Rufus Jones

 One of my favorite mystics, Rufus Jones, was a modern Quaker who was filled with the Spirit. I reread his writings periodically. His"Inner Life"is overflowing with wonderfully powerful ideas in every sentence.

This morning, I've been contemplating his ideas about Pharisees and the Sermon on the Mount. He says the Pharisees' focus was on following the 600+ laws in the Torah, and doing that was their goal and their reward. It was an outward practice, do this and do that, don't do this or that. They did it because they thought they had to. They did what was required of them. There was no spontaneity, no passion.

The Sermon on the Mount, however was aspirational, inspirational, and an inner shift. Jesus tells us that we are salt, bringing savor, uplifting, all we touch. We are to pour goodness into all the channels of the world. We are to become lights of the Lord. When we are on fire with God, we draw others to us, and the fire of love ignites their souls too. We are contagious. Lighting the world with God's Love changes everything. 

It's not about following laws, about being uptight and judgemental. It's about becoming a new person so filled with God that we participate in bringing about a Godly kingdom here and now, not in some distant future. We are part of the plan. We need to awaken, rise up, and be God's unconditional Love.

I urge you to read Matthew 5, 6 & 7 with different eyes and a different heart. Realize it is not plain prose. It is Near Eastern imagery, paradox, and is rife with layers of inner meanings.

Enter the spirit of 2,000 years ago. Hear with ancient ears. See with ancient eyes. Listen intuitively. 

If you do, something wonderful will happen.

Opposite Christianity

 There are those who try to follow Christ, who are loving, forgiving, generous, endeavoring to live as instructed in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.

There are those, who call themselves Christian, that are the opposite. They attack those who see Christianity as above. They are anti Catholics, anti Jews, anti homosexuals, anti other Christians, and anyone who isn't part of them. They have a paranoid belief in evil, demons, devils, invisible enemies, and they promote dark superstition. They teach outmoded beliefs, fantastically created stories about invisible things, and use scare tactics. They repeatedly predict the end of the world. They misread and misinterpret the Bible. Yet they are a growing phenomenon.

I know some people who are in Opposite Christianity.  I don't understand how they can go there. Are they highly suggestible? Are they hypnotized? Have they not learned critical thinking skills? What?

I recently heard Dr. Collins on YouTube speaking on the Hebrew scriptures. I looked up his books, and I found one called  "Weaponized Religion." I downloaded it, and found the history of what I'd been calling Opposite Christianity.  It is fascinating, however difficult to read, as he jumps all over the place. If you are interested in this topic, I think its worth the effort in order to be informed.

I also think that when connection to the original inspiration of anything is lost, from a civilization to a religion, there is collapse. History is strewn with rubble of civilizations long gone, religions scrapped, arts, music, sciences no longer practiced. Some questions might be important to ask ourselves would be something like - is the genius of Jesus' teaching something worth reconnecting to? Is it okay to let Opposite Christianity replace it? What are we going to do about it?

the end

 There have been people predicting the end of he world for thousands of years. In Jesus' time there were apocalyptic cults with lots of followers. In scholarly circles, Jesus is often thought of as an apocalytic teacher. He put in a caveat - no one will know  when it will happen.

There have been many "teachers" over history who said they knew the time, and who gathered followers together to get ready. Often they took the wealth of the followers and disappeared. It is said that New Year's Eve, December 31, 999 C.E. people slept fearfully in churches, for they were told the world would end that night. In my lifetime, I am aware of a number of times people said the end would be such and such a date. But we are still here.

This morning I awoke with the song, "Waltzing Mathilda" singing in my mind. It always takes me to the movie, 'On the Beach." a movie about the nuclear end of humanity. It has haunted me all these many years.

Then I thought my world IS about to end. My husband has stage 4 peritoneal and appendix cancer. Yesterday the doctors drained 6.5 litersof fluid from his abdomen, and they told us to put him in pallitive care or hospice. My world, the world of us, is about to end.

Then I thought of all of the worlds that have ended for me. My childood ended. My parents died and I became a sort of orphan, although I was very much an adult. Changes, monumental changes kept happening, the world shifted, the way of my life was no longer one way and was thrust to another, endings and beginnings over and over. Some gentle shifts from one world to another, some violent. But endings never cease, along with the promise of new beginnings.

So maybe the fear-mongering shout of "the world is coming to an end", is more personal than tomorrow there will be no actual world. Of course, those in power, with hubris in their hearts, could blow humanity off the planet, but baring that, we will see our personal worlds end, over and over again. 

The questions we could ask ourselves -What will I do with this new beginning opportunity? Will I whine and complain on and on about the ending? Or will I look with fresh eyes and bravely walk into the gift of a new beginning? 

