our thinking and our physical expression.

Jesus, with his statement, “Your sins are forgiven,” didn’t just “heal” the man, as most churches teach, but he explained a great principle to everyone, that it is our thinking, and feeling, and acting which determines who and what and how we are and the kind of world in which we live.

And lest we doubt it, Jesus then says, “But that you might know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, ‘Arise, take up your quilt and go to your home.’” And the man rose and went home. His life and his reality had changed, as though in an instant. He was crippled and now he walks. And “the crowds saw it,” and they were “frightened” (that means that they were impressed), and “they glorified God.” Why? “Because he had given such power as this to men.”

See, the people knew and understood this simple truth. This truth that first appeared in Genesis, that we have been given power by God, our creator, sufficient that we are co-creators with the Father. It doesn’t say that they saw that Jesus had the power; it says that they “glorified God because he had given such power as this to men.” To you and to me. Glory! Hallelujah! Praise God!

Now, you know me. I like to examine things thoroughly. And so, to make sure that this “story” is not a fluke of Matthew’s imagination to lend importance to his first meeting with Jesus, lets look at the story as reported in Mark, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 14.

“And Jesus entered again into Capernaum for a few days; and when they heard that he was in a certain house,

“A great many gathered together so that it was impossible to hold them, not even in front of the entrance; so he spoke a few words to them.

“And they came to him, and brought a paralyzed man, carried by four men.

“But as they were unable to come near him because of the crowd, they went up to the roof and uncovered it over the place where Jesus was; and they lowered the quilt in which the paralyzed man lay.

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, My son, your sins are forgiven.

“Now some of the scribes and Pharisees were sitting there, and they reasoned in their hearts,

“Why does this man speak blasphemy? Who can forgive sins except God only?

“But Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were reasoning among themselves, and he said to them, Why do you reason these things in your heart?

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven; or to say, Rise, take up your quilt and walk?

“But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic,

“I tell you, Rise, take up your quilt, and go to your house.

“And immediately he rose, and took up his quilt and went out before the eyes of them all; and they were all amazed, and gave glory to God, saying, We have never seen anything like it.

“And he went out again by the seaside, and all the people kept coming to him, and he taught them.

“And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the custom house, and he said to him, Follow me; and he got up and followed him.”

Whoa. Levi, the son of Alphaeus? What happened to Matthew? Well, the earlier remembrance was Matthew’s remembrance. This is Mark’s remembrance. We all see things through our own perceptions.

Now, here, Jesus recognizes that the scribes are “reasoning in their hearts” rather than Matthew’s take that they were “thinking evil in their hearts.” Sometimes our reasoning causes us to not see the truth of what is happening, and that’s what makes evil come into existence, when we refuse to recognize the truth, and instead we choose to believe the lies.

Again, we have a very important statement reiterated by Mark, “But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins.” The Son of man. Here Jesus lets us know that he is one of us. He is not a trick baby, as later stories attributed to his origins. He is the Son of man, and it is therefore to all men that God has given these abilities.

And finally, what happens when we exercise our God-given abilities? The people say, “We have never seen anything like it.”

Now, let’s get John’s take on this story. From chapter 5, verses 1 through 9:

“After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

“Now there was at Jerusalem a baptismal pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five entrances.

“And at these entrances a great many sick people were lying, the blind
, the lame, and the crippled; and they were waiting for the water to be stirred up;

“For an angel of God went down at a certain time to the baptismal pool and stirred up the water; and whoever went in first after the stirring of the water was healed of any disease he had.

“A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.

“Jesus saw this man lying down, and he knew that he had been waiting for a long time; so he said to him, Do you wish to be healed?

“The sick man answered, saying, Yes, my Lord; but I have no man, when the water is stirred up, to put me into the baptismal pool; but while I am coming, another one goes in before me.

“Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your quilt and walk.

“And the man was healed immediately, and he got up and took his quilt and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.”

John has a different approach here. I’m certain that is because John is less concerned with relating the situation and the circumstances of what happened than he is to analyzing some of the finer points. This can play havoc for the literalists, yet it can sometimes give them real firepower when taken out of context with the other perceptions of the story.

John has Jesus approaching the man. The importance here for John is not God’s gift to mankind of being creators of their universe. John’s purpose for relating this story is to use it as a vehicle to deal with a doctrinal point, that of what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. This is clearly a Jewish story that John is relating. As his narrative continues, John has the “Jews” questioning the healed man instead of just questioning Jesus, and the “Jews” ultimately deciding to persecute and “kill” Jesus. John is using this story to set up a scenario for separating Christianity from it’s Jewish roots by having the “Jews” condemning Jesus and his works.

