"And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
God delivers you from all evil, from anything that makes you hurt, be unhappy, uneasy, distraught, anxious, nervous, fearful. God delivers you, not only from evil, but from anything that even makes you anticipate evil, and from all the feelings that that negative anticipation brings.
Instead God leads you into confidence in His will for you, His loving plan for you. So when fear comes calling, let yourself lean on God. Lean on His ability to help you and heal you, to guide you to do the work you need to do, to love the people you need to love, and - maybe the hardest thing of all- to let yourself really love you.
God reflects in you every good thought and quality that you need to meet your day today. He stirs you to hear His intuitions, His guidance. Listen for it. He has already given you the perfect qualities you need to meet the challenges you face today, to help and heal and perform the work that is set before you today.
So relax. Rest in God's love - and in His guidance. And be alert! Watch for what He is doing. Look for it. Witness what God, Divine Love, has prepared for you and for those around you. Yes, really look for it! And you will see it! And it is always always always better than you could have ever imagined.
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
"The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it."
Showing posts with label being led. Show all posts
Showing posts with label being led. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Enable us to know...
"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.
So, yes, "enable us to know" instead of just "believe."
And yes, "give us this day our daily bread" - just 7 words, but what powerful words they are. They give us everything. They "feed our famished affections" - all our needs, desires, wants - all satisfied and fed. How? because they feed us our daily communion with God, the Bread of Life - they feed us our daily experience of Him, give us our daily grace, our daily peace, and joy, and power - that overcomes all sense of absence or lack or need.
So yes. Give us of this Bread that fulfills all hunger or lack or want, this Ever-Presence that abundantly satisfies every human need.
And so we'll be led - not into evil - but saved from sin by His ever-presence, freed from disease by His omnipotent power, and delivered even from death by His glory - forever.
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.
So, yes, "enable us to know" instead of just "believe."
And yes, "give us this day our daily bread" - just 7 words, but what powerful words they are. They give us everything. They "feed our famished affections" - all our needs, desires, wants - all satisfied and fed. How? because they feed us our daily communion with God, the Bread of Life - they feed us our daily experience of Him, give us our daily grace, our daily peace, and joy, and power - that overcomes all sense of absence or lack or need.
So yes. Give us of this Bread that fulfills all hunger or lack or want, this Ever-Presence that abundantly satisfies every human need.
And so we'll be led - not into evil - but saved from sin by His ever-presence, freed from disease by His omnipotent power, and delivered even from death by His glory - forever.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
What exactly are we being saved and delivered from anyway?
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
Temptation sounds kinda fun. But a lot of Bible translations use the word "trial" where the King James version uses "temptation." "Trial" doesn't sound like much fun. That's because what Jesus is talking about here in this verse of the Lord's prayer is very pointedly exposing evil for what it is: NOT fun. In fact, just the opposite. Evil is what would - if it could - suck the life and love and joy right out of you. It would love for you to think that "temptation" is kinda fun, because then you'd voluntarily give up your life to it. But Jesus tells us evil is a "liar and the father of it". Don't buy the lie.
And what exactly is the lie?
Sin = is thinking you want to be separated from God, that you are better off being separated from God;
Sickness = is thinking that you must be separated from God because of contagion, heredity, circumstances, "world beliefs."
Death = is thinking you are finally separated from God because sin and sickness cause death - the ultimate lie of separation from Life, God.
Fortunately for us, Jesus gave us his prayer that proves God never leads us into evil, never leads us into these evil lies, but delivers us into holiness, health, and wholeness of life.
So what is this wholeness / holiness thing then? Is it some "better than you" goodie-goodie human perfection? Does it require you to become some ascetic mystic wrapped in self-denial and a vow of poverty? Is it being morally pure and always "doing the right thing"?
No.
It is the opposite of such human ego-trips and moralism.
Does that shock you?
It shouldn't. Human moralism puts "what is right" ahead of what is spiritually true. It judges by the letter of the law instead of the spirit. It is all about appearances instead of substance.
What Jesus taught is God's reality being made manifest. Jesus always put spirituality first. He constantly broke human "moral" law - often to prove the point that living the letter but not the spirit was a phony, and dangerous and usually hypocritical way of living.
Jesus always acted from what is true about God. And he always acted from what is true about us as His image and likeness. He always lived and acted from the point of God as Spirit, of God as Love.
Here's how Jesus categorically shut down human "moralism":
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
And then he silenced moralism for all time by saying:
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Right and wrong are not based on following dietary codes, religious traditions, tribal or national customs, or even things your parents told you.
There are only these 2 commandments.
And - if you are able to live your life from these two points, you will have fullfilled "all the law and the prophets" - all other ethical and moral standards.
Why?
