Month: July 2020

SATAN IS NOT A GOD
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SATAN IS NOT A GOD

A lot of evil has been attributed to Satan, a fallen angel of Judaism. I have a somewhat different view.
I see SATAN as an instinct that needs to be confronted in ones life for one to move on into the promise of LOVE on Earth. If GOD is LOVE, then Satan is the opposite of LOVE, the yang to LOVE’S yin. I have never been able to ascribe any kind of humanity or divinity to SATAN. I don’t see SATAN as a controlling angel, I see SATAN as a controlling attitude.

We people adore developing acronyms. I have such an achronym for SATAN. Success AT ANother’s expense.
Oh how we humans are so adept at doing this. If LOVE is created out of a bond of equality, caring, sharing and mutuality of affection, then SATAN is the manifestation of trying to take out of a relationship or circumstance a disproportionate measure of energy than ‘one’ has invested in ‘it (the relationship or circumstance)’.
The SATAN attitude draws resources out of a relationship for personal gain, satisfaction or security but does not invest a similar contribution into the relationship.

The measure of a relationship may simply be that it is either a friendship where LOVE becomes manifested through its participants, or it falls into the realm of “what’s in it for me?” Only GOD seems to be capable of bringing this LOVE attitude to relationships.

Satan, on the other hand, is a poor administrator of relationships, whether they be among individuals, groups, states or nations. The challenge is turning away from the survivalist mentality and embracing the LOVE mentality, that is the whole challenge of the Christ. Often humans ascribe to GOD a belligerence born out of preference. Then they extract a license from that attitude. Religion is from man, GOD is LOVE. One needs only LOVE, one does not need religion, per se, to LOVE. What one can use are examples of what LOVE is when manifested as a human entity. For the Christian, JESUS becomes this example. For others the journey may be different. We are not the judges.

I believe the KINGDOM on EARTH will only be born out of this LOVE and we must be careful not to taint the religion to use it for personal control of people and personal power, and personal satisfaction. Even Jesus ascribed HIS own ‘power’ to one greater than HE, and often thanked that power of LOVE for its intercession in His own life. We will be wise to do the same and judge much less.

LOVE causes us to care and share and reach out and give a hand up. GUILT should never be our motivation, and personal reward makes the giving quite shallow indeed. LOVE is the destination, not Success AT ANothers expense. The choice will always be ours. Our affiliation to either attitude will always be our choice. I would offer up to you the example of Jesus.

GOD blesses. GOD bless you, this day. (originally written 2-22-2005)

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THE BLESSING OF TODAY
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THE BLESSING OF TODAY

GOOD MORNING ALL

Welcome to a blessed Monday. Work, Income, Chores, friends. The sun always reminds us that today is a new day. The past is done. Today is not yesterday and HOPE is always the home of GOD. The concerns of the world today is in the heart of most. The SUN is our opportunity to anchor ourselves to OUR circle of living and our blessing of life. Enjoy today, whether a simple recline of thanks in a favorite chair, the kind hello from our work mates, a note from our friends. Too much news separates us from ourselves. I thank GOD for all the gifts that have brought me this far.

Cares and Prayers

ME, Mack and Jake

AGAPE LOVE
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AGAPE LOVE

Agape love is not a manufacture of people, it is the creation from GOD. It is a state of realty.

Agape love is not a manufacture of people, it is the creation from GOD. It is a state of existence between two spirits as people. I am more and more convinced that the pleromic love JESUS speaks of (Love one Another) is not a one sided exchange. To be in ‘agape love’ is to be in a state of mutuality. If this emotion is not jointly held in common, it is not love but merely infatuation, or desire or lust, or business but it is not love. I believe that agape love is a shared emotion created jointly between two people. ‘Love’ is not a one way street as so many seem to present and/or live it. The word ‘Love’ often is used to mask possessiveness or control. It is often a word interchanged with lust or desire. I do not believe the ‘love’ to which JESUS refers is anything but this agape love that is a creation out of the mutual affection between two people that even the participants find difficult to describe. Once found, it becomes a most difficult emotion to duplicate for it depends on this mutuality between two people that is such a rare discovery. I have also found that its discovery is incomprehensible in its scope to the physical, its reality in a daily existence lived by just a very few who risk convention to pursue it. I do not believe that there are too many who truly believe that GOD can perform what seems to be impossible through something as elusive as this spiritual emotion people often casually refer to as love. That may be why it is so difficult to live its promise, we do not allow it to ourselves. We perceive it to exist only in a specific life structure that may, in fact, vary between the spirits that share it among themselves. Rather than be defeated by circumstance, this agape love has the power to overcome circumstance, but it can only do so in its mutuality, for that is the source of its existence. “What is impossible for men, is possible for GOD”. It is no wonder that the teachings of Jesus have seemed so radical. The basis for agape is so very elusive, even to those who have discovered agape love in one another. Agape Love is a different emotion. The risks of this unconditional Love can scare people from entering into it. The spirits know that ‘from the heart’ opens up the heart for hurt and risk. Yet the experience of it is profound. It’s power in its mutuality scared those who felt threatend by it and they could not accept it. Those who experienced it sacrificed themselves to carry its message to the masses.

