Tag: bible

The Power of Righteous Judgment

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According to Jesus, our judgment is measured by the level of judgment we give. Using judgment in a righteous manner means being aware of our own biases, prejudices, and emotional reactions. It requires us to pause and reflect before making a judgment, ensuring that our perceptions are not clouded by external factors. Instead of reacting impulsively or with negativity, we strive to respond with compassion, understanding, and fairness. This involves considering the bigger picture and recognizing that everyone is on their own unique journey with their own challenges and circumstances.

We have all experienced someone’s anger directed at us, not because of anything we did, but because their attention was elsewhere. When we snap at others, we lose our power. Our judgment is influenced by the perceptions we project onto our present experience, shaping our reaction and diminishing our quality of life. 

Jesus recognized the significance of exercising judgment. He compared it to fishermen gathering different types of fish in their nets and separating the valuable ones from the undesired ones. If they don’t make a decision, they will be burdened with unnecessary fish.

Instead of fish, we are working with ideas. Do our thoughts and emotions enhance or diminish our quality of life? Our choice is not dependent on another, or on external situations. Our self-perception plays a crucial role in our decisions. A negative reaction shows vulnerability or defensiveness, indicating that we have moved from our center of power.

As we discussed last week, judging righteously means finding and returning to the steady state of our soul. We become upset because we have moved from our center of power. Instead of criticizing ourselves for making unfair judgments, we actively work towards returning to our stable core. By aligning our judgments with spiritual principles such as love, forgiveness, and empathy, we can contribute to a more harmonious and compassionate world. It is an ongoing practice that requires self-awareness, self-reflection, and a commitment to personal growth. Ultimately, by using our judgment in a righteous manner, we can cultivate a sense of inner peace and contribute to the greater good of ourselves and others.

How To Win the Waiting Game

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When Jesus told Pilate that his kingship was not of this world, the average reader assumes he was referring to the coming of the long-anticipated kingdom of God. To the mystic, he was referring to a different way of experiencing life here and now. Those who were waiting for the Messiah envisioned a fundamental change in the social and political world order. Jesus was talking about a change that could happen within one’s normal life. The key to his intended meaning is embodied in this verse:

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20).

This passage is typically interpreted as Jesus pointing out that earth is not his true home and that those who follow him should not expect much in the way of earthly comforts. The mystic, on the other hand, understands that, unlike the fox or the bird, the human being is not bound by the strict parameters of instinct. There are no set outcomes, no place to lay our head. This is not a negative statement, but one intended to free the mind of restricting preconceptions.

The Jews of Jesus’ day were anticipating a Messiah, someone to dramatically change their life in ways they could not possibly do themselves. Jesus was telling them that their hope for a better life did not depend on divine intervention, that they could open themselves to new possibilities of experience right in the midst of their present life.

The Way that Jesus taught suggests that positive changes can come about in the most mundane of daily tasks. One can learn to find adventure in fetching the daily supply of water, plowing the field, or doing the wash. He had observed that those who constantly anticipate a better life rarely achieved it. The good is never good enough. The better life one imagines never quite arrives.  

We win the waiting game by realizing we do not lay our head in any anticipated better condition, but it is within all conditions that our highest good awaits. Jesus encouraged his listeners to lift their awareness to the miracle of the Presence of God found in every new moment.

The Trinity Revisited

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On occasion people will ask me about the Trinity. They usually say they understand the ideas of the Father and the Son, but they aren’t so sure about the Holy Spirit. Though a formal presentation of the Trinity is not put forward in the Gospels, John opens his Gospel with this important trinity of ideas: 1. God, 2. the Word, and 3. the creative ability of the Word. “… without him was not anything made …”  Think of the Holy Spirit as the creative aspect of God, carried out through the Word, or the Soul. 

Those of us who accept God as an omnipresent field of life, love, power, and intelligence wonder how this unseen Presence translates into the visible realm. John tells us that it is through the Word (Logos) that this universal presence expresses as individual forms of creation.  “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” This is a clear example of the paradigm of oneness.

Think of the Holy Spirit as the desire in you to be and express more. It is an inner prompting that tells you there is more to life than you have experienced thus far. We often know this pressing out as dissatisfaction, a feeling of unrest that we cannot quite pinpoint. It often drives us to acquire and accomplish more with the hope that something we achieve will satisfy this unrest, that will signal that we have finally found the thing we seek.

Some who fail to find satisfaction in their acquisitions will denounce material gain altogether. This, however, will not cause the desire to subside. The Holy Spirit just keeps saying, “Come up higher. You hear and feel me speaking. Now, lift up your spiritual eyes and know your unity with God.”

Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a major spiritual breakthrough, the joyous experience of knowing your oneness with God. This is very different from contemplating the possibility of oneness. It is knowing without question that you are in God and God is in you.  

