Posts

Showing posts from February, 2017

I AM WORTHY 1

p.257-260 I think the phrase “Lord I am not worthy” is one of the most misunderstood and misquoted passages in scripture. To put it into context, the incident referred to is about a Roman centurion asking Jesus to heal his servant. And out of respect what he said was “I am not worthy that should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.” Now I understand what that sounds like literally, and yet the sense I get from this is simply a man saying, “I don't want to bother you. I know you do not have to be physically present to heal my servant; you can do it from where you stand. I believe that with all my heart.” The emphasis in this story and Jesus actually confirms this is not about worthiness or unworthiness, it is about the man's faith, his belief. I hate to get a political about this, but imagine if the leadership of the church where to put the emphasis on unworthiness. What a powerful bit of control over their subjects that would create...

HELP 6

p.254-256 In our beginning discussion a class member mentioned the 12 steps which are the cornerstone of many recovery programs—and the working of these steps as a way of eliminating fear. A short diversion here. In my exploration of recovery, my thought is that the reason why the 12 steps work is because they encompass the essential elements that are necessary for any successful spiritual path. In fact, every spiritual path that works will have some form of these seven elements. I will not go into detail, but you can probably discern meaning behind each heading. ( Surrender, Purification, Right Relationships, Living in the Here and Now, Comprehension, Living and Loving Wisely, and Authentic Being ). Each one of these elements will be present no matter what path we examine—Buddhism, Hinduism, Christian Mysticism, Sufism, etc. ************** The chapter concludes with a continuing exploration of fear and the elimination or the rising above fear. It is a fairly simple aware...

HELP 5

P. 230-234 We are continuing with this theme of choice. With this in mind we can become aware that freedom is a choice, but the freedom we speak of here is more than just permission to go ahead do what you want to do. What we speak of here is the choice we have between freedom or victimhood. It is the choice we have to go into lower vibration or higher vibration thought. When we change or transform our interior landscape, then we must make adjustments for this change. Old behaviors, attitudes and actions which in the past might have been automatic are now no longer comfortable, they don't fit us anymore. We can still go ahead and do the old behaviors as we did before, that is still our choice, but we are usually going to find that the old behavior and attitudes are no longer comfortable, they know longer fit us. It is like growing out of old clothes. The clothes themselves could be fine but they no longer fit us. Jesus used the analogy of building a house and either h...