Yes, So Far I Have Understood

“Everyone hears only what he understands.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It may be a higher level, but it is still within its own circle of thought, of time. It may go beyond the village, but there is still the other side of the mountain to climb. It may lead me out of the wilderness, but somehow that wilderness is still part of the garden.

I seek because without God life has little meaning. I seek Him out of sorrow and pain. I seek Him because I want peace. I seek Him because I desire something permanent and changeless. I seek Him because there is death and He is deathless. I seek Him for order, beauty, mercy, goodness and love, but mostly I seek Him for His understanding and wisdom.

Yes, I am beginning to understand…

That I do not wish to deceive myself again; that time and patience may be necessary for achieving my dreams; that I no longer desire to give my time and energy to simply earning a living, to the gathering of useless information, to the fire of belief, to superficial prayers and the worship of religion, to activities of reform, to the pursuit of ideals and virtues, or to any and all activities which give so little in return.

I want to listen to new ideas, to embrace new truths, to never again get entangled in words, to understand My own truth in the morning.

Yes, I am beginning to understand…

But not just the mere description of water which has no relevance to those who thirst. I want to understand the ways of a lovely, curving river which is always nourishing the earth and men. I want to understand my self-center as it moves through the fields of the known. I want to understand the self-forgetful majesty of unspoiled solitude. I want to understand that where heaven meets earth is where divinity meets humanity.

But am I really seeking something or am I seeking to be something? Am I really just waiting for a strong wind to direct me metaphorically from a lower level to a higher position? Or is my hope made up of a multitude of little things put together from roots that are shallow?

Yes, so far I understand…

Whether I have understood or not will show in my daily life.

I AM Come…

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10 KJV

And Jesus said to them, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” So that men would might know who he is Jesus identifies his divinity, “I AM” come. This is the same “I AM” who answered Moses in the burning bush when he posed the question,  ’who shall I tell the people of Israel who sent me?” And God answers, “Tell them, I AM sent you!”

So that men might understand why he came, Jesus says he came that men might have life and might have it more abundantly. The Greek phrase used for having it more abundantly means to have a superabundance of a thing. Thus, to be a follower of Jesus, to know who he is and what he means, is to have a superabundance of life.

And so that men might experience the true nature of God, Jesus declares that He is the Good Shepherd, “I AM the Good Shepherd” but more importantly that he is the gateway, the door…”I AM the Door,” he says, by which men must enter in order to be saved.

Jesus changed the world with only a three-year ministry.

So what are you doing with your life? Does your life even matter? Does it count at all? Will this planet lose more than just another statistical number when you leave the earth realm? Outside of your inner circle will anyone remember your name?

For if you hold onto your life you will lose it, but if give your life away to God in the service of humanity He will bless you with a greater life. This is the abundant life Jesus is talking about. The superabundant life.

For didn’t you know that loss and lack is evidence that the thief has already entered your life? God is not trying to get something to you, he is trying to get something through you. But He will not fill a vessel that is already full. Empty yourself of yourself so God can fill your cup with His superabundant life.

Didn’t you know that I AM is greater than our storms in life?

• That I AM is greater than our will to hope in the midst of hopelessness?
• That I AM is the door of our salvation?
• That I AM is our resurrected life?

Or did you believe Jesus when he said to us, “I AM has come…?”

The Language-Door

There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of  Spirit on the body. Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell. And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild darling! At Night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its Face against mine. Breathe into me. Close the language-door and Open the love-window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window. Rumi

Today is a new day. The night will eventually give way to morning. The birds will again befriend the trees. The leaves will dance and sway with the wind. A sign of good things to come…

Nothing lifts the spirits more than the dawning of a new day with all its bright interpretive promise —with all its endless skies.

Today I choose to write again because I want to envision the morning rising from my fingertips compelling me to live inside and outside my story.

It is Monday and I don’t need a day off in order to welcome this sunrise. I am living and loving and therefore distrusting my calendar because it tells me it is still winter even though nothing in me is hibernating —everything is breathing and waiting for the spring sun.

When I was a child I used to lie on my back in the fields of grass and depart on a nearby cloud. I used to feel the earth move beneath my feet like a captive genesis at my command.

I used to kiss the morning on the mouth and allow the leaves to cover me like a lover. And I knew my joy could fill the earth.

Today I am going to live the story I write. I am going to experience the heart of God’s love pulsing with excitement.

Today I am going to move outside of my inside story. I am going to move the coffee table out of the living room and push myself to get on my knees and pray [not out of religious ritual or province] but like I did when I was a child — when all wanted was to talk to God.

I am going to accomplish something today. I am going to live out a part of my story with no paragraphs or quotations or re-read sentences or regrets.

Will you come play with me and walk with me beyond the language door?

A Prayer for Everybody

Pray the prayer that is the essence of every ritual. God, I have no hope. I am torn to shreds. You are my first, my last and only refuge. Do not do daily prayers like a bird pecking its head up and down. Prayer is an egg. Hatch out the total helplessness inside.  from A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings by Jalal al-Din

Father God, forgive us! Forgive us for making such weak use of your imperial power.

Forgive us for dropping our association with heaven. And forgive us for losing faith in who we are.

