I do have a plan for the salvation of our World, but it has not been approved by Heaven therefor i continue to work on it. Essentially one man must claim this authority over the World and be able to govern every Nation of the Earth. No man has ever been found worthy to claim the iron rod, and to govern and judge. In order for his authority to be recognized by the people, he will need to be able to produce a believeable threat of destruction. These are the circumstances of our world, the Nations will never beat their swords into plowshares unless they have a very good reason. Its up to our King to provide that reason, this is the nature of the iron rod, it represents the power to make demands.
If mountains can be moved, I have been thinking of a solar eclipse that would endure for many years. In this case our Moon is the mountain, it is currently moving in orbit around the Earth, and the goal is to have it stopped. The threat of complete and total destruction will be represented by a collision with our moon, clearly such a cataclysmic event would be unsurvivable. This is a small part of my plan, it is only the very begining, but it depends heavily upon the agencies of Heaven.
If the Creator has a will to do this work in my behalf, then I will win that authority over the world. If I am ever awarded the Iron Rod, it represents vindication of my judgement. How should the people prefer to be goverened? By the stern but loving Father or by a great Villan and Tyrant? The King must be a little of both, neither purely evil or purely good in his intentions. He must be willing to destroy if the children of humanity refuse to grow out of it's childish ways. And this destruction of Humanity must be considered for the greater good, if that is the decision he must make. IF the Beast can not be tamed, if it can not be civilized, then it must be destroyed. Or else Humanity does pose some threat, if only to the possibility of a greater community of life in this Universe.
Our Creator is the true Lord and King above all others, it is the Lord of all the angels and demons alike. It is the Lord of the Stars and Planets of manifestation. All that substance of creation is beholden to the Creator's will, we depend on certain laws being enforced. But of course the problem is that we've never had a clear understanding of what those laws really are. Even the physical laws of nature may be bent or broken by the power of consciousness. Consciouness allows for many more possibilities than nature alone, but we should consider it to be among the forces of nature. We have never been able to measure it directly, or to observe how it affects matter, but evidently it does affect matter.
We can not rule out the possibility of additional dimensions in the Universe, beyond the normal 3 physical dimensions that we are aware of. It's difficult to account for all these near-death experiences that the people have related. It seems to indicate that consciousness does not depend upon brain activity, and may survive our mortality for some time. I will stand with science in saying that existance depends upon manifestation. But I have long suspected that the Stars have something of a mind and personality of thier own. These Stars represent the physical evidence of our Angels and Demons in the Universe. Historicly humanity has long associated the stars of Heaven with the Angels or Gods, its not an original idea of my own. Clearly we have good evidence that the Kingdom of Heaven holds a great multitude of personalities, beyond the number of Human Beings. But we can not say for certain that the number of persons is greater than Life on Earth may account for. Still its not so difficult to imagine a person who is greater than a Human Being, but still less than the One-True-And-Most-High-God.
Personally I have no experience conversing with such persons, other than Human Beings. I have never heard voices to inform or instruct me on the higher principles of Creation. Sadly I will not be able to offer mathematical formulas or a complete theory of everything. I have no great revelations to make about the physical world and the forces of nature, my knowledge is no better than Human understanding allows. I have no memories of a past life or existance, as far as I am aware I have my begining in 1963, and had no existance prior to that time. But I claim HISTORY and the History of all things as my own personal history, back to the very moment of birth, and not my birth but the birth of our Universe. In some sense we enjoy many beginings in life, when we consume the apple we participate in the begining of the apple tree as a seed. Perhaps we should think it enough to win the Great Game of Life, that we have participated. Why should we need to accomplish more than this to be winners? But we can win beyond merely existing, the great goal of life may be considered personal growth. The growth and developement of personality and not just the physical body help to establish us within God's Eternity. We are each a personality of Heaven, this Creation and this Universe, we belong to it.
And it will not forget us after we are gone, because something always endures. All that substance of our flesh and bone will be returned to the World after we are done with it. In fact the substance of life is constantly renewing itself and growing and decaying and dieing. Some part of ourselves has already returned the the World at Large, but we don't miss it. And of course we don't always feel pain over this loss, a simple haircut is all that it is.