P. S. To Yesterday

 I was thinking about the various laws I mentioned yesterday. You might say "They are just Physical laws of how things work. It's science." But from where did they originate? Why are they there? How does it happen? If it all started from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, where did the organizing principle come from?

Explosions don't create order. They create disaster. How is the original explosion different?

I like the old saying - to think the universe accidentally came together with all of its intricacy, is to imagine an explosion in a type factory would result in all the works of William Shakespeare in order and exact.

The way I see it, there is something More, something Divine in it all, in short, God.

Finding God

 God is always ready, but we are very unready. God is near us, but we are far from Him. God is within, and we are without. God is friendly; we are estranged. --- Meister Eckhart

How can this be true? you might ask. I'll share how it speaks to me.

•  Unready. Do we spend time in prayer, meditation, contemplation daily preparing ourselves? Do we work on ourselves to remove resentments, fears, unkindness, anger and work on living those things Paul calls the fruits of the spirit?
• Near yet far. The creative energy of God is at the heart of every whirling atom, in all of the ways the universe and nature work, as it all follows the laws set down (gravity, inertia, electromagnetism, photosynthesis, etc.) Everywhere present, omnipresent, if we have eyes to see. Spend time with a flower, learn its secrets. Really see the rolling waves, the majestic mountains. Listen to the birds celebrate and scold and sing. Move out of the asphalt and concrete world, and commune with the natural for awhile. 
• Within but without. Yes,within our souls is a constant spark of God. It resides in us. It will never leave us. Where are we? Busy mostly with nonsense. YouTube, TikTok, television, addictions, upsets, pontificating, racing here and there, busy, busy, busy, too busy for God. Or we are satisfied with someone else telling us their ideas about God once a week, even though we're pretty sure they are only mouthing something they don't know personally.
• Friendly. The only definition of God in the Bible is that God is unconditional Love. How much more friendly can one be? But we are often preoccupied, and so estranged. God is relegated to the scrap heap of ancient superstition, or is at the bottom of our priority list.
• But, we can get ready. We can see again and hear again. We can find the Spark within. We can accept the most important Friendship of all.  I know because I follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before me to a successful spiritual quest. Just set your foot on the path and begin.

Ten Ideas That Changed My Life

 

In the shower, I was thinking about some ideas that changed my life. I had just spoken one to a friend. Then I was struck by the idea that I need to share these, these ideas that have made such a difference to me and my journey, as they might change your life too. I share something precious to me.

I invite you to think on these things.

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*  What would you do, what would you say,

If you were in the Presence of God?

Because you are!

*  What other people think of me is none of my business.

What God and I think of me is what matters.

*  Jesus told me the fruit of anything 

tells me where it comes from.

Today I stop and ask myself,

what would the fruit of doing or saying this be?

*  I am made in the image and likeness of our Creator.

It is therefore my nature to create.

If I'm not creating positive things, I'm creating a mess.

It's my choice.

*  Two important questions.

Where am I?

What time is it?

The answers: Here, Now

*  When I die, I will be asked two questions.

Did I learn to love unconditionally?

Did I complete my purpose for coming to earth?

It's our final exam.

I want to be able to say "Yes!"

*  Jesus asked, "Do you want to be healed?"

You say "yes."

What would your life look like if you were healed?

Are you willing to change that much?

*  Jesus asked us to shine our lights.

Ask yourself

Where did I shine my light yesterday?

Where will I shine light today?

*  If you need an excuse, any excuse will do.

What are the excuses I use to to explain to myself or others why I'm not being the best version of myself, doing my best to be the person God had in mind when He created me?

*  If I don't change the direction I'm going,

I'm going to end up where I'm headed.

What direction am I going?

Is it a good thing, a good place?

What do I need to do about it?

Don't Run Away

 Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.  --- Meister Eckhart

 This gift from Eckhart grabbed my heart this morning. Inner solitude is often overlooked. For many the cry is that they can only be at peace if and when others shape up, agree with them, get in step, etc. Therefore they will never have peace. Many live an other directed life.

It seems to me that other directed people have a difficult time even considering the option of being inner directed, and therefore at peace.

Eckhart also said: 

Whatever I want to express in its truest meaning must emerge from within me and pass through an inner form. It cannot come from outside to the inside but must emerge from within.

What is inside makes all of the difference. Are we at peace and at home in our souls, having inner solitude, inner directed? Or are we desperate to find approval from outside, trying to get everyone in line, resentful and anxious living an outer directed way?

As inner directed people, we don't run or hide from the world. We see it with different eyes and heart. Our peace comes from God, and we participate from that place. We see the frenzy of the outer directed people as a cry for help to be lifted out of the whirl in which they live. We offer peace and love and prayer for them, but our peace is not determined by their choices. 

Ultimately the only person I am in charge of is myself. As I steer my life more and more to alignment with the More, The Divine, it all becomes ever more clear.

Peace be upon you and fill you.