But even with all of that, we still have the basic fact that one who had the faith of 38 years of desiring healing, is instantly healed when the healing word is spoken. It is truly our belief that makes it so.

My dear friends, it is what we believe, what is in our consciousness, that determines what outpictures in our lives. It is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that such a lesson is laid out for us. So our lives become a constant effort to overcome the limitations of our conditioning that cause us to believe that it is the appearances of the world which determine our lot in life.

God has been so good to me to allow me the privilege of having grandchildren even though I chose, years ago, not to have children. To see and experience, first hand, the incredible pristine state of wonderment and openness which is at the core of our creation as it expresses in and through children before the conditioning of cultural circumstances hides it from us is extraordinary. But it is merely hidden from our awareness. Though hidden, that awareness still exists within each and every one of us, awaiting our recognition.

Awake, thou that sleepest. Remember the truth of who and what you are. Accept your divinity. Reawaken that part of your consciousness that recognizes your divine origins and heal yourself and your world. Amen.

- posted by Charles DeTurk @ 12:01 AM

 
"WHAT IS GOING ON?"

I’d like to begin with the Lord’s Prayer as spoken in Jesus’ tongue of ancient Aramaic.

Awoon dwashmaya
Nith kadashe schmakh
Teh they mulkootha
Neh way say wee a nakh
Aikana dwashmaya op bar ah
How-lan lahma
Dsoon kanan yow-mana
Wash woklan hau bain
Aikana dap h’nan shwakan l hiya wayne
Wla ta'lan l'neeseeyona ella pasan min beesha
Mitol delahe mulkootha
Oo hailah otesh boktha
La alim almein amen

Recently I spoke with you about a spiritual elitism that I have detected of late. Actually, that type of self-centered attitude has always been with us, but lately it seems to be more pronounced. Part of it is evident in what I have come to term “the theology of the media.” This is the religious, moral tone that has been incorporated into the frontline new media's approach to coverage and presentation of the stories that pass for "news." It was this theology of the media that led one news anchor, after the crash of John Kennedy Jr.'s plane, to try to badger Rev. Billy Graham into saying that there is no hope and that faith is useless.

Billy, however, affirmed over and over that faith in God is the ultimate reality if we are to continue to grow and survive. Now, those are my words, but I'm sure that Rev. Graham would agree with my synopsis of his comments. He did state, repeatedly, that we must have "faith in God." Faith in God.

A couple of years ago, Sherri and I attended a series of classes conducted by Dr. Rocco Errico entitled, "The Kingdom or the Cross." The thrust of the classes was to discover the message of Jesus. Was it the message of the Kingdom or was it the message of the Cross. Well, as soon as I hear that question, I automatically know that the answer is that Jesus' message was that the kingdom of heaven is within you. And I assume that it is quite obvious to everyone that that was the thrust of his message during his ministry on this level of existence. Yet I know that it is not true that the message of the kingdom is as obvious to everyone else as it is to me.

Historically, the church has appeared to teach the message of the cross. What are the differences between those two messages? Well, the message of the "kingdom within" is a message of love and hope and freedom and trust and growth and power and triumph, while the message of the cross is suffering and shame and pain and struggle. The message of the kingdom is “here and now” while the message of the cross is “someday.” And that's an important distinction to realize, for when we hear people criticize the current circumstances in the world, oftentimes what we are hearing is a reiteration of the message of the cross. If Lenny Bruce were alive today, he would say that they make their claims because of a screwed up religious background.

Before we continue, I want to be certain that we get this perfectly straight. Jesus did NOT teach suffering, struggle, pain, shame, sin, judgment, condemnation, hatred, punishment, belittlement, payback, delayed gratification, revenge, jealousy, or criticism. In fact, what Jesus taught was in opposition to every single one of those concepts. Jesus taught love, faith, forgiveness, absolute redemption, and grace. Jesus taught that we are not only creations of God, but that we are, in fact, like children of God, and therefore we are heirs to all of God’s good.

Jesus taught that we should become as little children if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven. To become as little children is to return to that state of our being which existed before we were conditioned to judge by appearances. It is to regain that sense of consciousness when we were still filled with wonder and awe at this incredible creation of God in expression around, about, and through each and every one of us.

But those teachings of this great and loving master got sublimated following his death to the grief experienced by his followers. Understand that the death of Jesus was a tremendous shock to Jesus’ disciples and followers. They honestly believed that he was ushering in the new heaven and the new earth, the kingdom of God here on this planet. When he was crucified, all of their dreams became like the dust that is scattered by the wind.

