More Random Thoughts and Observations...

About thinking: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Our thinking, about anything, is powerful ... even creative (for it will create our experienced reality).

The ego (our carnal nature) ... is indeed a huge factor. Most of us think from it, unknowingly, imagining ourselves to be spiritual. One of the best exposes of this is a non-Christian book (but all truth is His Truth) called "The New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle ... didn't let myself read it for a couple of years, due to it being labeled as "new age" and "subversive" by Christians ... 'course, Jesus was labeled subversive and blasphemous, too ... so I prefer to experience a thing for myself, and to test it with inner-discernment, rather than external-labels. When I did let myself read it, I was incredibly blessed.


About mistakes: Yes, I see that we're meant to learn from our mistakes ... but that requires seeing them, acknowledging them (rather than shaming ourselves (or others) for having done them), and choosing whether they declare who we really are, or not. Unfortunately, Christianity often teaches us to deny our mistakes, to shame folks (& ourselves) for having them, to repress them, to ignore them, and thus, by default, to perpetuate them. Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting different results. Religion, it seems to me, often displays collective insanity.

About revelation: I see that we fear "greater revelation" (even though Jesus said the Spirit would lead us into all truth ... even though He said He had much more to share with those who were following Him, but that they "couldn't bear it").

I see that we fear experience, as if it were somehow evil ... despite how the Scriptures themselves are full of accounts of folks having experiential encounters with the Living God. Somehow, we seem to believe that God now wants us to have second-hand, by-proxy, faux-experiences through *their* experiences ... that God spoke then, but doesn't speak now, except through what was written at that point in history. He's still the Living God ... He's still communicating, He's still leading us into all truth (meaning: we ain't arrived yet), He's still wanting us to experience Him, for ourselves, and to, yes-indeedy, receive "greater revelation" from Him.

If we can bear it.

Which, of course, won't happen if we're not open to it. If we are imagining ourselves to already possess all truth, we're not open to more of the Truth He has for us ...

About correcting others: Why do we imagine that we have to *correct* others? Did Jesus not say to Peter (re. John), "What's that to you? You follow Me." Can we not love while en route to all truth? Can we not lead with the example of how we live our own lives? Can we not demonstrate, rather than correct? Is not love the most powerful force in the universe? Can Light not swallow up darkness? Can Love not absorb fear? Can truth not absorb deception? Is He not able to draw all men to Himself, and indeed, is that not the only way anyone comes to Him in the first place (by His doing)?

(& while we can certainly exclude folks from our "clubs," how do we "disfellowship" someone from their very identity...?)

I see that we've done the "correct everyone, and kill them if necessary" approach for the past 2,000 years. I see that the fruit of this approach is horrid. I propose that we try the "love everyone, and forgive them if necessary" approach for a couple of millennia ... just to see if we get better results, or just for the heck of it.

Maybe God knows what He's doing? Maybe we can join Him in that?

Shalom, Dena