Father, forgive us for interfering with the two worlds meeting. For it is written… that what is in heaven is to be reflected on earth, because we are citizens of both countries — heaven and earth.

Father, let us move forward in the knowledge that the only thing that exists between heaven and earth is fear. Bless us with the patience to exist on the boundary where the two realms meet.

Open our eyes so that we might see that we belong to life; that we belong to Eternity; that through Christ Jesus we have a heritage of immortality; that we are ambassadors of heaven and earth; that we are a significant line of poetry in your universal poem.

Amen!

Was Jesus Black?

Modern Recreation of the face of the Historic Jesus

The Mediterranean Passion of the Christ

The Eurocentric face of Jesus

“After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” Matthew 2:13-15

The debate over the ethnicity of the historic Jesus has raged for nearly two millenniums. While many Christians simply accept through faith the modern-day images of Jesus as precise portrayals many others particularly Christian scientists and biblical scholars question the historic accuracy of the images which are mostly Eurocentric in nature.

According to Hebrews 7:14- 16, the genealogy of the historic Jesus originated from the tribe of Judah.

“For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.” NASB

The Hebrew word for Judah is Yehuda, which translates “Praise.” According to the New World Encyclopedia, the religion centered on the Jewish God Yahweh first established roots among the people of Judah.

Together with the Tribe of Benjamin and elements of the Tribe of Levi, the descendants of Judah eventually formed the southern Kingdom of Judah in the ancient land of Israel. In time, the tribe of Judah became identified with the entire Hebrew nation and gave its name to the people known today as the Jews. Later, Judah and his sons went down with Jacob into Ancient Egypt (Gen. 46:12; Ex. 1:2). N.W.E.

Jesus in Ancient Egypt

According to Matthew 2:13-15, Joseph and Mary were instructed to leave Bethlehem and hide in Egypt from the wrath of King Herod.

“After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” NLT

In her book, Christ in Egypt: The Horus – Jesus Connection (Stellar House Publishing, LLC February 28, 2009) author D.M. Murdock writes “…for Egyptian influence to have become integral to Israelite religion even from pre-biblical times is only natural given the fact that from 3000 BCE Egypt ruled Canaan. We are not talking about some far-fetched borrowing from an alien cultural sphere….”

Read more at Suite101: Black Jesus?: What Modern Science Says Regarding His Ethnicity http://alternativespirituality.suite101.com/article.cfm/black-jesus#ixzz0gscPMkQD

The Tenth Yes! (Part Two)

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31

The Second Yes!

God’s ultimate motivation for Creation is love. In fact, God created everything through the root of Christ, who is love. Mankind is instructed throughout the Bible to honor and love all Creation for everything reflects God’s motivation of love. This is the creative power that changes reality. Just as when a person looks in the mirror and sees their own reflection, so too a manifestation of love awakens the promises of God.

The invisible spark of love is the good that exists in all realities. The true ministry of all human beings then is to redeem the fallen sparks. When the fallen sparks of love are salvaged from Exile, they pass through the inner dimension of Spirit and reunite with the Divine spark, for love will always awaken the responsibility for Neighbor. This is the only way God’s word can be taught, so that all humanity and creation will serve together.

World-renowned philanthropists Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey operate in this misunderstood biblical promise for wholeness and prosperity known as the “Neighbor Blessing.” It is one of the fallen sparks which brings with it devotion and dedication, thus can literally reassign a persons reality from poverty to empowerment within a single breath once this biblical precept is deeply understood.

The Neighbor Commandment

In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus is asked by a Scribe (an expert in Mosaic law), which is the greatest commandment in the Law?

“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Read more at Suite101: The Neighbor Blessing Part One: The Promise of Superabundance http://alternativespirituality.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-neighbor-blessing-part-one#ixzz0gDiFzr9c

They Were Hurting!

“God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16

They were in the church praising and shouting and listening and watching. They were in their homes Facebooking and texting and advising and eating and sleeping and dreaming of brighter tomorrows. They were loving and hugging and kissing and smiling and yet they did not feel loved and cared for or appreciated. They were hurting!

They were hurting because they were one year older yet it felt like they had taken two steps backwards. They were hurting because they always believed love was something you fell into not out of. They were hurting because they had lost their ability to hope for better and to expect more.

They were hurting and no one knew it but them. They were crying but no one saw the tears but them. They were saying “Yes” yet no one but them could see that their whole existence screamed “No!”

To the world they looked busy.

To the world they sounded spiritual.

To the world they looked prosperous yet they were hurting.

They were hurting because they had substituted God’s love for human expectation. They were hurting because they spent more time networking than needing a word from God.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Everyday God waits patiently to fellowship with you. Everyday God prays for you. Everyday God celebrates with you. Everyday God loves you. For there is no Valentine’s Day in heaven because God is love.  And God’s love is not limited to the world’s calendar.

I was supposed to be writing Part II on the series “The Tenth “Yes,” but God doesn’t serve my desires I strive to service His. With that being said, it is impossible to hear the “Tenth Yes!” before you fully realize the first one.  Saying “Yes!” to God’s love not just with your mouth but your whole being is the first “Yes!” There is no moving forward until this truth is fully understood. Stop looking to man for what only God can provide… Perfect Peace, Perfect Love and Completion!