The teachings of Jesus of love and forgiveness, however, became more adulterated with every day that passed following his crucifixion. In order to perpetuate his teachings, Jesus’ followers felt that it was necessary to also perpetuate his memory. Because of the abrupt and tragic end to Jesus’ ministry on this plane, his followers were in a quandary regarding what they should do and what they should believe. Early on, schisms began to spring up in the group of followers. These schisms had to do with the difference in the memories and perceptions and interpretations of those who knew Jesus and also those who knew of Jesus.

One of the major schisms, which ultimately led to a complete split in the church a thousand years after Jesus’ ministry had to do with the question of whether Jesus was God, or spirit, or if he was a physical man. The church elders haggled over that question for a thousand years, finally splitting the church in two. And there are still people, to this day, another 1000 years later, who continue to argue that question. All because they can’t, or won’t, understand that both answers are right. Jesus is spirit become flesh. And his message was that that is the very same truth about each and every one of us.

What we think of as spirit is not separate and apart from the flesh. The flesh is, rather, spirit in expression, but it is spirit just the same. And yet there are people who would argue with what I just said by claiming that I hadn’t adequately delineated between spirit and the flesh. It’s like somehow thinking that you can remove all of the hydrogen and the oxygen from the ocean and still have an ocean. Hydrogen and oxygen are the atoms that create the water which comprises the majority of the ocean and gives it it’s basic identity. Spirit is the same way. It is what comprises our fleshly existence and gives us our basic identity.

One of the greatest lessons that Jesus had to share with us was how to deal with one another. Yep, it was a lesson in human relations. He taught us to love one another, to forgive one another, to not judge one another. He taught that we should even love our enemies, that we turn the other cheek when struck, and that we should pray for those that persecute us. Yet, throughout history, the churches that purport to be followers of Jesus’ teachings have methodically accused, slandered, burned, murdered, and judged countless millions of God’s creations.

One of the biggest activities of humanity that gets us in deep trouble is when we judge others. The lead character in John Brunner’s book, “Shockwave Rider,” says that if evil exists in the world it is in treating people as though they are things. And one of the sure ways of accomplishing that sort of evil is in labeling other people. Jews, kikes, niggers, honkies, gangsters, politicians, communists, liberals, conservatives, perverts, queers, straights, rugrats, old fogeys, hippies, infidels, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and on and on and on. There seems to be no end to the labels that we use to group people together so that we don’t have to deal with their individual, unique humanity. And in so doing, we ignore each human’s spirituality. Our spirituality is at its zenith in our uniqueness, and to be labeled as anything less than that denies our divine uniqueness.

Labeling one another begins innocently enough by acknowledging our commonalities, those things, ideas, traits, attributes, identities, likes, dislikes that we share with others. And there’s nothing really wrong with that. However, it’s when we use those labels of commonality to judge others that we become evil. “Evil” is “live” spelled backwards, and when we judge others as a group, we are denying the life that each one in that group is expressing and we are choosing instead to identify them as things. What we don’t realize is that when we do that to others we are also doing it to ourselves.

Recently I related to you how I had noted that a number of people professing various deep spiritual beliefs and principles were decrying the sad state in which the world finds itself. In reading and listening to these pronouncements I became aware that there was an inherent evil lurking within these individuals’ professed concern over their perceived lack of proper spiritual direction in those around them. For every example they would use to support their judgmental viewpoint, I could think of many individuals whom I knew who were, by their very nature and activity, a denial of the claims that these people were making.

We’ve all heard it. Oh, woe is us, the world is in such bad shape. Somehow we need to take control of what’s going on out there and make these people get in shape and toe the line and live a more spiritual and fulfilling life. Right? Many of the churches are saying that. The politicians are saying that. The media is saying that through their choices of presentation and through innuendo. The corporations are saying that through their efforts to control the lives of their employees.

But let’s take a step back. Here we have a planet spinning in space in more than six directions at once at a combined speed of over 2 ½ million miles per hour. This planet, or spaceship, as I like to think of it, is populated with a crew of over 6 billion individual unique human expressions of God. The crew, or inhabitants, have divided themselves up into hundreds of countries, hundreds of languages, hundreds of spiritual and religious beliefs, and thousands of other ways of separating themselves from one another. Yet, since we’re all on this spaceship together, we’re all in this together, and it would therefore be in our better interests to invest more time in discovering how we can get along with one another.

One hundred years ago, after millions of years on this planet/spaceship, we had finally gotten our cooperative growth together to the extent that 5% of the crew of this spaceship had adequate food, clothing, and shelter. Adequate means enough to qualify as regular, sufficient, and reliable. One in twenty people on the planet had clothes on their back, a roof over their head, and daily bread. The other 19 out of every 20 was still struggling for those basics.

