What’s your view of the Kingdom? What kingdom? The Kingdom of God. Well, my view and your view begins by being the same as what our teachers have told us. However, are you still there? Are you still seeing this “Kingdom of God” as you did as a child, as a young adult, or as you first saw it? Let me give you a simple illustration.
Let’s say you go outside on a clear day and wearing yellow sun glasses. Furthermore, what color is the sky? It is GREEN! Your eyes are telling you that the sky is GREEN, but your MIND knows better. You know that TRUTH is that the sky is BLUE. In other words, my MIND over rides the data that are being sent to my brain.
Got it?
But, what IF somehow you were given contact lenses while a baby- yellow ones! Thus, your REALITY would be that the clear BLUE sky isn’t blue at all but GREEN! Okay, and the point is? The point is that the mythical fall, the creation story, the garden allegory, or the legalistically developed “original sin” have become our yellow contact lenses. We have been TOLD for as along as we can remember that we live in a dualistic world and our EGO continually affirms such data.
On many occasions the Bible, Jesus is reported as saying those that have ears to hear…HEAR!
Why has the church given a PASS to the EGO and yet spent eternity on the sins of the flesh? Why has the church majored on “sin management” going after drinking, smoking, dancing, fornication, homosexuality, etc. but affirming ambition, aggressiveness, and all things EGOIC?
As long as we see things as black and white, and long as we put all things in either the box of good or the box of evil, as long as we separate Hindu from Christian, and as long as we allow the dualistic mind to pit one against the other, we will continue to have GREEN skies.
Did you know the sky is BLUE, God is LOVE, that God doesn’t get ANGRY or MAD, and that hell is really a metaphor for the EGO?
Or, is your sky GREEN, God is to be feared, hell is but a sin away, and the Pope and the Bible are infallible?
Ernie, are you calling the admonitions in scripture to lead a godly life “sin management”? I’m not sure if that’s what’s you’re saying. I see I Cor. 6:18 which says, “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body” as a loving warning from a Father who cares about His child. God understands the choices we make in our lives carry grave consequences.
My mother chose to begin smoking at the age of 15. She died at 50 of lung cancer. I know she’s with the Lord and we’ll all be reunited some day, but her decision to smoke denied my children the joy of her nurturing spirit. She never even knew I was pregnant with my twins. That’s been a huge consequence my entire family has had to endure.
Yes! my sky is green!
I have been told my brown eyes are hazel.
I have been told I am not good enough, I have been told I am mean, crazy, lazy, bad influence, and lesser.
I have been told I am a sinner, rebellious, deceived, lost, tsk tsk tsk,
But not one has noticed that I lost one of my contacts and when I close one eye I see the Truth. (wink)
I AM
Linda- You asked Ernie, “Are you calling the admonitions in scripture to lead a godly life “sin managementâ€? As the three words before “sin management” stated, the church MAJORS on SIN! Jesus MAJORED on GOOD NEWS. Let’s do the same.
I have a run in my knee high from the foot running upwards so everyone who looks can see the run. It i an imperfection so I turn it around to hide it so no one can see the imperfection. Even though I am trying to hide it, it is still there, the imperfection. We can’t hide anything from God because He lives in us if we let HIM. Also we can’t love others until we love ourselves. God gave me this revelation. I can’t love you as He does for you because I don’t love myself as much as He does for me. We can’t do it on our own since HE abides in us and we abide in HIM. We are one with him. I got to prayer in a hurry this morning without noticing it. I was just going through my morning automatically. I got to work and noticed it when I went to pick up a piece of paper off the floor. We don’t pay attention of our imperfections until we acutally see it, but God loves us enough to wait on us. Does He point out the imperfections? I don’t think He does. If we are aware we can see them ourselves.
If I dig a little deeper into spirituality, we don’t have any imperfections because God doesn’t have any and We ARE ONE. Therefore no sin abides in HIM or us.