Agape Love is not an idealism, it is not an attitude, it is a real gift from GOD.

 

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TEST NOT : SH*T HAPPENS
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TEST NOT : SH*T HAPPENS

Do Not Test the Lord your GOD (Matthew 4:7)

So often I hear on the news that GOD will save me. Or I have faith that GOD will save me.
A young boy told the pastor that he hated GOD. The pastor asked the young boy “Why? What did GOD ever do to you?”
The boy said “I prayed to GOD to help my Grandma when she was sick and she died.”
The Pastor asked: “How did you want GOD to help?”
The young boy said: “I wanted him to make her feel better. She was in a lot of pain. Now she has died.”
The Pastor replied: “Your Grandma was very sick. She was in a lot of pain from her illness and would not survive. Is she in a lot of pain now?”
“No.” said the young boy.
“Did you pray that she would not be in any more pain?” The pastor asked..
“Yes, I did..” The boy responded.
“Then GOD answered your prayer and she is not in any more pain. She has gone home to be in Heaven with GOD and Grandpa.”

GOD knows ALL. GOD is ALL. When asked what to call GOD if asked, GOD said “I AM. Tell them I AM sent me.” (Exodus 3:14)

Years ago I directed a church service for a group of campers that camped every weekend in a small county park in western Minnesota. I did this service for a friend who asked me to do this as a mission to the community over the summer months. There was one camper with his family that was there most every weekend. He was the Fire Chief in a small rural town not far away. Mostly volunteers and himself. I was taken aback the first Sunday he came to “Church in the Park”. I had already done a few Sundays and had gotten to know many of the camper families. He was the second pew table back. He wore a simple yellow T-Shirt with a saying on it in black. SH*T HAPPENS. It caught me off guard for a few moments, but after a few moments of thought I could see from a Fire Chief, in a small rural town with an all volunteer Fire and emergency staff, just how appropriate a place like the “Church in the Park” would be for such an observation to be brought to the children of GOD and GOD’S focus on wisdom.

We often meet GOD more in times of challenge than comfort. With today’s news from a virus, in addition to social relevance, as well as human behavior we feel that we should be protected by GOD from everything because we “believe”. I look at the news and over and over and over GOD is feeding us his warnings through the voices of virus experts, neighbors, strangers, friends and more to warn us of what may lie ahead. Not because GOD is guessing, but because GOD knows.

We shout that we are free to do what we wish. GOD sends a separate message, Free Will is not insulation. And the man in the second pew has a message that is the truth of life. The fireworks that start a fire, or get in a child’s eye and potentially blinds them is not expected, but SH*T HAPPENS. It is usually a human choice that causes many events that could easily be avoided by heeding the warnings that the GOD they say they believe in has already warned them about and that history has many times proven it’s reality.

GOD’S promise of forgiveness does not change the outcomes of free will. Do not test the Lord your GOD. There is very little that GOD has not warned us about if we simply pay attention and attribute to GOD’S warnings to apply to all of us.

TEST NOT YOUR GOD, SH*T HAPPENS

ON EARTH AS IT IS….
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ON EARTH AS IT IS….

For years I have heard many sermons about living life for a future existence somewhere in a place called Heaven. Are you living to die? Or are you living to live?

Jesus said, “Pray to your Father this way: (Matthew 6:9-): Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come thy will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation (but when we have been tempted -dw) deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen”.   

“ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.”  I have pondered these words over many many years and I keep hearing a similar thought over and over, again and again and again.

How do we perceive HEAVEN to be. I often talk to people who are so stressed out
because they feel that won’t make it. But Jesus is offering an alternative that has the potential to take you there, now. How about “ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”.

If you believe you do things again and again and again,
what is your incentive to do it in any one particular way vs another?
Should Jesus be the way or perhaps Mohammed, Lao Tzu, or James?
How does your ‘way’ fit into Heaven on Earth?

When things are tough, do you bag this life and start over?
What is the point?

If the object is the experience, then experience it.
Take it in, enjoy what is there to enjoy; sorrow where there is sorrow,
hurt where there is hurt, heal where there is healing.
Leave a little behind before you go.
Breathe the air in the morning.
Watch the sunset at night.
Touch the lives you’ve been given,
Take care of your charge.
Learn from the journey.
Enjoy the stay.
Be thankful for the gifts.
Give what you can.
Lead by example.
Risk your heart.
Respect others.
Allow belief.
Realize that some have not arrived.
Learn from those who have.

And when the journey has run it’s course,
Be grateful for the opportunity. You may be asked
“Would you like the opportunity to do it over again?”
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN…..

 

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