"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.
This verse of the Lord's Prayer specifically challenges the old theology that says God is vengeful, capricious; that He throws hurdles - trials - at us to tempt us and test us.
Think how often God is mistakenly portrayed this way in popular theology - not only during Jesus' time, but even in our own! People still hear (and fear) "If you do [fill in the blank] God will punish you!"
But in this verse of the Lord's Prayer Jesus says NO to this way of thinking.
His entire prayer is a radical departure from such a view of God. In Jesus' view, God is "Our Father." And Jesus shows us our Father's name and nature are to be hallowed - adored - because our Father is Good. His all-harmonious kingdom is one you want to be in. You want God's will to be done right here where you are just as it is in Heaven. Why? because His will for you is good! How do we know? Listen to Jesus:
"...what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
And what does God give you?
Your daily bread. Your daily communion with Him. Your daily experience of Him.
And His presence shows you your forgiveness as you forgive others. His Love and forgiveness for you is reflected in your love and forgiveness of your neighbor.
And He leads you - not into temptation - but always delivers you from everything that would tempt you or try to separate you from Him: sin, disease, and even death.
Why? Because that's what happens when you open yourself to the kingdom, the presence, of God. That's what happens when invite His will to be yours. And His is the glory that envelopes you. Here. Now.
And God never leads you into trials or temptation but always delivers you into His presence, His care and authority, His Allness, His glorious Love.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Temptation and desire ...and prayer
"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.
"Our Master said, 'After this manner pray ye' and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs." That prayer is the Lord's Prayer.
What Jesus is telling us is, after this manner therefore express your desires. Put your deepest yearning into these words. Phrase your honest needs this way.
Your yearning, your desires, are a form of prayer itself, probably the most honest form of prayer. And the answer to your every prayer is found here in the meaning -the spirit - of the Lord's Prayer.
Mrs. Eddy wrote: "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."
Does that mean you can trust only your holiest desires to God? Or does it also mean you can actually trust all of your desires, all of your genuine honest heartfelt, soul-felt and yes, body-felt, desires to God? Yes, it does.
Mrs. Eddy makes another astute observation: "Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help." She also writes: "We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are."
The best place to start your prayer is by examining - and honestly acknowledging - your real desires. Not the desires you think you should have. Not the ones that other people think are good for you. Not the ones society as a whole preaches about. But yours. What you feel deeply and sincerely - good, bad, or indifferent!
And oh everyone - including you - is "praying" this way all the time! It's just that most people never realize that what they're cherising in their heart, what they're desiring, what they're focusing on, is actually a prayer.
And what everyone - including you - usually forget to do, is to actually trust God with those desires. Instead, you trust your desire to the ego's self-indulgence! And then your prayer gets answered with busyness instead of Life, entertainment instead of Truth, part-time pleasures instead of Love - fantasy instead of Reality!
But that's OK. Everyone does it. Just pay more attention. Don't let the ego's little temptations lead you down its deadend roads. Instead, be aware of what you are honestly desiring in your heart. Notice it. Bring it out into the open. Don't be afraid of it. NEVER be afraid to be completely honest with yourself about your heart's true feelings! and NEVER be afraid to completely trust those feelings, those desires, those deep deep yearnings to your Father-Mother God.
And God never leads us into tempation, but always delivers us into holiness, and wholeness, and Life!
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
"Our Master said, 'After this manner pray ye' and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs." That prayer is the Lord's Prayer.
What Jesus is telling us is, after this manner therefore express your desires. Put your deepest yearning into these words. Phrase your honest needs this way.
Your yearning, your desires, are a form of prayer itself, probably the most honest form of prayer. And the answer to your every prayer is found here in the meaning -the spirit - of the Lord's Prayer.
Mrs. Eddy wrote: "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."
Does that mean you can trust only your holiest desires to God? Or does it also mean you can actually trust all of your desires, all of your genuine honest heartfelt, soul-felt and yes, body-felt, desires to God? Yes, it does.
Mrs. Eddy makes another astute observation: "Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help." She also writes: "We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are."
The best place to start your prayer is by examining - and honestly acknowledging - your real desires. Not the desires you think you should have. Not the ones that other people think are good for you. Not the ones society as a whole preaches about. But yours. What you feel deeply and sincerely - good, bad, or indifferent!
And oh everyone - including you - is "praying" this way all the time! It's just that most people never realize that what they're cherising in their heart, what they're desiring, what they're focusing on, is actually a prayer.