Because you will be living out from the Christ, from the truth about who God is, and about who you are, and about who your neighbor (which includes the world) is as His creation, His reflection. You will be living out from a fundamental spiritual Truth: God actually is Love. And you and everyone you encounter actually are His image and likeness.
So love God - be utterly grateful that God is good, is Love itself. And then recognize His image and likeness - love His image and likeness - in every one you meet. And you will be fulfilling your own identity - living out from your core purpose - as His image and likeness - the living breathing acting image and likeness of Divine Love itself. Because that is who you really are.
None of this has anything to do with your national culture, your upbringing, your heredity, human character, what you've been taught, or human "morality" good bad or indifferent. You can't "make" yourself holy (which is what moralism claims). But you can awake to it - since it is already your everpresent natural state of being.
Huh?
Yes. If God is good (and He is), and if you are made in His image and likeness (and you are), then yes, holiness is your natural state of being. It is your God-given Christliness. It is the fulfillment of "Be ye holy; for I am holy." It is the opposite of moralism. It is living out from the Holy Spirit always.
Jesus lived his divine holiness - even though he was repeatedly accused of being immoral. And according to the literal understanding of the Law, he was. He routinely broke the sabbath by healing people. He and his disciples ate with unwashed hands. He spoke to Samaritans. He touched lepers. The world's "morality" is a dim shadow of the spiritual Truth of being that Jesus lived, taught, and demonstrated. In fact, it was that worldly "morality" that crucified him. But he proved that literal morality to be false and powerless with his resurrection and ascension.
Jesus' entire life proved the spiritual truth found in the 1st chapter of Genesis, the 10 Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount. His morality was always an outgrowth of his spiritual understanding. His actions were always the expression of his deepest conviction that God is Love. And he summed up "all the law and the prophets" in those two short commandments:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.... And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
This is also your natural state of being here and now. Jesus proved it so you may live it. His holiness - His salvation - is this spiritual awakening made manifest in your life. This spirituality lived is the true morality Jesus expects of us.
God never leads us into temptation, into firery trials and torturous self-denials, into sin, disease, and death, but always only delivers us into Love, Truth, and Life as His living likeness!
Hallelujah!
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
Temptation sounds kinda fun. But a lot of Bible translations use the word "trial" where the King James version uses "temptation." "Trial" doesn't sound like much fun. That's because what Jesus is talking about here in this verse of the Lord's prayer is very pointedly exposing evil for what it is: NOT fun. In fact, just the opposite. Evil is what would - if it could - suck the life and love and joy right out of you. It would love for you to think that "temptation" is kinda fun, because then you'd voluntarily give up your life to it. But Jesus tells us evil is a "liar and the father of it". Don't buy the lie.
And what exactly is the lie?
Sin = is thinking you want to be separated from God, that you are better off being separated from God;
Sickness = is thinking that you must be separated from God because of contagion, heredity, circumstances, "world beliefs."
Death = is thinking you are finally separated from God because sin and sickness cause death - the ultimate lie of separation from Life, God.
Fortunately for us, Jesus gave us his prayer that proves God never leads us into evil, never leads us into these evil lies, but delivers us into holiness, health, and wholeness of life.
So what is this wholeness / holiness thing then? Is it some "better than you" goodie-goodie human perfection? Does it require you to become some ascetic mystic wrapped in self-denial and a vow of poverty? Is it being morally pure and always "doing the right thing"?
No.
It is the opposite of such human ego-trips and moralism.
Does that shock you?
It shouldn't. Human moralism puts "what is right" ahead of what is spiritually true. It judges by the letter of the law instead of the spirit. It is all about appearances instead of substance.
What Jesus taught is God's reality being made manifest. Jesus always put spirituality first. He constantly broke human "moral" law - often to prove the point that living the letter but not the spirit was a phony, and dangerous and usually hypocritical way of living.
Jesus always acted from what is true about God. And he always acted from what is true about us as His image and likeness. He always lived and acted from the point of God as Spirit, of God as Love.
Here's how Jesus categorically shut down human "moralism":
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
And then he silenced moralism for all time by saying:
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Right and wrong are not based on following dietary codes, religious traditions, tribal or national customs, or even things your parents told you.
There are only these 2 commandments.
And - if you are able to live your life from these two points, you will have fullfilled "all the law and the prophets" - all other ethical and moral standards.
Why?
Because you will be living out from the Christ, from the truth about who God is, and about who you are, and about who your neighbor (which includes the world) is as His creation, His reflection. You will be living out from a fundamental spiritual Truth: God actually is Love. And you and everyone you encounter actually are His image and likeness.
So love God - be utterly grateful that God is good, is Love itself. And then recognize His image and likeness - love His image and likeness - in every one you meet. And you will be fulfilling your own identity - living out from your core purpose - as His image and likeness - the living breathing acting image and likeness of Divine Love itself. Because that is who you really are.
