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ONE GOD - MANY NAMES / ONE SON - MANY PATHS / ONE TRUTH - MANY FAITHS |
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Our Spiritual Journey Let me begin this week by saying, if you have missed any of the previous messages you may want to go back and read them. We have them stored both here in the files on the Yahoo Group and on the main website. It is very important that each of us understands the basics being taught in these first messages. We have talked about spiritual growth and getting started. We have talked about commitment and not making promises we cannot keep. We have talked about perspective. We have talked about fear: fear that gets in our way, blocks us and holds us back. These messages lay a firm foundation for upcoming messages. We are in the process of starting to build a new frame of reference in which we can operate at a much higher level of consciousness or enlightenment. We will look for God’s truth in all things. We are not going to rehash the same stuff religious people have taught and learned for the last few thousand years. What would be the point right? No, we are dedicating ourselves to expanding our awareness of God/Goddess/Omni's miraculous Creation and this means learning new things. I would like us to start with learning and understanding more about the Spirit World. After all we are moving forward as spiritual pioneers. We are going ‘where no man has gone before.’ (Yes, I’m a treky.) Why should we learn about the Spirit World? The reason we must learn about the Spirit World is so that we may become familiar with it, understand it, and no longer fear it. Once we know a bit more about how the spirit world fits together, how we function within it, what it is that we are and why we are here, ONLY THEN can we proceed to OPERATE inside this usually unseen world. As I already stated our first task at hand is to create a new framework for reference. We will start with the basics and in a short time we will construct a type of framework for this new world in which we want to operate. What do I mean by operate? Well... In much the same way that we exist here in this physical world, where there are rules and specific laws of nature, we now wish to shift our consciousness into the spiritual dimension so that we can "live", "work" and operate there as well. It is the natural progression of man to develop into a higher state of existence and so we must now bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds or rather bridge these higher dimensions. To live and work in higher dimensions we must know the rules and what to expect. We must become familiar enough with the spirit world so that we may learn to interact with it, work in it, and use the higher technologies that are available in these higher dimensions of consciousness. In this way we can learn to heal ourselves, to heal others, to heal this Earth we live on, and to accelerate our consciousness at a vastly increased pace. 98We will start using a lot more areas of our brain I do ing this.) We must ourselves become bridges between the physical and spiritual worlds. A few have gone before us... and many will follow in our footsteps as they proceed along their Spiritual Journeys behind us. Consider ancient man’s understanding of the spirit world and man’s limited fear based beliefs. It is up to us now. We are now the pioneers who must blaze the trail in which all mankind will follow, sooner or later. 200 years from today people will look back at this time in their history and think of mankind in two ways. First we will be the people born in the spiritual dark ages who were so entrapped in density that we forgot to grow for 2000 years, spiritual cavemen if you will. This era will be known as an era of spiritual darkness, limitations, duality, ignorance, arrogance and naivety. Second, people of the future will also look back at the end of this era and honor the thousands of people who broke free from the bonds of darkness. They will honor those brave souls who stepped forward with great courage to seek out a higher purpose and connect with God, and had a burning desire to grow and explore the then-unknown worlds of higher spiritual dimensions. We will be referred to as spiritual pioneers
and looked on asthose on the Great Spirit Trek who started humanity's migration into the higher spiritual state of existence. We have a GREAT responsibility on our shoulders. We must now instigate the events in our lives that will shape the world for our children, grandchildren and the generations to follow. Our planet Earth is dying and it is up to us NOW to make the shift, to start the healing process for the people on the earth and for the earth itself and return this planet to what God’s divine plan has in store for it. No one else is going do this for us. We will have to do it. When we say there is a fantastic change happening in Christianity, this is ultimately what we are talking about. It is a big spiritual change. No it is not just our church. There are other progressive churches and spiritual movements who are teaching these truths. I am talking about all of us working in harmony spiritually together. And yes there is much spiritual help available as we people cannot do it alone, but it is up to us to start this work and do our part in it. It is OUR FREE WILL and OUR CHOICE that determines what happens to this world God has given us. We must collectively and spiritually make the stand to heal our world. We start with ourselves and our families building harmony and peace by getting along and working together. Then we work in our communities helping our neighbors and taking care of the children and elderly. We work together to preserve our ecology. We help clean up pollution. We push for and insist that earth friendly technologies and power sources be declassified and used wide-scale around the world. We move on to our governments making peace within our governments and with other governments until the whole world is in harmony and peace with each other. We may have to replace antiquated governmental systems along the way. As a people we will replace those dark power hungry, greedy lords still in power around the world with enlightened souls who will willingly devote their lives to the betterment of humanity and earth as a whole. As a people, we must CHOOSE to start this process. Once we have made the choice, we can call on our Creator and His/Her beings in the higher spiritual dimensions to assist