Receiving the Divine

 You carry God within your depths, according to Meister Elkhart 600 years ago. 

I was pondering this thought this morning , and some interesting thoughts came to me that I want to share with you. See what you think.

I've been watching some programs on YouTube about neurology. It is fascinating for sure. One of the hypotheses is that our brain is a receiver not the generator of Ideas. So our mind or soul or something sends the signals and insights and intuitions and our brain tunes into some of them.  It primarily attunes itself to the practical things about current life survival,, protecting the body, dealing with work, family, and earthly things.

But sometimes intuitions and breakthroughs somehow show up in our minds and we make leaps. What if those leaps and intuitions come from the  our souls and also the divine, from God? What if the our souls and the divine are always broadcasting to us, but we don't always listen? The radio set of our brain is not always tuned in to godly things.

Perhaps that is the beauty of prayer and meditation. It helps us tune the radio receiver of our brain to the higher vibrations of spiritual realms. Perhaps they open us to be able to receive more of the spiritual that is always broadcasting to us.

My thought for the day to ponder.

The Joy of Emptiness

The  Joy of emptiness may seem like nonsense at 1st thought. Let's look at some simple examples.  It's the emptiness that makes a space useful, The windows, the doors, and the hollow insides make a space useful. An empty cup is a useful cup that can receive that refreshing tea. And so it is with a certain emptiness within each of us. 

  When we are busy, fearful, worrisome, thinking rapid thoughts, we cannot hear the wee small voice, and we miss much of our lives. When we learn to meditate and still our mind, we create a space inside of us where we can experience the grace and the messages from the greater part of our soul, from God. And we can experience much richness. Even  all the mundane things are glorious to see and revel in during the day because we're not so full of ourselves. We can marvel at the beauty of the flower, or the glory of the blue skies and the billowing clouds or the song of the birds singing, the light in someone's eye, and a thousand small things.

It is often said that God works in the stillness, and in the empty spaces where we leave room for God. It is the stillness and the empty places that are an invitation for God. Because we have free will, we can fill ourselves up with meaningless thoughts and activities. Or we can create a space where we get in tune with the Infinite and enrich our lives so much more than we ever thought possible. 

I often meditate on the Bible verse" Be still and know that I am God." I I invite you to do that today too. God bless you and have a marvelous, spirit-filled day. God loves you and so do I.

Announcing

 My new book,

"The Book of My Life

I Wouldn't Believe It Either

If I Hadn't Lived It"

Is how available on

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I have had an incredible life. 

I have been under attack most of my life, yet I kept going to one amazing adventure after another. Through it all, my faith kept growing stronger. If I could overcome such  painful challenges, so can you. 

Let me share my profound story with you. Get your own digital, Audible, paperback, or hardback copy, take a deep breath, and enter my journey.

Does God Have A Honing Device?

 

It seems to me very clear that there is a native, elemental homing instinct in our souls which turns us to God as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. --- Rufus M. Jones

A homing device Is an interesting metaphor for how humans have been drawn to something More throughout  all of time. It does seem that most everyone has had a call to God, or whatever name you wish to use, throughout at least recorded history, and probably before humans developed writing. 

The beautiful cave paintings from as long ago as 50 some thousand years show us that the early humans felt something sublime. The archaeology shows that there were shrines and seemingly holy places long before the people could leave messages in words.

Since this is the only moment we can live, the only moment we can breathe, it seems appropriate to look at today.  We have currently several major religions on this planet. It seems like the call or the homing device from the Higher Power is not coming through clearly. People are violating their own teachings by fighting other people over variations in teachings and beliefs. 

Most people do not seem to be looking for bridges between the various ways of looking at the Higher Power. In this age of science, no science is applied to religion, except in scholarly circles. What commonalities do the teachings share? What similar beliefs do they have? No one has a personal experience of when their teaching was born, when the great ones walked the earth and taught. There is no direct eye witness  to share what was spoken, and no way to know who added what along the way. 

What makes sense in line of what we know now? Some things have to go. For example, when the earth was thought to be the center of all the universe, that belief finally had to be released because it wasn't the center of the known universe. What kind of crazy things do we believe now, or some people believe now, that are outrageous and don't fly the flag of truth?

What do we need to do in order to turn naturally toward God, as the flower turns to the sun without the static in the way? 

