2-25-2011 Weekly Message – The Start of Changing Times

 

For anyone following the news lately, it’s a dismal scenario to be sure.  There is Egypt and Libya, the price of oil has gone up, the thousands of migrants kidnapped in Mexico, and closer to home (at least here in Texas anyway) rising unemployment, the closing of schools and the possible shutting down of state parks, the layoff of thousands of teachers and government employees, more companies shutting down and even more people out of work.  For anyone who reads the papers, scans the Internet, listens to the radio, or watches the nightly news, it all seems relentlessly hopeless and complex.  Economic uncertainty, ecological collapse, ethnic conflicts, religious extremism, heartbreaking poverty—these harsh realities depict a world filled with fear, pain and fragmentation while reinforcing a belief that there is little we can do about it.  It would seem human existence is on a self-destructive decline.

 

Most of you won’t think of this, but hey it’s part of my background.  I am reminded of a tarot card called the “Tower” that depicts chaos and everything falling apart and crumbling.  The bigger picture is always more than what is shown on the card because somewhere down below the chaos and all that is falling is a re-forming and new creation emerging from below the ruble.  It is vitally important that we distinguish between the breakdown that is going on in our world and the emergence of the New World being formed below, because once the pieces are all put together, there is no denying that another reality is fighting its way through the cracks.

 

As ministers we are called on to serve people through their individual ‘rites of passage’ as we do weddings and funerals and dedications and house blessings.  Now we are being called upon to serve during yet another ‘rite of passage’ and that for our species and our world as we know it.  We are and will be going through a series of consciousness ‘shifts’ that according to Ed Bourne (Author of Global Shift) will move us into a new overarching worldview – a conscious universe, multidimensional realities, interconnected minds, and life beyond physics – a movement away from a materialistic to a humanitarian-spiritual orientation toward life.  These are awfully big ideas, pushing the boundaries of our conditioning and beliefs, but our collective future is at stake.

 

Many traditional Christians reach for their Bibles to search the scriptures for answers.  Revelation and Daniel are particularly popular books at this time.  In Revelation we can read about the seals being opened and the various occurrences including the four horsemen.  (Dr. Stansell brought that to our attention earlier this week with the video he posted.)  Is there any doubt that we are in the latter days? Frightening isn’t it?  I want to call our attention to another ancient text that can be read as well that will help give a better perspective on the things that are happening right now.  It is called the Gospel of Truth and it is included in a number of Gnostic collections.

 

As I have mentioned before there are more sacred writings than just those that are included in our Bibles.  In this day and age we have access to so much more.  This ancient text was found along with the Gospel of Thomas in 1945 at Naj 'Hammádì at the Jabal al-Tárif mountain.  The particular version was written in Greek.  Here are several online sources for reading the book.

 

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/got.html  translation by Robert Grant

 

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gostruth.html translation by Harold W. Attridge and George W. MacRae

 

http://www.metalog.org/files/valent.html translation and notes by Paterson Brown

 

 

Concern about the future is widespread these days.  On some level all of us know that we live in a time when our earth and civilization stand at a crossroads.  In these times the only thing we can be sure of in our physical lives is change.  To survive, we must be willing to change.  To survive it will take a change in consciousness brought about by God through his Divine Spirit. The ultimate change will be a change in our consciousness level (check out Dr. David Hawkins writings such as Power vs Force where he maps the consciousness levels.) and a change in our assumption about the best way to live in this complicated world.  Our way of both perceiving and acting in the world must change. There will be conflict and turmoil as many strive to not change and want to hang onto life as they know it, digging in their heels and resisting the changes or ignoring them and refusing to open spiritually.  For this many will die and many others will feel turmoil and pain.  For us ministers, it helps to remember that God promises He will shorten these days (Matthew 24:22.)

 

This morning I was reading this article by Charles Swindoll, written in 2005, that isn’t just speaking of our time but apparently time all along where mankind is concerned.  I think it has a very appropriate prayer in it for everyone.

 

For Godliness in a Godless Culture
by Charles R. Swindoll

Don't you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don't care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don't qualify as citizens in God's kingdom. A number of you know from experience what I'm talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you've been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.—1 Corinthians 6:9-11 MSG

 

Lord God, Your Son has closed yesterday's door, therefore Your people don't have to live enslaved to sin or shame anymore. Not because we've been strong and good and noble, but because You have transformed our lives. You've changed our course of direction. Even though You've left us on foreign soil, as aliens and strangers, we have a home in heaven. And sometimes we get pretty homesick!

 

Hear the prayers of Your people as we call out to You. Give us self-control on those occasions when we're tempted to moralize and put people down. Make us aware that a godly life preaches an unforgettable message to the unsaved. Help us remember that we're soldiers away from our home in heaven, living in a culture that's lost its way and is in desperate need of Jesus Christ. Keep us easy to live with, strong in faith, unbending in our convictions yet full of grace toward those who are bound by sin and captured by habits they cannot break. Enable us to shock this pagan culture with lives that are authentic, that stay balanced, that are still fun, and that ultimately glorify You, O God . . . just like Jesus did.

 

In His great name we pray. Amen. 

 

Reprinted by permission. Day by Day, Charles Swindoll, July 2005, Thomas Nelson, inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.

 

I get a lot of enjoyment reading the Bible.  It is a fascinating book to me.  I read many other books as well, those that I can see God’s truth in.  I meditate and pray and commune with spirit.  I ask God to show me the truth in all things.  I even ask God to reveal to me people’s hidden agendas, not to judge them by but to understand where they are coming from.  There is something about all inspired works.  Like psychic readings they may come from spirit but they are filtered through the background and experiences of the person writing them down.  It helps us to know this ahead of time.  The same gospel written down by both a poor servant and a rich and influential person may not seem like the same gospel but when you remove the filters you can see that both have the same message.  The same ‘news’ item may be reported from different perspectives and yet still be the same ‘news’ item.  So it is ‘glean what you may’ and let go the rest but don’t stop watching.  We are told to watch that we may be ready.

Over the next few weeks, I want to talk about some of the changes or shifts going on and point out the changes occurring in our own consciousnesses or the ways that we think.  First though, I pray that a measure of the Holy Spirit be added unto each and every one of us and that our own consciousness level be raised so that each of us may understand more in spirit.  Each of us can pray with purpose and intent to understand God’s truth and to see the world from His overall perspective.

Half of my background is Native American, the other half Celtic. Just in my lifetime there has been a big move to write down the Grandmother and Grandfather stories that have been handed down by mouth all these generations through the Native American lineages and how about the Celtic stories as well that view natural processes as directed spiritual forces.  With the widespread of the Internet these stories are out there for all to read.  While the spread of Christianity, the scientific revolution and the technology revolution played a part in divesting the world of spirit influence, we are now seeing disenchantment in those concepts and returning to our fore fathers thoughts that natural processes are directed and influenced by invisible forces and therefore natural events can be potentially influenced by human prayer and ritual. Next week, we will talk more on this re-enchantment of Nature.

Blessings, Rev. Sharra