us in healing this world. IT HAS TO BE OUR DECISION TO START THE PROCESSthough, and frankly I think we have already made the decision. The process has begun. Thousands are already actively working on this, other humans who care just like we care. In time more and more of humanity will follow this same path and comes into spiritual alignment with us pioneers, thus adding more energy and momentum to the good works that have already been started. We are our Creator’s instruments. WE have been called to do our Creator’s work here and to manifest heaven on earth. God works through us to affect this glorious change. The only other alternative is to completely destroy life on earth and start over again. I have a feeling God will first attempt to rescue what can be rescued and only as a last resort turn to the actual destruction of life on this planet. This is why it is so very important that we band together and dedicate our lives to the betterment of the world and all its creatures... Man and ALL other life on earth. That is why YOU and I are here, to be of service. WE are here to be used by God -to manifest His divine plan for earth. We are a very important part of His plan. Each and everyone of us MUST embrace this responsibility... learn what our life mission is about... and prepare ourselves as fast as possible to be ready and able vehicles for God to use in this service. We have but one purpose in life... That is to grow spiritually... There is but ONE way to grow spiritually in the whole of Creation... and that is TO CHANGE AND BE OF SERVICE. Being of service to God means being of service to humanity and being of service to our planet earth and to all that dwell on her. By being of service we grow, and as we are of service, we begin to touch the lives of others. First we touch the life of one person, then a handful of people and soon we will have a large collection of people's lives we have touched over the years. One day, when we look back we will see that our life has been one of service and we can then be content and satisfied that we have used the life God gave us well... and that it was not wasted. Consider FREE WILL is also a gift from God. We have the freedom to decide for ourselves and to make choices. Let us remember FREE WILL as a gift and let us use it responsibly. Throughout the history of mankind there have been some really tough questions asked. We all have them. Most of the questions are the same for everyone. In other words, the questions we have in our own private thoughts in the middle of the night are the same questions everybody has sometime or another. These questions are far from unique and it is not a trivial phenomena. Questions are like jet fuel for the Spirit and the mind. On this planet of seeming aloneness we struggle for self identity (for a few years anyway) and we all try to track down the essence of life, that which gives us true purpose and satisfaction in our Heart, on a soul or spiritual level. Here are some pretty tough questions we all have to consider. We have talked about these to some extent all ready and we are going to talk about them more in future messages. Think about each one carefully for a minute or two. Who am I? What am I? What am I doing here on this planet? Why am I not on another planet in a different galaxy? What was God thinking when man was created? Is earth an experiment or a school? What is my life purpose? Why is there hunger, pain, suffering and death? ...and our list of questions can stretch on forever... WHY? Why do we have so many questions and seemingly so few answers? Consider children for a second. Think of a small child in that phase when they ask a gazillion questions (about the age of four or five.) They have a desperate need to know "WHY?" everything is the way it is and how does this NEW world they find themselves in operate. How do they survive? Once we (as children) had to come to terms with the rules and regulations of life in this physical world so we could survive. Then we progressed to the next level and we ventured forth on a spiritual quest. Many of us come from families where we were taught to be spiritual in one or more of the prominent organized religions. Sadly, the very driving force that guides our spiritual journey is often extinguished by organized religion, and that is: "To ask questions and use our God given ability to THINK for ourselves". We are taught that THIS is the way it is, don't question it, just believe... and if you don't, you will spend eternity in a fiery hell. That is enough to scare most people into submission, don't you think? Where is the LOVE in that? Where is the WISDOM in that? Where is God’s truth in that? In most organized religions we were taught not to question, just do what we were told and BELIEVE what we were told by our elders. Unfortunately by the time most people become adults, their belief system is so ingrained into their lives that it becomes so very real... and any other point of view is simply impossible to consider or is threatened by everlasting hell. Teenagers always have many questions while trying to establish their identity. Who am I? What am I? and so on... I bet if we think for a bit we can remember the questions WE had while we were searching for our identities as teenagers and young adults? Let’s take a few seconds and see if we can remember any of those pesky questions we had that no one had a good answer for. Questions that we finally chose to ignore because we could not find satisfactory answers for them. Most adults never received satisfactory answers to those questions, and without answers, there is no driving force to continue the spiritual journey or to continue asking questions. Adults become spiritually lethargic or just "numb" and so they will spend the rest of their days simply "believing" in "their" version of religion as the ONLY religion and then wonder why their lives are so empty. The result: There is no longer any real spiritual growth when the questions cease. People quit asking: "Is there anything more to life than this?" It is time for us to wake up and blow renewed life back into our long forgotten list of questions. Having red-hot questions implies that we spend much time examining ourselves, observing our lives, understanding our situations and actively trying to walk our spiritual journeys. Questions result in self-examination. Only by being aware of something can we examine it and decide if it ‘rings true’ or if it needs to change. Remember: Without change there