Do we need dogmas and theologies made-up by  strange men of long ago? Current religions are are all hybrids of thought by many men from other centuries, some seeking power or having flashes of ego, or ignorance born of limited knowledge. There were no  video cameras There were no stenographers. We have no way of knowing what really happened. What was written down was written long decades or centuries after the events by people who were obviously not there, and who were never even in the area written about. Some wove tales of various heritage together. Most inserted biases and philosophies of their day. Scribes sometimes miscopied or added their own two cents worth. etc etc etc 

But I suggest something amazing happened because some people did turn to  the homing device, following it to God. They tried to leave a trail for us. That trail got hijacked by a very long line of people who had various purposes and interests and egos. And so the original exciting understanding got lost along the way, got fractured. Another tower of Babel was born. 

Even so, germs of truth can be found hidden in the melee. We can be encouraged that some have responded to the homing signal and been drawn to the More. That can encourage us to know that we too can be drawn home while still on earth. As we turn to our Higher Power, open and listening, we too can know what the great ones through history have known.The homing device is already installed in our souls. 

Life Does Not End Here

 “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Winston Churchill

Oh how I adore that quote! I see this so often. As I look over the arc of my very long life, I have seen it all along the way. I find it curious, for I can't recall a time when I didn't want to know the truth, the capital T Truth. Very early on I thought that since God gave me intelligence, God surely wanted me to.use it. 

I am having odd eye problems. I'm looking through a dancing veil of stringy wafts of pinkish tan stuff. Two retina doctors and an ophthalmologist,  and still no answers. It is difficult to read and to type. I've been sort of watching, mostly listening, to YouTube lectures on religion, science, and painting. 

I've learned a lot. 

• DNA from 50,000 year old Neanderthals and Denisovans  can now be sequenced. Most of us have some of their DNA.
• Up to 30,000 years ago there were at least 5 variations of humans alive. Only homo sapiens (except for some of their DNA in us) survived. So far it us not known why.
• Humans were here for at least 1.4 million years! There have been a lot of strains of humans along the way, disappearing at different times. . 
• The Old Testament writers/story tellers incorporated much older stories of the various Mesopotamian peoples of which they were a part.
• The first writing so far found  goes back to the fourth Millennium BCE. 
• There is a huge amount of information and experiences regarding life after this physical experience. Near Death Experiences, NDE's, or as some say Death Experiences, are by the thousands. There are organizations, conferences, books, etc on it. Along with my experiences, some of which I shared in my recent book, I have no doubt life continues. It is a peaceful and wondrous experience. It defies the usual religious teaching about what happens next. 

I could go on for pages, but I won't. I do want to encourage you to explore way beyond where you have gone before. God gave you intelligence and wants, expects, you to use it. Go for it. 

So Much is Nonmaterial

 Much of life is nonmaterial. What do I mean? Let's look at it from several angles.

I heard a lecture by a neuroscientist who was talking about the mind/soul using the brain as a receiver, rather like a radio receiving and not creating the sounds we hear. If all of the stations played at once, we would not be able to hear any of them. The brain tunes into what helps keep the body working and the practical things of our lives working.

We probably don't think a lot about the nonmaterial. Think of a number, say 20. It has no materiality. We cannot say 20 is in Los Angeles, weighs 5 pounds, and is purple. Nevertheless, 20, as are  all numbers, is a useful idea

Feelings are nonmaterial. Love is real, yet it cannot be physically located, and its characteristics cannot be described materially.

Much of our lives deals with the nonmaterial, it seems to me,

Now neurologists are studying the nonmaterial mind/soul and its use of the material brain, a meat sack, some say. Some of the research deals with the study of near-death experiences, NDEs, both current and across thousands of years in every culture.

If you have not explored this, I encourage you to do so. It is exciting.

The Iron Curtain

 I sadly have discovered that the Iron Curtain has fallen again. For the first time since I began this blog, no one in Russia has read my blog in the past 30 days.  I have taught there numerous times, and there are always quite a few in Russia who read this blog.

I did some research and discovered that indeed they have shut down outside internet and streaming from coming in.

My heart already was with the people. They have gone through incredible horrors under communism, the current war - and now this! The people are cut off from the world, just as they were before 1991. It may seem worse to them now because they have tasted a bit of information freedom.

I know they are not the only people strangled by the lack of freedom. This situation hit home to me.

Let us all pray for all those on earth under totalitarian control. Let us declare freedom for all people. Please join me in standing for freedom.