That is a wonderful prayer, I'm going to start using it. Thanks!

Awesome testimonies.

I was trying to understand the meaning of the initial blessing prayer you shared, particularly the line "May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."
I was wondering what countenance meant in this context. I found that it could mean face, favor, kindness, etc. Then I found the NLT version:

24 ‘May the Lord bless you
    and protect you.
25 May the Lord smile on you
    and be gracious to you.
26 May the Lord show you his favor
    and give you his peace.’

While NIT says:

24 “The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’

So are the phrases lifting up one's countenance, turning one's face towards another, and showing another one's favor all synonymous?

Good to see you back, Don. 

My question to you would be, what is your feeling about reconciling two opposing views?  one being that we are all sinners and must repent for only through God's grace are we saved, and the other being that we all have the divine essence within us, and that we only need to look within ourselves to find the essence of God (that which is good, and that which is true, according to ES)? 

Followers of New Age thought are often criticized for being haughty or arrogant to think that we each have a divine nature, and are already one with God.  So some people who interpret the bible literally might say that we are all worthless sinners, and only by grace can we find salvation.  These are difficult questions and I know we've discussed them before.  My own interpretation is that God is (as you mentioned) the foundation of our being and that by choice we either turn towards God and let God flow through us into both our thoughts and our actions (that which is good and true) or turn away from God and indulge our ego related desires.  However, there are some who believe that if they proclaim their sin, and ask for forgiveness, they are immediately saved (this is called, as you know, the sola fide argument in Christianity).  Others believe that when we are open to God's love and let it flow through us, our actions in the world reflect our connection to God so that we are in tune with the divine when we turn toward what is good and true, and act accordingly, naturally (because really it is the only way to be).  This is the opposite point of view to sola fide which goes more along the lines of ES's revelations.

An interesting corollary point that ES makes in his writings is that Angels (the deceased humans on a spiritual journey toward God) don't understand people who take credit for their good actions and want acclaim or accolades for it.  To the angels, ES states that whenever they perform a good deed, they see it as allowing God to flow through them, so that really they don't feel that they deserve any "credit" for the good deed, rather than they just did what was natural, and that God deserved any praise or credit.  This idea rings true to me, and is one of the more profound insights that ES puts forward which makes me feel his spiritual journeys were genuine.


Matthew

Great to hear from you again, Matthew!

DocM: "My question to you would be, what is your feeling about reconciling two opposing views?  one being that we are all sinners and must repent for only through God's grace are we saved, and the other being that we all have the divine essence within us, and that we only need to look within ourselves to find the essence of God (that which is good, and that which is true, according to ES)?"

In my view, the issues involved are complex and therefore so is any adequate answer.  In my view, a good starting point is a recognition of 3 biblical principles:

(1) We are created in "the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27-28)."  The Hebrew words for "image" and "likeness" refer to statues that ancient kings set up in conquered lands to represent their presence and authority there during the king's absence.  This means that we represent God's presence and authority on earth and in that sense are mini-gods or creators in the making.  So  Paul can ask, "Don't you know that the saints will have jurisdiction over (judge) the cosmos (1 Corinthians 6:2)?"  It is in that sense that our sacred trust to be stewards of creation should be understood (Genesis 1:28-30). 

(2) What this also means is that we are destined to "participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1.4).'"  The early church Father Origen (225 AD) says that believers will progress from one spiritual state to another in a process that brings to an ever more complete union with God.   Origen is interpreting John 14:2, which is mistranslated in the King James: "In my Father's house are many mansions."  The Greek word "mone" used here does not mean "mansions,"  but "resting places" or "inns," temporary lodgings en route to a higher destination.

(3) God is Love and Love requires a truly free "other," who has a strong inclination or incentive to choose a path of separation from God.  One Hebrew word for "sin" means "that which separates from God."  The value of our choice of the good is a function of our contrary inclinations and our challenge to overcome such inclinations for a higher good.

Practically speaking, it is better to reject the New Age notion of a "divine spark" because this spark is merely an unactualized unmerited potential to choose the path that leads to "participation in the divine nature."  Because a successful journey towards union is unmerited, its path is dependent on repentance, a humility that acknowledges the  essential role of dependence on divine help, guidance, and transformation, and, most importantly, grace.  Our only proper response to grace is a life that constantly expresses gratitude for God's unmerited favor and such chronic gratitude is a necessary condition for the development of true PUL.  The tendency to ignore this fact makes the charge of New Age arrogance and presumption well deserved because it erects a barrier to true progress! 