I went to a dealership to see a car that I am interested in buying. After I left, everyday I would see this car somewhere. They were there before but I did not see them. After the visit my RAS (Reticular Activating System ) picked up that car when ever one came near me. God has created us so magnificiently. Your reticular activating system is like a filter between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind. It takes instructions from your conscious mind and passes them on to your subconscious. It can be used in a positive way. Saying affirmations activates the RAS. But when we concentrate on sin, though we may think we are learning what to stay away from, the opposite happens and we draw that to our selves.
So the victory we desire to see in our lives is where our focus should remain. This is a proven scientific fact. When we want our children to do something. Tell them what to do, because when we tell them what not to do, we make them want to do that. We as adults are no different.
I see blue because I choose to focus on the love and goodness of God. God’s love and goodness will surround me and permiate the atmosphere of my home and community.
The same scripture that admonishes us lead a godly life and to flee immorality also tells us to resist not evil; for what we resist, we empower. To flee immorality is to embrace one’s Christ identity–to see through eyes that are “too pure to behold iniquity”. As Blake said, “Man is led to believe a lie as long as he is seeing with, and not through, the eye.”
Instead of transferring our energy and inherent power into external qualities of good and bad, we are called to change our concepts of ourselves in accordance with the Divine Nature that imbues us. It is only through a transformation in consciousness that our external world will bear witness to that change.
“On many occasions the Bible, Jesus is reported as saying those that have ears to hear…HEAR!”
I find it interesting that similar phrases are found throughout the few Gnostic gospels I’ve read about (and probably other non-canonical gospels that are still lost).
Let those who have ears, hear.
Let those who understand, understand.
Let those who have eyes to see, see.
Ernie, were these common phrases in 1st Century Palestine that encouraged spiritual reflection and meditation or is there something more to these phrases? Was this a unique manner of speaking to a certain movement, school, philosophy or to those that understood?
Eruesso- You just asked the “right” question! Literal-Fundamentalists stay with the outer-seen form and don’t go into and below the apparent surface meaning, to the esoteric truth that was hidden due to the persecution of the times. Jesus spoke on two levels as he told his disciples in Matthew 13, because he wasn’t going to “cast pearls before swine“. In ALL that Jesus said, there’s a deeper TRUTH message…for those that bother to “go there- by the Spirit.” The Bible is an EASTERN document which can’t be fully understood with a WESTERN approach only (those that have ears to hear- listen up).
Waves and Particles.
Scientist found out that there are Waves in the Universe.
During the study they would see the Waves and Monitor them. but when they took close Observation of the Waves they start seeing these Particles like lint or dust lift up from the Waves the more they observed the more the Particles were multiplying. They documented the findings, after awhile they went back and looked at the Monitored Waves on record and not the Observed Waves by the naked eye and found no Particles. They realized that the only time there were Prticle were when the Human Eye Observed the Waves.
That says a lot… what you concentrate on grows.
We see flaws because we are looking for them, we see demons because we are looking too hard.
Sometimes we need to step back away from sin management and just go with the waves or the flow
I agree that we don’t need to major on sin, but we do need to pay heed to God’s word so that we don’t give place to the devil. (Eph. 4:27) When my child tells me something she believes that I know is contrary to the truth, I warn her what pursuing this thought pattern could bring in her life. I say what I need to, pray about it, and let God deal with her. To ignore her “red flags” would be unloving, even as constantly nagging her would be controlling. I want her to realize that even though God gives mercy, that may not completely eliminate the consequences of sin. Galatians 6:7 reminds us, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” I’d like to spare my children the pain of a bad harvest as much as is possible. Our Heavenly Father desires that, also.
Cynthia, Paulette, Jesse- You’re all saying it- the four laws of consciousness:
1-You are what you concentrate on
2-What you concentrate on seems real
3-What you concentrate on grows
4-You always find what you concentrate on.
Linda- To me most of the church time is sent on talking about sin and how to control it. Very little is said about the love and grace of God. God’s love is greater then anything and will not fail anyone. This is the gospel.