So therefore the loss of life may never be considered as punishment, we each must surrender it eventually. If it is taken from us in our Health, it is a crime unto those who would impose that punishment upon us. In as much as we have all done these things perhaps we can be forgiven. It has always been the question of forgiveness if recognition and appology alone could ever be enough. Must we feel regrets in order for the cause of justice to be served? Must we work off our debts? Is it possible that someone else can make the sacrifice in our behalf?
If the Earth must be destroyed, it is not punishement but a great failure of our species. It's no great crime to fail to survive against all odds. We must give a full consideration to all the conditions of life, and then decide what the world deserves. God has given us the gift of JUDGEMENT so that we may decide, every person receives this gift. It is not Free-Will unless we are also given choices, in some cases we are not given choices. We may not take a vote, we may not decide anything based on popular opinion. Morality is a common concern among men, and its something that we have desperately tried to impose upon the World and one another. Life is not always fair to us, and we should not complain when it is unfair, it is what it is.
A wise old saying goes, "Whatever doesn't kill us, can only make us stronger!" But individually our strength does pass beyond a mortal end unto something else. Even if we are killed we might gain strength in Eternity, we might learn. Its sad if we must suffer the loss of life in order to learn something of true value. Because the Earth is a beautiful World, and the Universe is a Marvelous Work and a Wonder. I want to be part of it forever and ever, and I know that it will be so.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
A True Experience From My Life
I have a story to tell about my sign from a Higher-Power, it was an experience I had one day in Oct 1982.
The circumstances were I had been fired from a job on the accusation of stealing. Eventually I learned much later that an assistant manager set up the whole deal, so his girlfriend could get my job.
So I was feeling pretty depressed, my loss of innocence as a young man perhaps. I wrote out my side of the story, i isolated myself from family life. I started reading the gospel stories, and felt a strong inspiration to follow the examples of Christ. I also studied the book of Revelations and longed for a World at Peace where lies could never hurt us.
I decided to leave my home and my family behind and seek, what I hoped to find I had no clue. But I did find something along the way. I took what money I had and purchased a plane ticket to Los Angelas, CA. I didn't tell my family i was leaveing i just packed a small bag and went.
On the first leg of my flight I had a stopover in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had been there before and I had heard of the Mormons there. On that flight I ended up sitting next to a man who was a member of that church. And I had a little pocket copy of the New Testament that I was reading on the plane. The man inquired of me if I was a student of the Bible, and after that we had a bit of conversation. In short I told him my story about leaving home to seek Christ, and he suggested that I try Salt Lake City as a destination. He gave me the name of another man who lived in that city who might be able to help me. He did not live in Utah and he was catching another flight back to Idaho, he traveled as a potato salesman. Previously he had been a teacher he told me, and this is how he knew of the other man.
So when our flight landed in Salt Lake City he had to run to make his connection and I was left all alone at the airport. I thought that I might need cab service to get to the city, but i didn't want to spend what little money I had on that. So I walked out of the Airport and looked around, I started walking. It was already evening by then and the sun was going down. I walked out past the parking lot into a field, until i reached a body of water and I sat down.
I was feeling quite angry with God because I didn't know what to do next. I was feeling impatient, why were we still waiting for this wonderful ressurection I asked. Where is Jesus, why isn't he here?! In anger I stood up and threw my little pocket bible out into the water. After a bit of time had passed i wandered back into the Airport and called home to let them know where i was. During the phone conversation with my mother I agreed to get a flight home, then I went and purchased a ticket. However it was very late by then and the Airport was more or less closed. My flight would not be leaving until the early morning hours.
So I returned outside to the field, took a little marijuana out of my bag, rolled a fat joint and smoked it. A little weed would help the time pass more pleasently I figured because I had a long wait. I picked up a stick from the ground and scribed a circle in the dirt. The I took my roach, the bit left over from the marijuana cigerette and ground it into the center of the circle. Then I stood in that circle. The distant sounds from the Airport became the sound of a chorus of many voices singing in my mind. And I turned to quater the compass, and with each facing the voices changed there song a little, so that I had the impression of a great multitude. And I imagined a crevace opening up in the Earth and smoke billowing out, the pit where the Ancient Dragon lay chained. And then I cried out, "Let there be no more delay!" Whatever it takes to fullfill the prophecy I am willing to do, I will even take the part of the Beast and the reward that goes with it. Only so that there will be no more delay!
