Tag: bible

James 4:8- Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow.
Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

“Those who come from darkness will have their eyes burnt by the light”

It is by fire that we are sanctified, either here on earth while we have an opportunity to repent and turn to God, or after human life, in the fires of purgatory for a painful season.

(1 Corinthians 311-15:Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a rew ard. If any man’s work burn,he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved)

OR in hell for eternity, if our hearts are hardened to the point of no return.

Christ sees and knows all
there is no fooling Christ.

If you are suffering now be grateful for it, you are being sanctified, purified. Remember when I told you to be learn to be comfortable with discomfort? Just like coal is turned into a diamond through intense pressure over time, and as steel is forged in fire to be made from something weak into something strong, so too is God forming you into a precious diamond, forging you into a powerful weapon, in the fires of His judgment.

Judgment is SEEING what Christ sees, FEELING the same way that Christ feels, about our sin and ignorance, about every vice we have adopted, that we have made part of our identity, that ultimately is what separates us FROM Christ, from knowing ourselves through Christ, from becoming what Christ created us to be, as opposed to what the world and the ruler thereof has created us to be.

This is painful process and can feel like dying. It kind of is, because so far you have not been living in your Christ identity. Instead, you now identify with what satan created you to be, and separating yourself from that identity WILL feel like a death, and it should.

This part of you…once it dies, will make room for the REAL you to emerge from the flames.

Humbled. Strong. Unbreakable. A powerful weapon for God to yield. And totally at peace, because you are FINALLY living your purpose in you true nature, Christed, sanctified.

Thank Christ for the opportunity to
be purified now. Suffering while human IS overwhelming and seems sometimes impossible to bare, but the suffering of sanctification while human is a
grazed knee in comparison to the suffering of a pure spirit in the spiritual realm.

You are now suffering for your own transformation, sufferring to rid you of your sins and vices, your blindspots and impurities, just like Jesus suffered before you.

But please, never forget that Jesus is FULL of mercy for you as you suffer. He forgives you even before you ask. To ask for forgiveness is for your benefit not His, for humility and to break the bond with the stony heart that satan formed within you.

And Jesus has given us many tools to get through this suffering. He is teaching us to lean on Him, to rely on Him and not our own strength, to trust in HIS plan and to relinquish the steely grip that we have on our own lives. The process of letting go is a trial in itself, but it is very important to work at surrender, everyday.

Habitare in me est quia parvus sum -“He abides in me because I am small” –Saint Gemma Galgani

MARK 10:15-Amen I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it.”

Small children are totally reliant on their parents and they do not need to have it any other way. They are perfectly happy letting the parent do everything for them, although early on they are expected to learn from their parents and apply themselves to their own growth. They also give and receive PURE love freely, unrestrained.

Work at making yourself small so that Christ can abide in you also, so that you may suffer your sanctification in relative ease, do not fight against humility or it will prolong the process, believe me. I have learned this the hard way.

The tools Jesus gave us to endure this multi layered and complex process are as follows:

PRAY for strength to endure.

Christ knows what you can handle and will never give you more than you are capable of baring. Satan will come disguised as your own thoughts, and tell you otherwise. He will try to get you to blame Christ for your suffering (which, I mean..is not completely without merit but never lose sight of the bigger picture here. Just like a parent will apply burning ointment to a minor cut, knowing that it will hurt the child, to prevent an infection and WORSE suffering down the road, Christ will judge us in love and let us suffer the fires of His sanctifying grace, knowing that he is saving us from a far worse fate )

Satan will tell you that it is not fair. He will try to get you to feel sorry for yourself as a ways of keeping your from repenting of and renouncing your own sins, the part you have played in your own sufferring. He will try to get you to blame others for your state of mind and heart. He will try to get you to HATE those people who have damaged you.

When these thoughts and feelings come, do not indulge in them. Thank satan for plaguing you, because He has just reminded you to pray.

It really hurts God to see you suffer, just as it hurt Him to see Jesus suffer, yet He
knows that the suffering that awaits you if you are not purified now, while human, is far greater. Just like He knew, that if Jesus did not suffer then, none of us would have the hope of salvation today.

Develop trust in Christ.

PROVERBS 3:5-6 Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thy own prudence (prudence means care, caution and good judgment, as well as wisdom in looking ahead)

Spit in Satan’s face.

Literally. Turn west and spit, the sun sets in the west symbolizing darkness. It is no coincidence that so much evil comes from the west and the Western way of living is driving many people from the arms of Jesus. Renounce Satan, spit in his face and turn east to embrace salvation, the rising sun, victory over darkness.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Fasting– You saw your angel during a period of fasting, you understand that it brings graces. To crucify the flesh is crucial in our spiritual war against the demonic forces that hold us prisoner and keep us from the fullness of Christ.