Don

Don said:

" Because a successful journey towards union is unmerited, its path is dependent on repentance, a humility that acknowledges the  essential role of dependence on divine help, guidance, and transformation, and, most importantly, grace. "

It seems to me that there is a difference between an unactualized divine spark within us, and the notion that the divine spark is initially unmerited in all people.    If God is the foundation of our being, then if we choose to allow God's love to flow through us and act in accordance with right thought and action, then we are deserving of our divine birthright.  I can see the point that if we are in the physical world, where man artificially separates himself from God and the divine unity, that we are starting with a situation where we are born into a fallacy to some extent of a separation that should not exist.

However, there are some souls we all encounter, who choose to allow God's love to flow through them, and who appear to be on their way to a spiritual union with the divine because they truly are good people.

I suppose that I agree with the idea of confessing one's sin, the notions of grace and forgiveness, but I am not comfortable with the idea that our journey toward divine unity is unmerited.

M

rondele wrote on Apr 29^th, 2017 at 10:08pm:


I accepted Christ back in January.

It's funny because I was just thinking about this today. It has definitely changed me.

I now have urges to go out of my way to do nice things for people that I never even considered before, and I act on them. I've noticed a dramatic reduction in my negative thoughts and feelings during my various daily activities, and thus a reduction of the stress that would result from them. I also treat people with more compassion now, and my tendency to consider people as obstacles and inconveniences is diminishing by the day.

As I mentioned in another post, I now feel a love in my heart that was previously absent. I actually tear up and/or cry from joy almost daily during my study, contemplation and prayer. I've also noticed a great improvement of a minor stress-related health issue which seems to be almost nonexistent now.

All of these things have been increasing and improving gradually since January as I continue my prayer, study and relationship with Christ.

Where does sinful nature come from? If somebody can explain this in a way that makes sense and covers all of the bases, I'll accept the notion of repenting.

I consider the matter this way. Everything that exists, even that which is referred to as "sin" comes from God's being, for there is nothing that exists other than God's being.

The crucial factor is that God's being has free will. It isn't limited by somebody's notion of what is right or wrong. When I say this I don't mean to say that some ways of being aren't more preferable than others (e.g.; treating others with respect is more preferable than treating others with disrespect). Rather, in order for God to have freedom of expression and to know what his being is all about, in some way he needs to consider all of the possibilities. I believe that we help with this process as we find out what is possible.

Is a soul who incarnates into this world more likely to become something such as gang banger if it incarnates into a place where a lot of gang banging activity takes place, or if it incarnates into a place where no such activity takes place? I believe the answer is obvious.

I don't mean to suggest that we don't have free will, but in order to use it in a wise way that leads to preferable results, we need to have the required wisdom. Sometimes it takes time to develop wisdom. Consider ourselves. We each have free will, yet we have differing viewpoints and they represent what is actually true to varying degrees. Why do we have differing viewpoints when we have free will? Because we have yet to develop the wisdom to use our free will in a way that leads to what might be considered perfect results.

I believe a key to finding the required wisdom is understanding that we can be wrong about things. The more we are able to understand this the more we can consider the accuracy of our viewpoints and determine if there is a more accurate way of viewing things. As we do this we are likely to find how faulty logic can be at times and choose to find a way to listen to the wisdom that is contained within our hearts.

Back to the point I was initially getting at. When a soul incarnates into a lifetime that includes negative influences it isn't a matter of that soul becoming a horrible sinner that others should condemn. Rather, it is a matter of a soul being brave enough to take on an incarnation that is quite challenging and might lead to negative consequences.

It is important to remember that when souls incarnate into this world and other places, little pieces of God's being do so, not something that is completely foreign to God. I believe that God understands about the difficulty of incarnating into challenging life situations thoroughly enough so that he doesn't view people who go astray as detestable beings that need to repent. It is more of a matter of a person becoming wiser and finding out what leads to true fulfillment.

When it comes to having gratitude, one of the things I consider is how fortunate I am to live the life I have. I figure that there are many pieces of God within this world that have it much rougher than I, and that haven't been fortunate to experience things such as divine love and peace.

If it isn't a matter of souls getting involved with circumstances that cause them to be influenced in a negative way, then where does the ability to sin come from? If God created souls so they are perfect, then what is referred to as sin wouldn't take place. If God provided a soul with more negative traits than positive traits, then you can hardly blame that soul for manifesting in a negative way. If God provided a soul with more positive traits than negative traits, and a soul had the ability to compare these traits in an accurate and thorough way, then there is no way a soul would choose the negative traits. Therefore, I believe another explanation is required.

The explanation was partly provided above. In order for us and the creative process of this universe to have free will and be more than programmed beings, we need to go through a learning process that enables us to develop the ability to use our free will in a way that represents both wisdom and freedom.

One night I was meditating and I felt concerned about the negativity that takes place in this world. I experienced myself floating in what seemed like the center of this universe and heard the words, "it's a school."