Love Dan
Dan, it depends upon what church you go to as to how much time is spent talking about sin. When I look at the New Testament epistles, the writers said what their readers needed to hear. For example, Romans contains some very strong warnings about unbelief in the first few chapters. Paul goes on to preach the incredible, unbelieveable grace of God in the heart of his letter. He admits in Romans 7:19 that he still struggles with doing the very thing he despises and begins chapter 8 with a joyful shout of being delivered from condemnation. He continues with an exhortation for the Jews to receive the grace of the gospel and concludes with reminding the church to honor authority and serve each other. God gives His people a proper diet in His word and undoubtedly expects His ministers to do the same.
If a tree is known by it’s fruit. I am very grateful for the message that has been going forth at LRC through the Friday night services, the websites and the women/men meetings during the week. I see the fruit in the lives of the people. Go LRC.
Paulette, I have seen some good fruit that’s come from the message of loving people and not judging them. I have also seen the fruit of people who have left confused, betrayed, and felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under them by being told the basic truths of the Bible are not reliable. I’ve seen the fruit of God’s people perishing for lack of knowledge and my heart grieves that the truth that sets the captive free is not always proclaimed. I’ve seen some measure of God’s provision and protection being lifted from LRC and that causes me concern.
Did you not think that maybe the seperation was purposeful. Every one is growing at their own pace. And God is providing just fine. Wait watch and see the glory of the Lord
The Lord has assured me His glory will be seen at this church as He displays Himself to be the God of the Bible–merciful, just, and righteous.
linda, I do not want to not be kind and loving. I am just a “loveable little fuzz ball”, but somehow your comment about God’s provision and protection being lifted from LRC and it causes you concern, makes me feel concern for you. I dont believe your “hot line to God” is showing all these revelations. Do you use Verizon or AT$T. You are at a place you feel you are suppose to “show the truth”. Obama has a “teleprompter”, you have a Holy Book that you can not function with out “flipping those pages” and becoming the “enlightener” to Ernie and to the people that have chosen to see God in the way HE SPEAKS TO THEIR HEARTS. How can you, with such a Godly conscience, speak in such a manner. It is not being respectful to a people that have always been there for you, and loving you even through your difficulties. Go
sit on that Throne with all your Crowns, but please dont play God’s police. All you are doing is making people love you but ignore you. Please are not “listening”, but still loving you.
God is to be feared, but only because of our lack of understanding. Hence fear God and gain understanding scriptures. Anything that bekons us out of our comfortable understandable selfishness is feared by us, this is why our pension for escapism is such a marketable thing. Movies, T.V., cell phones these computers. Anything that gets us out of our living now. Evidently no one wants to be where they are. Case in point, a whole family waiting in line somewhere, a mother, father their two children all standing right next to each other while talking on their cell phones. Each one talking to ‘someone else’ whos not even ‘there.’ This might be somewhat indicative to our veiw of Heaven possably. To myself this says we are not happy/content with our God given now. I get about the same feeling when I see anyone, but especially a Christian smoke a cigerette. Yes we want eternal life in Heaven. We are in effect running from our own hearts and God given lives. No one calls us out of selfishness like God does. And is why we are so fearful of Him. And we should be for he loves us so much He never stops calling. And just as if we never put the cell phones down we won’t meet our families, if we don’t pick up the phone with God we will never meet ‘everything really.’ There was one friend that knew I owned not a television and this really made him wonder. He invited myself several times to go watch a movie at his place. Only one time I found myself saying yes. We watched ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’. When it was over that friend asked ‘now was that so bad?’ I replied ‘no.’ But I asked him to recall the feeling he had when they finally got past all the junk and met on the fifty yard line as a family, where they all got their priorities right. I asked him was that a good feeling? He said ‘yes.’ I told him the reason I don’t watch T.V. was because I didn’t want to sit around and hope for that feeling, I wished to live that feeling in my everyday being. He is a Christian now. Praise God! In all things be blessed.