When you use the will power to sacrifice something that the body wants and craves, you weaken the hold that your flesh has on you and you strengthen your will power.

Satan controls us through the flesh. If we exercise will power over our flesh he will no longer to be able tempt us this way, into sin.

Christ does not want puppets. He does not want robots. He wants swords of steel that he can wield and in doing these spiritual practices, we are participating in the forging process. WE must be giving permission for the mind to be transformed. WE must be making an effort when called to, to strengthen the will power. When we pray for will power, does God give us His will power or does He give us the opportunity to develop our own?

And it goes without saying…pray during times of fasting. Offer up the sacrifice to help others who are in need, maybe your fellow recovering addicts, because Jesus also calls us to help and pray for one another.

Give God an inch and He will take you a mile.

Finally, never forget… even Christ fell under the weight of His cross. If you fall, if you fail, get back up again. And always try to remember, that guilt and shame are of Satan. When you fail He will use it to try and make you give up. Spit in His face. Pray for forgiveness if needed, for graces and strength, discernment so next time you can see the attacks coming before they knock you down. And keep in your mind that this is not a linear process. There will be valleys and peaks. And God (and we!!! your friends, your family…) are with you through it all.

Praying for you. Cannot wait to meet the real you, I have seen glimpses here and there, and…wow.

Could I have chosen a more triggering title…

What does it mean to be “saved?”

“Salvation is understood as the hope of eternal life in communion with God in heaven.”

A statement which seems at first glance, pretty straight forward. Many Christians take it at face value and will agree that this statement, broken down into it’s simplest form, means thusly:

My soul will go to heaven to be with God when this earthly form expires. Ie. I (my soul) will go to heaven and live forever there with God if I am saved, and if I am not saved, when my body dies, my soul goes to hell to suffer everlasting torment.

In a nutshell: In the minds of most Christians, to be saved means that you are saved from hell, and your soul given everlasting life in heaven.

This belief is based on the premise that everlasting life only happens in heaven, after your body has died. And that the only time you get to be with God is there, in heaven, as a soul, after your body has died.

I see things a little differently.

Catholics prescribes to the belief that God calls us all to be holy, in essence, to be saints. They believe that ONLY saints enter heaven. It is not good enough to be “saved” in the strictly Christian sense. We must be TRANSFORMED. Made HOLY. Sanctified. So that we SEE God the way that Jesus did, KNOW God the way Jesus did.

“And I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am going, you may also be” -John 14:3

I see Christ as a SPIRIT, a spirit that came to fruition in the man called Jesus, who was ordained to be the man who would manifest this spirit, the spirit and essence of God.

A spirit of Truth and Love and Obedience and Humility and Servitude. A spirit that can and SHOULD become part of our own psyches, the force to transform the mind and soul.

“Believe you not that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me?” John 14:11

Adonai’s own spirit resided in Jesus and Jesus resided in Gods heart, He could not have performed the miracles that He did if this were not the case.

To reside in the heart of God means to be Obedient to His will, Humbled to the point of ego death, in essence, an empty vessel to carry out the will of He who sent us all out into the world to discover this Truth for ourselves.

Jesus was the first and only human to fully embody Gods spirit, He was the first to achieve the empty vessel like state, the humility and obedience, necessary to obtain this state. And He was ORDAINED to do this, from the beginning of time.

In fact, the spirit of Christ WAS with God in the beggining, at creation.

“In the beggining was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word WAS God.” John 1:1

” In Him was life, and the life was the light of man…there was a man named John, and He came to give testimony of the light.” John 1:4-7

And so Jesus was born into the world, with the spirit of Christ. He was half divine, half man.

Was Jesus perfectly divine? I do not believe that He was nor could He have been, for the sacrifice He made to hold any water.

If God came to earth, knowing COMPLETELY that He was God…there would be no fear in Him, for what is an earthly death to God? There would be no need of faith, for why would God need to have faith in what He KNEW to be true?

That would not be a sacrifice at all, like an adult pretending to lose at a game to make a child feel good about themself. The adult would not feel the pain of that loss at all and the win would not be real. No, Jesus was made half human, He thought He was that child, and He felt the pain of his sacrifice.

In the garden of Gethsemany, Jesus asks for the cup to pass from Him..and He cried tears of blood, so deep was His anguish in the knowledge of what He must suffer.