And what everyone - including you - usually forget to do, is to actually trust God with those desires. Instead, you trust your desire to the ego's self-indulgence! And then your prayer gets answered with busyness instead of Life, entertainment instead of Truth, part-time pleasures instead of Love - fantasy instead of Reality!
But that's OK. Everyone does it. Just pay more attention. Don't let the ego's little temptations lead you down its deadend roads. Instead, be aware of what you are honestly desiring in your heart. Notice it. Bring it out into the open. Don't be afraid of it. NEVER be afraid to be completely honest with yourself about your heart's true feelings! and NEVER be afraid to completely trust those feelings, those desires, those deep deep yearnings to your Father-Mother God.
And God never leads us into tempation, but always delivers us into holiness, and wholeness, and Life!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Love leads and delivers you
"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 is Love. How amazingly grateful you can be that God is, in fact, Love. Jesus lived this Truth throughout his blessed life, delivering everyone he encountered from sin, disease, and death. As Love's true reflection, he taught us the power of Love to lead us, and to deliver us from evil.
God never leads you into trials or temptations, because that is not the nature of Love. Love doesn't put you into impossible situations, doesn't throw you to the wolves of temptation, doesn't smite you with sickness or disease, never ever leads you into death - or even to think that death is a way to reach Him.
God is always with you. The way may be rugged. It may be difficult and fraught with tasks and even dangers that you don't think you can handle. Mrs. Eddy even says the way "is not reached through paths of flowers." But God, Love never leaves you. That rugged way is a way of demonstration. It is a way you are called on to walk because you are actually capable of walking it. It is a way that causes you to learn and to exercise your true purpose as His child, His image and likeness, His reflection.
Jesus is your example, the example for the whole world. He worked as God worked. He never shyed away from a challenge but met it with power. He refreshed himself in prayer and then went to work, Divine Love motivating every thought and act, God-being-in-action.
And this is what you are called on to do as his follower. Don't run away - demonstrate! Demonstrate your way through the challenges, the trials, the tempations that you encounter. You encounter them because you are capable of meeting them. You may not think you're able to bear the challenge, but God can. And He is right with you right now. Lean on God. You're winning the prize of spiritual growth and a tangible awareness of your closeness to Him. Hear His intuitive guidance, His (sometimes outloud) Word: "This is the way; walk ye in it."
You are rising to exercise your true being, breaking through the limited way you've always seen yourself, revealing your purpose, living Love out loud.
As the old hymn says:
Father, hear the prayer we offer;;
not for ease that prayer shall be,
But for strength, that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.
Not forever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be,
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly.
Not forever by still waters
Would we idly quiet stay,
But would smite the living fountains
From the rocks along our way.
God, divine Love itself, already leads you, and always delivers you.
And God leadeth us, not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
God is Love. How amazingly grateful you can be that God is, in fact, Love. Jesus lived this Truth throughout his blessed life, delivering everyone he encountered from sin, disease, and death. As Love's true reflection, he taught us the power of Love to lead us, and to deliver us from evil.
God never leads you into trials or temptations, because that is not the nature of Love. Love doesn't put you into impossible situations, doesn't throw you to the wolves of temptation, doesn't smite you with sickness or disease, never ever leads you into death - or even to think that death is a way to reach Him.
God is always with you. The way may be rugged. It may be difficult and fraught with tasks and even dangers that you don't think you can handle. Mrs. Eddy even says the way "is not reached through paths of flowers." But God, Love never leaves you. That rugged way is a way of demonstration. It is a way you are called on to walk because you are actually capable of walking it. It is a way that causes you to learn and to exercise your true purpose as His child, His image and likeness, His reflection.
Jesus is your example, the example for the whole world. He worked as God worked. He never shyed away from a challenge but met it with power. He refreshed himself in prayer and then went to work, Divine Love motivating every thought and act, God-being-in-action.
And this is what you are called on to do as his follower. Don't run away - demonstrate! Demonstrate your way through the challenges, the trials, the tempations that you encounter. You encounter them because you are capable of meeting them. You may not think you're able to bear the challenge, but God can. And He is right with you right now. Lean on God. You're winning the prize of spiritual growth and a tangible awareness of your closeness to Him. Hear His intuitive guidance, His (sometimes outloud) Word: "This is the way; walk ye in it."