Eventually I wandered back into the airport and found a seat near a television. I started to relax, but some person who worked at the airport walked by and make a rude remark. Something to the effect that, "We don't need your kind of people here." After that I got up and went back outside.
The evening was turning to early morning and it started to get cooler outside. I wanted to keep warm but I didn't want to return to the Airport Terminal. I walked through the parking lot to a fenced off long-term parking area, there were several RV's parked in that lot. I tried to gain access to one of the RV's but it was locked, just then a truck drove by and I ducked down. I kinda scampered out of the parking area back out into the field. There was something of a dirt road I was running along, and I could see the truck coming with its headlights on.
At some point down that path I scrambled down an incline off the road and found a concret slab were I sat down. And I watch for that truck to come further along the road, but it did not come. There was a large bushy plant against the incline in the road and i was trying to look over it. Then suddenly small points of light began to appear above the bush. At first I thought it must be a reflection of light off some cobwebs, but as soon as I began to think that the lights grew stronger. And then I thought it might be fireflies, so I looked away for a few seconds. But when I returned my gaze to that spot, the pinpricks of light had become like stars hanging in the air. And these lights outlined the figure of a man. It was a man standing in the air above the bush, legs together and arms stretched wide, I thought perhaps a vision of christ upon the cross. I looked at it, and to be certain I was the only one to witness this event, but it was real and not hallucination I was certain.
There was no great voice from God offering explainations. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, I made my commitment then to Humanity, to serve the great cause. I promised my life to God, take me and use me I prayed. Temper me in your furnace and strengthen me so that I can do what needs to be done, make me your instrument. These things i prayed.
The shape above the bush had changed somewhat once i reopened my eyes, and I started to feel uncomfortable. I got up went up past the bush, back up the incline to the dirt road. Looking back from a higher vantage point the stars had taken on the shape of star. It was as if a pointed star made of of smaller stars was lodged within the branches of the bush. But I turned and started walking toward the Airport. And as soon as I entered the terminal it would seem that it was time for my flight.
On the flight home I was feeling an sense of elation and a real high. There was a blind woman on the flight with a companion, and I wondered what would happen if i touched her. Would her blindness be cured? But I did not venture to get up from my seat and try. I looked out the window of the plane and watched the landscape pass by beneath.
The circumstances were I had been fired from a job on the accusation of stealing. Eventually I learned much later that an assistant manager set up the whole deal, so his girlfriend could get my job.
So I was feeling pretty depressed, my loss of innocence as a young man perhaps. I wrote out my side of the story, i isolated myself from family life. I started reading the gospel stories, and felt a strong inspiration to follow the examples of Christ. I also studied the book of Revelations and longed for a World at Peace where lies could never hurt us.
I decided to leave my home and my family behind and seek, what I hoped to find I had no clue. But I did find something along the way. I took what money I had and purchased a plane ticket to Los Angelas, CA. I didn't tell my family i was leaveing i just packed a small bag and went.
On the first leg of my flight I had a stopover in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had been there before and I had heard of the Mormons there. On that flight I ended up sitting next to a man who was a member of that church. And I had a little pocket copy of the New Testament that I was reading on the plane. The man inquired of me if I was a student of the Bible, and after that we had a bit of conversation. In short I told him my story about leaving home to seek Christ, and he suggested that I try Salt Lake City as a destination. He gave me the name of another man who lived in that city who might be able to help me. He did not live in Utah and he was catching another flight back to Idaho, he traveled as a potato salesman. Previously he had been a teacher he told me, and this is how he knew of the other man.
So when our flight landed in Salt Lake City he had to run to make his connection and I was left all alone at the airport. I thought that I might need cab service to get to the city, but i didn't want to spend what little money I had on that. So I walked out of the Airport and looked around, I started walking. It was already evening by then and the sun was going down. I walked out past the parking lot into a field, until i reached a body of water and I sat down.