If you are aware of this feeling, set aside time to sit quietly and listen with an open mind.  “Here I am Father. Show me what I need to see.” Be still and listen.

Healing Light

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This week, the subject of healing has been raised a couple of times, a signal to me that it’s time to revisit this topic. Healing, like prosperity, harmony in relationships, peace of mind, or any desired condition, begins at a specific point that engages all our executive faculties, beginning with imagination and faith. Judgment, will, and elimination also play important roles, but imagination and faith are where we begin.

For many, the thing that occupies the imagination most is the problem we are experiencing. If we have a health challenge, we are likely to hold a picture of what is wrong. With the spiritual approach, we start with a picture of wholeness. At the soul level, we are whole. The soul, being energy, is not subject to physical illness of any kind. We can visualize the soul as a radiant light of wholeness shining through our body, permeating every cell from within. We imagine this light doing the work of love, dissolving that which is not for our highest good and attracting that which is.

We turn our faith to the truth of this picture by affirming something like this: The healing light of my soul is now cleansing all impurities from my body. This is where your judgment comes in. Declare that in truth, this healing process is indeed taking place. This is a true judgment.

What about your faculty of will? Do not try to force healing with your willpower. Simply be willing to accept that healing is now occurring. How do you engage your faculty of elimination? You engage this faculty by releasing all negative thoughts and images concerning this process.

You will benefit by setting aside a special quiet time to do this prayer exercise. You can also do it anytime throughout the day, even when you are busy doing other things. You do not have to memorize the affirmation to invoke your healing vision. In truth, your vision is the affirmation. Jesus said to believe in your heart that your desire is coming to pass, and it will be done for you.

Give thanks that your healing vision is now manifesting throughout your body.   

Who Inspired Jesus?

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It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

John 6:45

When we look at the biblical footnote associated with this passage, we see that Jesus is quoting from the prophet Jeremiah.

“I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow or everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

This passage, clearly based on the paradigm of oneness, could easily have served as the inspirational model that Jesus followed.  

Jeremiah: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Jesus: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21). “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:6).

Jeremiah: “And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.”

Jesus: “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (Jn 6:45. Direct reference to Jeremiah 31:34).

Jeremiah: “… for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jesus: And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The son of man (the human being) has the power on earth to forgive sin. The father of the prodigal son did not acknowledge the obvious sins of his son.

The Beginning of the End

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The event we celebrate as Palm Sunday is the time when Jesus made his final entrance into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. In addition to participating in this important observance, the synoptic gospels report that he drove the money changers out of the Temple. This would almost certainly be considered an act that prompted the Jewish leadership to turn him over to Pilate to be crucified. In other words, his final entry into Jerusalem was the beginning of the end of his earthly ministry. It also represented the beginning of the Christian era.

The Gospel of John has Jesus foretelling this event using this parable:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

In its original context, Jesus the mystic would not likely have used this parable to refer to his own execution. He was illustrating the need for a rebirth in one’s self-perception. Most people saw themselves as a physical body with a soul that is presently separate from God. The mystic would teach people that all people are primarily a soul with a physical body, but existing in a state of absolute unity with God. The grain of wheat dropped into the earth and dying represents a major paradigm shift from separation to oneness with God.

This paradigm shift is graphically illustrated in the crucifixion account of Matthew:

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split (Matthew 27:5).

This curtain shielded the inner sanctum of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could enter, meaning the public could not access the presence of God. The tearing in two of this curtain is symbolic of the truth that all people, not just the priesthood, have access to the presence of God. In other words, on our personal cross, the thing that must die is our belief in the paradigm of separation. Affirming our oneness with God is the beginning of the end of our imagined separation from God our Source, and the promise of a spiritual life that is certain to bear much fruit.  

The Gift of Jesus

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When I think of the gift that Jesus brought to the Jewish population of his day, I’m not inclined to think in traditional terms. What I believe he brought was a new way to think of God, man, and the relationship between God and man. He was born into a culture that believed God and man were separate. He taught from what I call the paradigm of oneness: we are one with God. To the average Jew, the kingdom of God was coming someday. To Jesus, the kingdom of God was not only present, but it was also centered within each person.

It is my belief that his message was lost in the movement that followed. A kingdom that can be described in observable terms is much easier to grasp than the rather abstract, inner-oriented model that we find throughout his sayings. With Jesus out of the picture, his original message took on an entirely different meaning that was more in alignment with the Jewish hope for a religious and political revolution.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were so adamant about the belief that God and man were separate that they threatened to stone Jesus for claiming his oneness with God. The Temple contained a sacred room called the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could enter this inner sanctuary once a year and offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. In other words, the people’s connection with God was made through the priesthood. The gift Jesus offered to the people was to tell them that God was not in a temple made with hands, that every person was, in fact, a temple of God. The connection with God was an inner one.