You are rising to exercise your true being, breaking through the limited way you've always seen yourself, revealing your purpose, living Love out loud.
As the old hymn says:
Father, hear the prayer we offer;;
not for ease that prayer shall be,
But for strength, that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.
Not forever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be,
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly.
Not forever by still waters
Would we idly quiet stay,
But would smite the living fountains
From the rocks along our way.
God, divine Love itself, already leads you, and always delivers you.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Temptation and human sexuality
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"
And God leadeth us not into tempation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
If God leads us away from temptation, if He delivers us from sin, then where does human sexuality fit into the picture?
You could just as easily ask, where do bees and flowers fit into the picture?
Sexuality appears to be a temptation - evil - only when you put moralism first and spirituality last. Putting the letter ahead of the spirit is what corrupts this natural part of Life. Suppressing your natural being through human will or through blind obedience to mortal "morality" invites all sorts of problems, from perversion to self-hate and self-destruction.
Mrs. Eddy doesn't say a lot about human sexuality, but her guidance around eating and drinking may be examined in the light they shed on sexual appetite. See how Mrs. Eddy clearly shows her humanity for the differing states and stages of human consciousness:
"Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction,--that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," which is 'brought to desolation.'
"The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall either eat to live nor live to eat. "
So perhaps you can paraphrase it this way:
"Admit the common hypothesis that [sex] is the nutriment of [love], and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction,--that [sex] has power to destroy [Love], God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material [moral]-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," which is 'brought to desolation.'
"The fact is, [sex] does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop [expressing our sexuality] until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall either [have sex] to [love] nor [love] to [have sex]."
So is human will power going to help you express your sexuality?
No. But your spiritual sense will. Your intuition, your hope, faith, understanding of where God, Love, is leading you - listening to this instead of to your animal urges - is what will really satisfy you.
Is blind obedience to moralism or cultural expectations going to help you? Is peer pressure? Are pronouncements from people too wooden to care anymore about sexual expression, are they going to help you understand your way forward?
No. But your own spiritual growth will. Your own step-by-step demonstration of your true spiritual nature will. Your practicing unselfish love will. Your practicing seeing past just a sexy body to the beautiful spirit of the person who attracts you, yes that will help you grow. And so will practicing loving your *own* beautiful spirit and knowing it's worth sharing - that too will help you embrace your loving sexuality.
Human sexuality is not "dirty" or evil as much as moralistic people might want you to believe. But sexuality can take on unhealthy expression, just as it can with eating or drinking. So let your spirituality inform your morality (and not the other way around). Practicing from that standpoint will awaken you and your spiritual sense will definitely guide you.
And don't be disappointed if you don't succeed at all this spiritual growth stuff right away. It takes practice. And practicing means failing sometimes. Maybe failing a lot of times. But that's how you learn. And you need to have patience with yourself as much as you do with someone you love.
And as you practice (and fail and practice some more), remember what Jesus gave us as the two great commandments that cover all the law and the prophets: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.
Note: this implies that you do love yourself!
And remember Mrs. Eddy's wise counsel:
"Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth. "
And so do love yourself! Be patient with your human needs. Treat yourself with kindness and understanding as you strive to learn your way to a life of real Love and not just superficial sex. Divine Love wants you to have the full meal, not just mortal junk food.
Divine Love will lead you, and will deliver you. Divine Love will guide you - and your sexual expression - as surely as Love guides you in fulfilling your need for food and drink - or guides the bees to the flowers. Let inspiration and intuition awaken your spiritual nature - and your sexual expression will follow in whole and healthy and loving ways.
Remember:
"Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds. "
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"
And God never leads us into temptation, but delivers us from self-will, self-indulgence, and self-hate and into Love's warm and open and intimate embrace.
And God leadeth us not into tempation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
If God leads us away from temptation, if He delivers us from sin, then where does human sexuality fit into the picture?
You could just as easily ask, where do bees and flowers fit into the picture?
Sexuality appears to be a temptation - evil - only when you put moralism first and spirituality last. Putting the letter ahead of the spirit is what corrupts this natural part of Life. Suppressing your natural being through human will or through blind obedience to mortal "morality" invites all sorts of problems, from perversion to self-hate and self-destruction.
Mrs. Eddy doesn't say a lot about human sexuality, but her guidance around eating and drinking may be examined in the light they shed on sexual appetite. See how Mrs. Eddy clearly shows her humanity for the differing states and stages of human consciousness:
"Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction,--that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," which is 'brought to desolation.'