During the next 70 years, that percentage of haves rose from 5% to 50% of the world’s population. A ten-fold increase. In 1970, 10 out of every 20 people had adequate food, clothing and shelter. And that percentage has continued to increase over the past 30 years. Now, let me ask you, do you think your chances of making a place for yourself in life was better 100 years ago when the odds were 1 in 20 or now when the odds are much greater than 50/50?

Here in Atlanta, people are complaining about the traffic everyday, yet I drive in it myself and I note that 99.99% of the people drive the highways without mishap and that extreme traffic jams are the exception rather than the norm. Here in America, with the crime rate falling every single year for over a decade now, people are complaining about rising crime.

A few years ago it was noted in the news that the U.S. has now imprisoned it’s 2 millionth citizen. That’s right, there are now over 2 million people in jail in the U.S. But that’s just part of the story. There are 6 million more people in jail in the rest of the world. That’s 8 million people in jail around the world. Pretty impressive, right? But wait a minute. Let’s look closer at those numbers. If 8 million are in jail worldwide and 2 million of those are in U.S. jails, then one in every four prisoners in the world is in an American jail. One in every 20 people in the world, or 5%, are Americans, yet we are housing 25% of the world’s prisoners. That means that we have one person in jail for every 50 persons on the street, whereas the rest of the world has one person in jail for every 1000 on the street. That means that we put 20 times more people per capita behind bars than the rest of the world. And we call this the land of the free.

Now, why am I talking about all of this, and on a Sunday morning, and in a religious setting? Well, as I have said before, I hear a lot of people complaining. They’re complaining about how they have no time and about how bad life has gotten, and about how the government intrudes upon their lives, and about how bad the traffic is, the air is, the water is, the children are, the boss is, the spouse is, the city is, the country is, the world is, is is, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that’s okay. When God created us we were given even the freedom to complain, no matter whether those complaints were justified or not.

But when I hear people make these complaints and other such complaints and they do so from a stance of claiming to be spiritual, or religious, or whatever other elitist stance they choose to take, I’m going to stand up and draw the line. And as I draw this line, I want to point out that much of this criticizing and complaining arises from a “screwed up religious background.”

For thousands of years, religions have taught the status quo. The status quo? That’s right. They have taught what life has appeared to be: struggle, hardship, sacrifice, tragedy, sickness, death. And they have passed that appearance off as the will of God, as the way God meant it to be.

But then 30 years ago that all changed. For the first time in history over half the world’s population had become haves. Do you realize what’s happened in the past 30 years? Personal computers, super computers, the Concorde jet, the Internet, CD’s, DVD’s, the Space Shuttle, implants allowing the blind to see, clones, growing human skin and organs in the lab. The creative output continues on and escalates as it goes.

We now live in a world where we can be in touch with practically anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime. And people are complaining that the computer is destroying our communications with one another. People, as little as one hundred years ago only 5% of the world had adequate food, clothing and shelter. There was no air conditioning, no planes, no automobiles to speak of, no radio, no television, no telephone, no telegraph, no satellites, no refrigeration, no daily newspaper delivery. What kind of communication do you think people had then?

Sherri was talking with a guy in Australia one day on the Internet about how to plant grapevines. I’ve been talking with people in Indonesia, Finland, Australia, Africa, and other places, about translations of the Bible from Aramaic. These are people I never would have had the opportunity of meeting were it any other time in history. Ever! And people are complaining about how the Internet is destroying our communication with one another. Friends, communication is not being destroyed. It is merely continuing to change and grow as we change and grow.

A little over 200 years ago, George Washington has been quoted as saying, “We haven’t heard from Benjamin Franklin in England in the past year. Perhaps we should send him a letter.” If we have any real major problems in this incredible day and age, it is, perhaps that we have become out of touch with our extreme good fortune as a result of the negative religious conditioning to which we have all been exposed for thousands of years.

The time has come for us to break free from the shadowy bonds of religious conditioning that has taught us that limitation is the norm and to return to the clarity of the truth of our own spirituality. It’s time for us to heed the revolutionary message of Jesus that the kingdom of heaven is within us. Right now. Not some time in the future. Not only after we have performed some sort of ritual. Not after we have lived an exemplary life. The only acceptable time is now. Yesterday is just a memory. Tomorrow is just a promise. The only time is now.

In every case when people came to Jesus for help, his response was always the same. Your faith has made you whole. Go and sin no more. That is Jesus message to you and to me. It is your faith that makes you whole. It is not ritual and technique and sacrifice. It is your belief, a belief that is so deep that it is unshakable. Paul called it the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Believe with all your heart and mind and soul. This is the fulfillment of the first commandment, to love God. The second commandment is to love everyone else as you love yourself, as God’s child. Then, in that consciousness, go and sin no more. Go forth and cease feeling separate and apart from God.


- posted by Charles DeTurk @ 12:01 AM