An important observation that I offer is this: The original teachings of Jesus were firmly grounded in the paradigm of oneness. The teachings of the entire New Testament are firmly grounded in a paradigm of separation. Jesus taught that the kingdom is present and found within each person, the early church taught that the kingdom was coming, and no one knows exactly when.

The gift of Jesus was a new understanding of God, and each person’s relationship of oneness with God.

The Simple Prayer

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“And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Matthew 6:7-8

Emerson described prayer as “the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” A great starting point is the one suggested by Jesus. The Father knows what we need before we ask. From this positive and accepting attitude, we engage in prayer as a two-fold action of releasing and affirming. We release all resistance, all fear, all doubt and we affirm that we have already received that which we ask for in prayer.

As Jesus points out, this activity does not require many words. Prayer is more of an acceptance, a conviction, a shift from want and doubt to a deep sense of knowing that our greater good, in whatever form we seek, is now coming forth.

It’s important that we understand that prayer does not cause God to act. Prayer brings us into alignment with the action of God. If we think of God as the creative life force, we see this as the river that flows in but one direction, from the inside out. Jesus said it isn’t what goes into your mouth but what comes out that matters. This creative process picks up on the frequency of our consciousness. A negative internal environment is a low frequency. As we release this energy and raise our consciousness frequency, things tend to go in our favor. We’re not being rewarded by God, we are being rewarded by working at a God-like frequency.

If your need is healing, release all negative appearances and begin to affirm the healing power of God is flowing in and through you. If you need greater prosperity, let go of your fear of lack and know the perfect abundance of God is pouring through you now. If you are seeking harmony in family or friend relationships, release all appearances to the contrary and affirm the perfect harmony of God is expressing through you and others this very moment.

Prayer as the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view invites us to lift up our spiritual eyes and see the greater good that we seek is flowing in and through us now.

Tapping Into Universal Wisdom

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The Lord created me [wisdom] at the beginning of his work,
    the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up,
    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

Proverbs 8:22-23

The Old Testament is broken into categories by genre. The OT books that fall into the genre of wisdom literature are grouped together as Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. In this passage from Proverbs, the “me” that the Lord created at the beginning of his work is Wisdom. The Greek word for wisdom is Sophia. If you delve into the Christian Gnostic literature, you find they regarded Sophia as a feminine figure comparable to the human soul. They considered Sophia the female twin of Jesus, the Bride of Christ, the Holy Spirit of the Trinity, and a direct emanation of the godhead.

These metaphors point to the truth that there is no place where God leaves off and we, as individuals, begin. As emanations of the godhead, we are literally infused with the wisdom that was set up before the beginning of the earth.

Emerson said it this way:

“There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word. . .. Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which flows into you as life, place yourself in the full center of that flood, then you are without effort impelled to truth, to right, and a perfect contentment.”

Wisdom is that which is in alignment with the natural way things work. What Emerson calls “lowly listening” is intuitive or soul-based knowing. It is the harmony demonstrated through the natural world, through the birds of the air and the lilies of the field whose needs are met and who live in perfect peace with their environment.

We tap into universal wisdom by seeing ourselves as an emanation of the godhead. In moments of quiet withdraw from the world, we envision the wisdom of God radiating from the center that is our soul to the circumference that is our life. This simple, heartfelt act opens the natural channel for the light of truth to shine in and through us.

I Am the Door

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In the Gospel of John, we find Jesus saying, “I am the door” (Jn 10:9). Mainstream Christian theology teaches that accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is the only way to God. In truth, God is accessible to all, regardless of their religious orientation. John is using the voice of Jesus to lend credibility to the teaching of the church.

When I read John, I have found it helpful to think of his voice of Jesus as the voice of my own soul. When he says, “I am the door,” for example, or “I am the way,” I read this as my soul, my spiritual essence as being that door, that way. Our spiritual essence is our only way to God. When Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice,” the sheep represent that part of us that recognizes the genuine inspiration that rises from the depths of our being. It begins as a still small voice but becomes more pronounced as we learn to listen and know.

The door is a powerful metaphor. The front door of your house opens to the interior of your home and it also opens to the limitless outdoors. In Revelation, Jesus is quoted as saying,

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20

 In this case, Jesus is not portrayed as the door, but as the one who is knocking and would like to come in. Again, the voice of Jesus is the voice of our soul. The knocking we hear, or actually feel, is our natural urge to open our mind to greater possibilities of being. This is an intuitive knowing, very natural but not widely understood. Jesus says there are thieves and robbers that will try to steal your sheep, meaning there are all kinds of distractions that can take us down paths that lead nowhere. We want our sheep to find rich pasture, or open the door to true spiritual nourishment.

For me, this is the real message coming from John. When we begin to understand our oneness with God, then it becomes clear that the door to God is within us. This is not about Jesus; it’s about each one of us and our developing understanding of the guiding promptings that bring us into firsthand knowledge of our unity with the Infinite.