Jesus also knew He was God yes, BUT the human side of Him, the part of Him grounded in flesh and therefore the ignorance of “sin” ( I find it annoying how easily Christian speak has worked it’s way into my writing but believe me… there is not an easier way to say these things. I can call the flesh “ego” and I can call sin “acts which cause unconsciousness” and I can call “unconsciousness” disconnect from God” and sometimes I will, but sometimes…I’ll stick to biblical terms because lets face it…there won’t be many non Christians reading this article.) Where was I? Ah yes…

Jesus also knew He was God yes, BUT the human side of Him, the part of Him grounded in flesh and therefore the ignorance of “sin”…doubted. Because that is what it means to be human, that is what it means to be vulnerable to the attack of he who plants doubt and clouds our knowledge of who we were created to be. (I am talking about Satan. Who is not so much the ENEMY of God as he is the embodiment of that which is NOT God, ie. Evil.)

Also, this is what it means to be called to have FAITH. For what good is faith if we KNOW?

So, Jesus lived a dual life, inside His mind and outside of it.

I imagine He fought mental wars against the forces of evil just as any human would do.

An angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other.

The big difference being…His faith. His connection to God, and the presence of the Holy spirit AND the spirit of Christ within Him gave Him power to continuously defeat that evil. And so…He was Christ, the faithful, the obedient and humble. God on earth. He became that which He was made to be, over, I believe, many a lifetime.

There are passages in the bible which hint at reincarnation but since the adoption of this philosophy into eastern spiritual practice it has become something of a swear word amongst Christians. I WILL SPEAK MORE ON THIS IN ANOTHER ARTICLE AND PROVIDE BIBLICAL REFERENCE TOO.

“But you see me: Because I live, and you shall live. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father: and you in me and I in you.”

“He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him and manifest myself to him”

If anyone love me he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.

So what exactly is the point of this article? Why am I telling Christians that they are not REALLY saved, until they are sanctified, and begin to be transformed by the spirit of Christ, until nothing of their impure flesh remains to marr their perception of God?

Because I perceive that ALL Christians are stopping short of the goal that God has for them.

I believe that Christ will come again, but I am still uncertain of the specifics of His coming.

Will He come again manifested as Jesus, in the same bodily form?

Or will His spirit come again, manifesting this time through humans already alive? Humans transformed BY the spirit?

Will Jesus bring the kingdom, or will Gods kingdom come, when God’s will is done…on earth as it is in heaven?

“Neither shall they say: behold here, or behold there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21

And to non Christians, why does this matter?

I think it is an undeniable fact that, if the world were ruled by men and women manifesting the spirit of Christ, that the world not be in the mess that it is in.

There would be no inequality, for inequality is a byproduct of greed. There would be no violence, for violence in a byproduct of ignorance, the need to control, prejudice and again…greed. There would be no misunderstandings between religions because Truth would shine a light on long held misconceptions of exactly WHO God is…because the spirit of Christ comes to shake things up and dispels such delusions.

Was Christ not killed by the Jews for this very reason?

We are called to be holy, and not by our own strength, because no ways are we strong enough to overcome the ruler of this world, who is Satan. It is only through full surrender to God, and to His spirit, Christ, that we can be strengthened and transformed. And only the faithful will surrender and obey. It goes against the very NATURE of what it is to be human, obedience and humility. Almost as if, our very nature is intrinsically linked to the nature of he who manifests that which is not God..ie Satan.

Adonai tells us to pray (1 thessalonians) and Jesus tells us HOW. (Luke 11:1)

Jesus tells us that only those who obey God’s will, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Mathew 7:21)

Jesus also tells us that He will only reveal himself to those that love Him and that to love Him means to obey His commandments. (John 14:21-24)

I am not “sola scriptura” but I do believe that these verses alone are enough to blow “salvation through faith alone” out of the water.

God allows mistakes and oversights and if I have made any in this article I know I am forgiven so long as I admit fault and ask forgiveness. God knows.. my intellect has fooled me before.

I am open, as always, to debates and questions.

I will end in prayer

God, Adonai, please show us who you are. Send your spirit to transform our hearts and open our eyes. Be there to comfort us when we awaken and begin to see the life we have lost to sin and ignorance, give us the strength to turn away from sin and the humility to ask for forgiveness. Touch the hearts of non-believers in such a way that it is no longer possible to deny your existence. Free us from bondage. Protect us from Satan and his army of demons who move undetected amongst us, causing generational trauma and turning hearts to stone. SHOW THEM TRUTH ADONAI. Only You can.

Amen.

.

Issue 1

A BACKSTORY

When I first became Christian ( as my adult self, about 5months ago now) I had many preconceived notions about what exactly it meant to BE Christian.

• “Christians are so judgy I’m going to be walking around on eggshells….”
• “They won’t accept me I’ve done too many things that spit in the face of their religion.”
• “Christians promote prejudice against homosexuals and oppression of women”
• “I’m going to be so BORING now and I’m going to lose all my friends…”

All of these statements and at the same time…none of them, have proven to be true.

Because no one Christian is the same as another.