"The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall either eat to live nor live to eat. "
So perhaps you can paraphrase it this way:
"Admit the common hypothesis that [sex] is the nutriment of [love], and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction,--that [sex] has power to destroy [Love], God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material [moral]-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," which is 'brought to desolation.'
"The fact is, [sex] does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop [expressing our sexuality] until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall either [have sex] to [love] nor [love] to [have sex]."
So is human will power going to help you express your sexuality?
No. But your spiritual sense will. Your intuition, your hope, faith, understanding of where God, Love, is leading you - listening to this instead of to your animal urges - is what will really satisfy you.
Is blind obedience to moralism or cultural expectations going to help you? Is peer pressure? Are pronouncements from people too wooden to care anymore about sexual expression, are they going to help you understand your way forward?
No. But your own spiritual growth will. Your own step-by-step demonstration of your true spiritual nature will. Your practicing unselfish love will. Your practicing seeing past just a sexy body to the beautiful spirit of the person who attracts you, yes that will help you grow. And so will practicing loving your *own* beautiful spirit and knowing it's worth sharing - that too will help you embrace your loving sexuality.
Human sexuality is not "dirty" or evil as much as moralistic people might want you to believe. But sexuality can take on unhealthy expression, just as it can with eating or drinking. So let your spirituality inform your morality (and not the other way around). Practicing from that standpoint will awaken you and your spiritual sense will definitely guide you.
And don't be disappointed if you don't succeed at all this spiritual growth stuff right away. It takes practice. And practicing means failing sometimes. Maybe failing a lot of times. But that's how you learn. And you need to have patience with yourself as much as you do with someone you love.
And as you practice (and fail and practice some more), remember what Jesus gave us as the two great commandments that cover all the law and the prophets: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.
Note: this implies that you do love yourself!
And remember Mrs. Eddy's wise counsel:
"Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth. "
And so do love yourself! Be patient with your human needs. Treat yourself with kindness and understanding as you strive to learn your way to a life of real Love and not just superficial sex. Divine Love wants you to have the full meal, not just mortal junk food.
Divine Love will lead you, and will deliver you. Divine Love will guide you - and your sexual expression - as surely as Love guides you in fulfilling your need for food and drink - or guides the bees to the flowers. Let inspiration and intuition awaken your spiritual nature - and your sexual expression will follow in whole and healthy and loving ways.
Remember:
"Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds. "
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"
And God never leads us into temptation, but delivers us from self-will, self-indulgence, and self-hate and into Love's warm and open and intimate embrace.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Lord's Prayer & The 10 Promises (Part 3)
"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.
"Thou shalt not kill."
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
This verse of our Lord's Prayer seems especially relevant to these two commandments - or promises - about our relationship with God, and therefore with each other.
God never tempts us to "kill" the pure - unadulterated - sense of ourselves or of others any more than He would tempt us to literally kill ourselves or someone else.
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
"Thou shalt not kill."
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
This verse of our Lord's Prayer seems especially relevant to these two commandments - or promises - about our relationship with God, and therefore with each other.
God never tempts us to "kill" the pure - unadulterated - sense of ourselves or of others any more than He would tempt us to literally kill ourselves or someone else.
God is Life. His assurance to us is: "I am come that [you] might have life, and that [you] might have it more abundantly." And this abundant Life includes no adulteration and no murder.
Why? because God is Life itself - and you are God's image and likeness.
Think of it:
* God made you inately and completely pure, like Him. God never leads you to be tempted into adulterating that purity.
* And God made you to live and live abundantly, like Him. You are not made to be tempted into murdering that joyous Life, whether with harsh words or a bullet - either yours or anyone else's.
God feeds your famished affections - not your famished lusts - and He feeds you with grace, abundant grace, for today.
God forgives your debts, your mistakes, your willfulness, as you live your practice, as you live His Love and share it with others.
God leads you into "paths of righteousness for His name's sake" and delivers you from sin, disease, and death - because God is love. And "when we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's."
God leads you - not into trials - but delivers you from the trial of sin, the trial of sickness, the trial of death - and even from the temptation to believe those "trials" are any part of His will or His reality for you. Because they aren't.
Jesus knew this. And Jesus repeatedly proved that God doesn't send us evil by healing everyone he encountered of sin, disease, or even death! And his prayer affirms this: God never leads you into trials and tempations, but always delivers you from every belief of evil, every tempting sense of separation from your true authentic healthy whole and holy being.