None of this has anything to do with your national culture, your upbringing, your heredity, human character, what you've been taught, or human "morality" good bad or indifferent. You can't "make" yourself holy (which is what moralism claims). But you can awake to it - since it is already your everpresent natural state of being.
Huh?
Yes. If God is good (and He is), and if you are made in His image and likeness (and you are), then yes, holiness is your natural state of being. It is your God-given Christliness. It is the fulfillment of "Be ye holy; for I am holy." It is the opposite of moralism. It is living out from the Holy Spirit always.
Jesus lived his divine holiness - even though he was repeatedly accused of being immoral. And according to the literal understanding of the Law, he was. He routinely broke the sabbath by healing people. He and his disciples ate with unwashed hands. He spoke to Samaritans. He touched lepers. The world's "morality" is a dim shadow of the spiritual Truth of being that Jesus lived, taught, and demonstrated. In fact, it was that worldly "morality" that crucified him. But he proved that literal morality to be false and powerless with his resurrection and ascension.
Jesus' entire life proved the spiritual truth found in the 1st chapter of Genesis, the 10 Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount. His morality was always an outgrowth of his spiritual understanding. His actions were always the expression of his deepest conviction that God is Love. And he summed up "all the law and the prophets" in those two short commandments:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.... And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
This is also your natural state of being here and now. Jesus proved it so you may live it. His holiness - His salvation - is this spiritual awakening made manifest in your life. This spirituality lived is the true morality Jesus expects of us.
God never leads us into temptation, into firery trials and torturous self-denials, into sin, disease, and death, but always only delivers us into Love, Truth, and Life as His living likeness!
Hallelujah!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
And lead us...
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
And lead us not inot the tempation to think we are nice little egos, "independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators," but deliver us from this evil parading as a personal id and ego, a mortal being, an animal self, separated from God. Deliver us from this evil - this mistaken upside down view of who we really are.
Instead, think more about being - reflecting and understanding - God's true nature instead of patting your "ego" on the back for how clever and creative and smart it is. God is the great I Am - not you. Don't get your relationship to God confused: you are not God. You are God's reflection, God's expression, God's inseparable manifestation. You are God-being.
Focus on that.
Ask yourself: how much "being" am I doing? How vibrant is my reflection of God's nature? How active is my expression of Love? How rich and fruitful and alive is it? How conscious am I of Mind? How much do I listen to divine inspiration, to the inspired intuition that is constantly present in thought?
The answer may depend on how clean your mental "window pane" is. Is your thought clear and clean for the Light of God to shine through you, as you? Can you see it? Does everyone around you see it? Do you share it freely? or do you think you can hoard it to yourself? think that it's personal to you? think it needs to be guarded or doled out only to those whom you deam "worthy."
If the latter, then you have things horribly backwards. Let that go, and reverse course! Take your light out from under that dismal bushel basket of the human ego and let the Light of God shine! This is not only your true purpose, it is your divine right.
God never leads us into the temptation to think we are separate little egos that must fend for ourselves. Therefore we can rejoice that God delivers and awakens us to our true purpose: to reflect the unconditional, glorious, Light of Divine Love - to everyone, everywhere.
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
And lead us not inot the tempation to think we are nice little egos, "independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators," but deliver us from this evil parading as a personal id and ego, a mortal being, an animal self, separated from God. Deliver us from this evil - this mistaken upside down view of who we really are.
Instead, think more about being - reflecting and understanding - God's true nature instead of patting your "ego" on the back for how clever and creative and smart it is. God is the great I Am - not you. Don't get your relationship to God confused: you are not God. You are God's reflection, God's expression, God's inseparable manifestation. You are God-being.
Focus on that.
Ask yourself: how much "being" am I doing? How vibrant is my reflection of God's nature? How active is my expression of Love? How rich and fruitful and alive is it? How conscious am I of Mind? How much do I listen to divine inspiration, to the inspired intuition that is constantly present in thought?
The answer may depend on how clean your mental "window pane" is. Is your thought clear and clean for the Light of God to shine through you, as you? Can you see it? Does everyone around you see it? Do you share it freely? or do you think you can hoard it to yourself? think that it's personal to you? think it needs to be guarded or doled out only to those whom you deam "worthy."
If the latter, then you have things horribly backwards. Let that go, and reverse course! Take your light out from under that dismal bushel basket of the human ego and let the Light of God shine! This is not only your true purpose, it is your divine right.
God never leads us into the temptation to think we are separate little egos that must fend for ourselves. Therefore we can rejoice that God delivers and awakens us to our true purpose: to reflect the unconditional, glorious, Light of Divine Love - to everyone, everywhere.
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