Sure, there are the judgy ones. The hypocrites, the prejudiced…the same can be said for any and all factions of society. I think of these types of people, as ignorant. Unconscious. Unenlightened.

And anyone who actively seeks God is not going to stay ignorant for long. And if they DO stay ignorant…it means that they were never seeking God in the first place and are therefore not TRUE Christians.

 For the most part, I am finding the majority of Christians to be open minded, kind compassionate and generous people, who don’t deserve the shade that’s thrown their way by ignoramuses like me.

Also, within the church , there exists a myriad of denominations, some as different from one another as night to day. All in all, I am happy to have had my preconceived notions proven wrong.

 Before me lies a smorgasbord of doctrine… and if the way one denomination practices the faith sets off spiritual alarm bells.. then I am free to explore and find one that feels right.

 As for my non Christian friends…they’re still around. We don’t hang out in the same way we used to but we still have love and respect for one another. I am hopeful that one day, when the time is right, Christ will make an appearance in their lives. Perhaps this work has already began, through me. Because believe me when I say.. I enjoyed that lifestyle just as much as any of them do. And part of me misses it, a pretty big part of me.

Maybe, by seeing me…a hopeless addict who suffered endless mental torment, living now FINALLY in a place of freedom from addiction, with a clear and happy mind.. they’ll begin to believe in the miracles that God works in the lives of those who seek Him.

I came kicking and screaming to Christianity, because (through a providential series of events)I came to KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is to be found through Christ. (read my conversion story here: who is God to me.)

After a lifetime of searching and only scratching the surface, I finally hit oil.

I am now ready to martyr my ego to move into closer alignment with that which lives in us, and is of God.

The incessant voice , one of many, that forms part of my (and, most everyone’s??…) psyche. And it says…Seek God. Be good. See and reject this evil that lives within you. Become Holy, that is your purpose. That is the purpose of every soul in creation.

It’s one thing to imagine the sacrifice needed to achieve liberation of the ego but quiet another thing to weather the experience of your own liberation. I said yes to Jesus, and so began the process of sanctification. And what a painful process it has been.

 But #worthit.

It really is quite ironic, that…on my journey to knowing God, I find myself back(almost, more or less…) exactly where I started.

You see, I was born into a “Christian-ish” household. (We called ourselves Christians but, aside from the occasional half hearted prompting from my mother …”we really should all go to church” we were mostly non-practicing.)

From the vantage point of a child raised in a pretty toxic conservative culture, the doctrine of Christianity had very little to do with God and a lot more to do with justifying abuse of woman and children, and prejudice towards anyone who did not prescribe to their ideologies or hold with their hypocrisy.

And because I could not reconcile this hypocrisy with who I believed God to be…I shunned the God of Christ, and decided to seek Him elsewhere.

And I DID find Him, in bits and pieces, as the grain of Truth masking the lies of every other spiritual practice I participated in.

This is the reason that false religions are so powerful, they contain grains of Truth, every one of them. Satan cannot create, but he can take what God has created and add to it or take away from it, twist it so that it twists US…thirsting souls drinking vinegar believing it to be water.

Not even Christianity, Gods own religion, is safe from the lies. No one organisation or individual is free from satan’s influence, the web of lies that he spins and the ignorance he breeds, because we live in a fallen world and are under his rule.

Here, no one is safe, but we can BE saved. God can protect us, if we are willing to take a very close look at ourselves and ask Him to help remove from our minds the ideologies, characteristics, actions and thoughts which keeps God out of our hearts and keeps satan in.

 I am talking about the “process of sanctification”, which lines up with Catholic ideology and is part of the reason I am now a practicing catholic, and this ideology is not unique to Catholicism.

Buddhism prescribes to a similar philosophy and refers to the process as enlightenment. Psychologists refer “transcendence of ego” and metaphysisist’s  as expansion of consciousness.  All different words for a very similar thing, seen through filters of varying opacity. Some philosophies have it more “right” than others. 

BUT…(and this is the most important thing)

Without surrender to Christ, there is no final and permanent transformation. Philosophy can only get you so far. It is not enough to think, and to think that you “know”.

“ Only Christ has been able to transform my darkened heart and give reprieve to my tormented mind. This is how I know that God is to be found where Jesus says He is.”

In later issue’s I will discuss the philosophy of “salvation through sanctification” in more detail, and I will also discuss and compare various religions. I have prescribed to the ideologies of most and practiced many of their rituals, and I have learned a thing or two in the process. Exciting things that I am excited to share with you all.

Thank you for taking the time to read. I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.

I’ll end this issue with a quote.

“God waits for us to stop suffering our suffering. He waits for us to say “enough!” Of this world, of it’s evils…of our evils. He waits, He forgives,  He enlightens and transforms, anyone who asks.”

May Jesus find you exactly where you are.