crossbow
Full Member
Offline
ALK Member
Posts: 207
Gender:
|
1. We can enjoy a little fear. That is understandable. It excites the nerves and sharpens the senses. Beyond a certain limit though, it becomes less fun and more unpleasant, and then requires our good management. We can also enjoy a laugh, gain a lighthearted lift, at someone else's minor missfortune. Often I have seen a fellow workman hit his thumb with a hammer, or turn about with a beam and hit another on the head. As long as no one is seriously injured then such little accidents can be funny, even uplifting and can put a sparkle in the day - when they happen to some else that is. And even when they happen to ourself they can be funny a little later, in retrospect. Of course when someone is seriously hurt or injured it is not funny at all. Most of us realise that, but some people don't; they are amused by awful things that happen to others. This unhealthy tendency can even creep into a person's "spirituality", to the extent that they feel uplifted, comforted, special, at the thought of others suffering at the consequences of their own wrongs, and themselves in comparison not having to suffer. Such an attitude is extreme and unhealthy. It is seen in certain people who think themselves amongst the best people just because they have stuck a certain label on themselves. 2. Jesus Christ did not come to scare anyone, he came to teach us what is good for us. He brought good news. The news of love and forgiveness, and its potential for health, well being and human progress. In the Gospels we read where he made mention of the changes and cycles of life. The destruction of the old; its replacement with the new. This destruction and replacement is an ongoing, ever occurring process. It happens individually, socially, planetarily. The "rapture" or the "taking up" is happening now and everywhere to everyone, and always has been. Look at your own life and see how your old forms (values, priorities, thoughts, behaviours) crumble and fall apart as you progress through life and perceive and realise higher and better truths. You are not the same person you were 5 or 10 years ago. The old one is crumbling away, a new one is emerging. This happens even without our effort, as a result of life, error, consequence. But this change for better can be sped up, through being consciously practiced by the individual. Jesus taught us a system of rapid change and growth. He taught us the path of love, through Christ, the Spirit of Love for Earth. He taught that when one tunes one's heart with love, and breathes and lives in love for others, then rapid change occurs within the individual. The old character/buildings/forms/structure/values/thinking/behaviour crumble and fall away, and are replaced with new structures of light. This is the rapture, the taking up. It happens within.
|