 |
|
|
|
ONE GOD - MANY NAMES / ONE SON - MANY PATHS / ONE TRUTH - MANY FAITHS |
What Does It Mean To Be An Interfaith Christian Bridge Builder? Part 4 – Building Bridges Between the Interfaith Christians in Our Church In Part 1 of this mini-series I talked about building bridges with God and with other faiths. In Part 2, I talked about building bridges with the Holy Spirit. In Part 3 I touched on building bridges from the sacred writings of old to our lives and the lives of those we minister to in the world we live in today. Today I’m going to talk about the Church of Interfaith Christians and building the bridges between our members. Reverend Steadman wrote this as the founding statement of our church: The Interfaith Christian embraces all positive spiritual paths including Shamanism and earth-based traditions, often being called upon to heal gaps between the many disparate religious faiths using the original teachings of Jesus Christ, minus convoluted manmade doctrine. It wasn’t by accident that Reverend Steadman included Shamanism or earth-based traditions among the positive spiritual paths or that he included the Wicca symbol, and Hindu symbol and all the other symbols that are in the logo for the Church of Interfaith Christians. He told us Christ “knew of their deeds before they knew of Him.” I might add that Christ calls whom he will to this church and we should be careful not to deny the work of Christ among us. We need to embrace and understand the work of Christ among us. Reverend Steadman continued with, “Thus, we welcome all who will bear the label of Interfaith Christian which boldly proclaims the validity of labels such as Christian/Wicca, Christian/Pagan, Christian/Hindu, Christian/Muslim, Christian/Humanist, etc.” In Rev. Steadman’s Statement of Faith are also these words:
“We believe and know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, said all good things come from the Father. In this light, we belittle no other religion that follows a positive spiritual path to the Creator. We also respect Shamanism and all earth-based traditions, for as those who revere and honor even the simplest and smallest of God's creations will in no less wise be rewarded by the Father in Heaven for their good works. We will not judge, for to do so, our Savior says we will be judged by the same measure.” The Holy Spirit is in all of us. How refreshing it must be to God to find people who honestly live by the belief "Do No Harm". I wish we could say that for all Christians. This is a parable that comes down through a number of earth based religions:
A man told his grandson: "A terrible fight is going on inside me -- a fight between two wolves. One is evil, and represents hate, anger, arrogance, intolerance, and superiority . The other is good, and represents joy, peace, love, tolerance, understanding, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, inside every other person too." I must ask the members of this church, “Which wolf are you feeding?” “Are you following in Reverend Steadman’s footsteps or do you somehow think Reverend Steadman made mistakes and maybe let people into this church he shouldn’t have? Reverend Steadman said further of the CoIC in his Statement of Faith: We believe that by our faith and testimony, we set free into the will of God all who follow us. Our message is one of inclusion and supplication. And, always, it will be the truth. But, those who offer only condemnation, exclusion and enslavement to those who follow them are, in truth, the spirit of evil in all its hideous forms, and the Father and the Son are not in them. I would pray that the Father and Son are in each of us and that God through His Holy Spirit would open our hearts and minds to understanding, empathy, peace and love where each other is concerned. It is here that building the bridges between us must start. We must realize that we are ‘all’ here for a reason. It is God through Christ who has called each and every one of us out of the world to be ‘here.’ There is a reason for each of us to be ‘here’ in this church: this progressive, inclusive new denomination intended by God to show others His care and concern for all His children. We are of a Christian faith in that we believe the TRUE TEACHINGS of Jesus Christ which includes TEACH ONLY LOVE. We are to love God with all our heart, mind and soul and we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. I don’t think any of us have a problem with that first part. I think any of us would agree that we ‘love God’. We understand the need for Him in our lives. We want Him in our lives. I think the difficulty comes with the part about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Since God is EVERYWHERE, all-knowing and all-powerful, He is within each of us. It is good and right to love the divinity within us—it is who we really are. Loving the God in us does not mean to become self centered or to think that our way of life, or religious belief, is the only way of life, or religious belief. In fact it is the opposite. We are to lose our self-centeredness by constantly loving others in our world, God within and outside of us, and loving what we are doing. When we accept and love the divinity in others as well as in ourselves then we are building strong bridges between us that the Holy Spirit will reinforce. The mysteries of the heart and God within us are fascinating to explore. It is when we love other children of God that we actually focus the love and power of God back to God and we in turn grow in our attunement and ability to radiate out even more divine, love, wisdom and power. So let us love the God within us and the same God within others. I John 4:12: “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us.” Inner peace is a doorway to the spiritual attunement we seek and it is an integral part of our divine nature. Lack of peace on the other hand is a resistance to the divine flow of life. Let us be still and sense the peaceful presence within us. It is always there. Now it is important to control our thoughts and to always include God in them. It is too easy, too natural sometimes or maybe better said, too human nature for us to think thoughts on our own without God no matter how godly we may think we are. I have seen many who start with a good and true thought from God then twist it in their own thinking and take it somewhere else. We are warned of this in Proverbs 14:12 NCV: “Some people think they are doing right, but in the end it leads to death.” This was so important that it was repeated word for word in Proverbs 16:25. Romans 8:6-7 tells us, “If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. When people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, they are against God, because they refuse to obey God’s law and really are not even able to obey God’s law.” Peace is evident. If we do not have peace among our members then God is not in control and our very thoughts may be against God. That is why we must transcend our own thoughts by controlling them and always including God in them. For every matter that comes up we should ask God what He thinks. We may be surprised what God thinks is different than we think. The lack of understanding or knowledge of a subject breeds fear within us and fear affects our thoughts. The love of God however dissolves fear. Before striking out at another member, or set of members because of our own assumed thoughts of what their beliefs are, we need to seek the love of God and take it on ourselves to learn more and understand more coming from the other person’s perspective or walking in their shoes. It is important that we maintain a positive and open outlook and be willing to learn Christ’s teaching in this area. It is important that we not harm others. To have done so can be forgiven as long as we ask God with true sincerity, and as long as we make amends to the fullest extent possible. Empathizing with the person one has injured and truly regretting the act is necessary. On the other side it is important to forgive as God forgives us. In this way we can come to live and worship in perfect harmony with all of life. We need to be constantly vigilant of our thoughts, feelings, words and actions towards others. We need to stand at the door of our consciousness and sound the alarm whenever any negative or impure thinking comes in. Look for and see God and good in each and every member of the CoIC. Remember that God has called and put them here for a reason. Remember that God loves each of us and that we need to love each other no matter what our backgrounds are. Love Creates Joyous Living. As we learn better how to do this, we will also be reprogramming our subconscious mind to always respond in a divine and loving way. We all have unique viewpoints but we are all part of one universal family, all equal in rights, all beautiful and divine. We need to honor everyone in our world and in our church, except those who clearly oppose goodness, love and peace. May the Spirit and Light constantly flow through each of us as we focus on loving each other and building the bridges between us. Let us accept every challenge to grow and refine our mastery in all situations. The Golden Rule is beautiful, concise and captures the spirit of loving others. This principle contains so much of what we need to know and apply. Its beauty, power, and simplicity are found within all faiths. Matthew 7:12: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” It is easier to apply the Golden Rule when we look for and see the God/good in each other. The love and practice of the Golden Rule builds bridges and creates a bond of fellowship with all. There is one more message in this series of Bridge Building to be given next week. Blessings, Reverend Sharra
|