can be no growth...Without growth, there is no true joy... Our spiritual journey is all about questions and our burning desire to discover the truth behind the questions. Questions are the fuel that feed our inspirational dissatisfaction. To become dissatisfied with the old and to become inspired to learn and discover the new. Questions lead to answers which equals change which equals growth. In the course of these messages we will attempt to create many questions in our mind and we will hunt down the answers too. As we do this we will find our true selves emerging and unfolding like beautiful roses. I like to think of each of us as ‘Becoming a Rose’, the title of a current book I’m writing. We will find our consciousness expanding week by week. It’s not an easy journey because we will have to break through many self-imposed barriers. Remember those answers we just "settled" for... which then became part of our belief system. Well some of those beliefs we built have become barriers now and breaking through those barriers can mean fundamental life changes. It is a whole new way of seeing the world and it can be scary for some people. But not us... WE are ready for this. WE have decided to walk this journey because we were dissatisfied with the way our lives were going before this and because we wanted to do more. WE will do just fine... There is no getting around the fact this will be a tough journey sometimes. It is by far easier for us to remain in the dark and to just go on with a mundane and repetitive life of work, eat and sleep; a life where we are but a boat drifting aimlessly in the sea of life. A life (I might add) where we CHOOSE to be the victim and claim nothing is our fault. A life where we have no responsibility. That’s not life. It’s a waste of precious life. And it is SO EASY for us to fall victim to it. Would it not be a terrible experience when one day we are laying on our deathbed, it hits us like a ton of bricks... We realize that our entire life has been a waste of precious time, a waste of life itself, and that we made mostly bad choices and we never really "lived" but only "existed". Life is such a dynamic process and a wondrous journey if only we do it right and "LIVE!!!" Not merely exist from day to day. IT IS A CHOICE...
How do we start living again? By choosing to accept 100% responsibility for everything in our lives. Let us shake off the dust that has gathered on our spirit be-ings. Let us stand up and jump back into the game of Life. We will try with all our might to remember those pesky questions from so long ago that were never answered. Each of us should sit down and make a list of questions that we want answered in the next year. (Let’s write these questions in our spiritual notebooks.) We must commit ourselves to finding our spiritual truth and quit believing everything just because we were told to do so. It’s time to wake up the Divine Spirit in our Heart and let it guide us. Our Heart is our best judge of truth or falseness. (Some say ‘gut’ like ‘gut instincts’.) We must learn to "LISTEN" and "Evaluate" with our Heart, not with our logical brain. Much of the knowledge we seek cannot be understood or even comprehended by the human brain. Many of our questions will remain unanswered or rather "not understood" while we are in these physical bodies. But many questions CAN be answered and WILL be answered if we will persist in seeking out the TRUTH. Our journey will guide us from the outer world to the inner world, where the answers to our questions can be found. Let’s embark together on this exciting journey of the soul. Reverend Cooke posted something earlier this week to the group that was so fitting. Not everyone got to see it because they have their messages set to Special Notices only but I want to include it here because this message will go out as a Special Notice and that way more will see it. GOD'S ROSEBUD
I learned how to help a rosebud open when I worked as a florist. The secret to a perfectly opened rosebud is heat and a little time. Too little heat and it will remain closed. Too much will kill it. If you leave it in the heat too long, the flower will bloom too early. =========================== Our Mission This Week
=========================== 1) Choose to take 100% responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life... Because you ARE. 2) Blow renewed LIFE back into your old list of questions from way back in your past. 3) Make a list of questions in your journal that you demand answers for in the next year. 4) Commit to seeking out these answers, no matter how hard or long it takes you to do so. 5) Re-read this message a time or two. Make any notes in your journal that come to mind. There are no rights or wrongs in this process of self-discovery. It is a journey and sometimes we travel through patches of light and other times through patches of darkness. Write down your feelings and thoughts without reservation as to their validity. Your journal is private and hopefully nobody gets to read it but you. 6) Below is ONE BIG QUESTION for you... in the form of a statement. Think about it LONG and HARD. This is not a statement you answer with: "Yes I agree" or "No, I disagree". It is for you to contemplate... to really meditate on deeply. Write it out on a small piece of paper and keep it with you. You might want to print it on a neat business card that can fit right into your wallet or purse. Every night before bed, take 10 minutes and read this statement a few times. Then reflect on it deeply. Ask God to open your Heart and allow you to SEE this truth. Let it resonate deep in your Heart & Soul. Hint: Billions of people have searched for the truth in life and billions never found it. Those who have found the truth will probably summarize it like this... In the end... All is the same... THERE IS ONLY LOVE ... THERE IS ONLY GOD ... All Else Is But A Beautiful Convincing Illusion... ===================================================== That brings us to the end of this week's message. Next week we are going to take a look at who we are and what we are. We will briefly explore the nature of our existence to the best of our current understanding. There is so much to us that is simply not fathomable with our limited human minds, but we are going to try... Until next week then. I wish us only the very best that Life has to offer. May God bless us with great insight and growth during the days to come.
Blessings, Rev. Sharra
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