Every time you pray the Lord's Prayer, you are praying the spiritual Truth that Jesus actually thought and understood. You are dwelling with the Mind of Christ. You are living at the point of Truth, Life, and Love. You are experiencing God's reality: home & heaven. Here. Now.
And as Jesus' Prayer shows you, you are already purely whole, holy, and safe.
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!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Being delivered by recognizing Christ
To recognize a song, you have to have heard it before.
To recognize a face, you have to have seen it before.
To recognize Christ, means you already have a relationship to the Christ. Christ in already your heart.
And what is amazing, is that everyone is already capable of recognizing the Christ, no matter who they are, or what kind of life they've led. Everyone has an intuitive sense that awakens when you recognize something spiritually good. And that can only happen because the Christ is already within you, already known in your heart-of-hearts.
When Mary Magdalene (see Luke 7) barged univited into Simon the Pharisee's house to wash Jesus feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with perfumed ointment, she was proving this very thing. She recognized the Christ because that Christliness was already within her. Had that not been the case, she would have never acted like she did. Fear or shame or ignorance would have kept her out. But her impulsive actions acknowledged something that even the priestly Simon couldn't: that Jesus was the Christ. Mary knew it.
Her devotion and love of Christ was "Love being reflected in love" - her debts, her sins, being forgiven - forsaken - in the awakening of her native state, her original Christliness, her natural likeness to God. The tears she shed were her painful past being released in the joy of her awakening to her true relation to God. And she received the blessing that Simon missed, because "she loved much" because much was forgiven her. While Simon clung to his pride and position, Mary dropped her mistaken sense of self (ego) in her love for the Christ.
She entered that house - not as the prostitute (though that is all Simon saw) - but as the daughter of God. And to paraphrase Mrs. Eddy: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect [woman], who appeared to him where sinning mortal [woman] appeared to [Simon]. In this perfect [woman] the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct [Christly] view of [her healed and sealed her own Christly awakening].
Mary Magdalene continued to sit at Jesus feet the rest of her life. That was her true life purpose. She recognized the Christ because it was already within her, and she went on to live and to learn and to love much.
This Christ is also already within you. Right this moment. May you seek"...Truth, Christ ... like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.
And may you recognize your own Christliness, be awakened by it, redeemed by it, changed by it, impelled by it, and in so doing, awaken that Christly recognition in everyone you meet.
To recognize a face, you have to have seen it before.
To recognize Christ, means you already have a relationship to the Christ. Christ in already your heart.
And what is amazing, is that everyone is already capable of recognizing the Christ, no matter who they are, or what kind of life they've led. Everyone has an intuitive sense that awakens when you recognize something spiritually good. And that can only happen because the Christ is already within you, already known in your heart-of-hearts.
When Mary Magdalene (see Luke 7) barged univited into Simon the Pharisee's house to wash Jesus feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with perfumed ointment, she was proving this very thing. She recognized the Christ because that Christliness was already within her. Had that not been the case, she would have never acted like she did. Fear or shame or ignorance would have kept her out. But her impulsive actions acknowledged something that even the priestly Simon couldn't: that Jesus was the Christ. Mary knew it.
Her devotion and love of Christ was "Love being reflected in love" - her debts, her sins, being forgiven - forsaken - in the awakening of her native state, her original Christliness, her natural likeness to God. The tears she shed were her painful past being released in the joy of her awakening to her true relation to God. And she received the blessing that Simon missed, because "she loved much" because much was forgiven her. While Simon clung to his pride and position, Mary dropped her mistaken sense of self (ego) in her love for the Christ.
She entered that house - not as the prostitute (though that is all Simon saw) - but as the daughter of God. And to paraphrase Mrs. Eddy: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect [woman], who appeared to him where sinning mortal [woman] appeared to [Simon]. In this perfect [woman] the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct [Christly] view of [her healed and sealed her own Christly awakening].
Mary Magdalene continued to sit at Jesus feet the rest of her life. That was her true life purpose. She recognized the Christ because it was already within her, and she went on to live and to learn and to love much.
This Christ is also already within you. Right this moment. May you seek"...Truth, Christ ... like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.
And may you recognize your own Christliness, be awakened by it, redeemed by it, changed by it, impelled by it, and in so doing, awaken that Christly recognition in everyone you meet.
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