I was feeling quite angry with God because I didn't know what to do next. I was feeling impatient, why were we still waiting for this wonderful ressurection I asked. Where is Jesus, why isn't he here?! In anger I stood up and threw my little pocket bible out into the water. After a bit of time had passed i wandered back into the Airport and called home to let them know where i was. During the phone conversation with my mother I agreed to get a flight home, then I went and purchased a ticket. However it was very late by then and the Airport was more or less closed. My flight would not be leaving until the early morning hours.
So I returned outside to the field, took a little marijuana out of my bag, rolled a fat joint and smoked it. A little weed would help the time pass more pleasently I figured because I had a long wait. I picked up a stick from the ground and scribed a circle in the dirt. The I took my roach, the bit left over from the marijuana cigerette and ground it into the center of the circle. Then I stood in that circle. The distant sounds from the Airport became the sound of a chorus of many voices singing in my mind. And I turned to quater the compass, and with each facing the voices changed there song a little, so that I had the impression of a great multitude. And I imagined a crevace opening up in the Earth and smoke billowing out, the pit where the Ancient Dragon lay chained. And then I cried out, "Let there be no more delay!" Whatever it takes to fullfill the prophecy I am willing to do, I will even take the part of the Beast and the reward that goes with it. Only so that there will be no more delay!
Eventually I wandered back into the airport and found a seat near a television. I started to relax, but some person who worked at the airport walked by and make a rude remark. Something to the effect that, "We don't need your kind of people here." After that I got up and went back outside.
The evening was turning to early morning and it started to get cooler outside. I wanted to keep warm but I didn't want to return to the Airport Terminal. I walked through the parking lot to a fenced off long-term parking area, there were several RV's parked in that lot. I tried to gain access to one of the RV's but it was locked, just then a truck drove by and I ducked down. I kinda scampered out of the parking area back out into the field. There was something of a dirt road I was running along, and I could see the truck coming with its headlights on.
At some point down that path I scrambled down an incline off the road and found a concret slab were I sat down. And I watch for that truck to come further along the road, but it did not come. There was a large bushy plant against the incline in the road and i was trying to look over it. Then suddenly small points of light began to appear above the bush. At first I thought it must be a reflection of light off some cobwebs, but as soon as I began to think that the lights grew stronger. And then I thought it might be fireflies, so I looked away for a few seconds. But when I returned my gaze to that spot, the pinpricks of light had become like stars hanging in the air. And these lights outlined the figure of a man. It was a man standing in the air above the bush, legs together and arms stretched wide, I thought perhaps a vision of christ upon the cross. I looked at it, and to be certain I was the only one to witness this event, but it was real and not hallucination I was certain.
There was no great voice from God offering explainations. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, I made my commitment then to Humanity, to serve the great cause. I promised my life to God, take me and use me I prayed. Temper me in your furnace and strengthen me so that I can do what needs to be done, make me your instrument. These things i prayed.
The shape above the bush had changed somewhat once i reopened my eyes, and I started to feel uncomfortable. I got up went up past the bush, back up the incline to the dirt road. Looking back from a higher vantage point the stars had taken on the shape of star. It was as if a pointed star made of of smaller stars was lodged within the branches of the bush. But I turned and started walking toward the Airport. And as soon as I entered the terminal it would seem that it was time for my flight.
On the flight home I was feeling an sense of elation and a real high. There was a blind woman on the flight with a companion, and I wondered what would happen if i touched her. Would her blindness be cured? But I did not venture to get up from my seat and try. I looked out the window of the plane and watched the landscape pass by beneath.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Jehova, who is he?
I just had a nice long chat with someone who claimed to be a Jehova's Witness. I've had the opportunity to meet a few of these people in my life and hear what they do believe in. This person urged me to contact the witnesses and speak with them, but if i claim to be Jehova himself I don't think that they will appreciate it.
Who is this Jehova? I said to her that Jesus urged us to pray to Heavenly Father, those were his words. In the 'JW' version of the Bible i'm fairly certain that all such terms have been converted to the name Jehova. Personally I do not know for certain that Jesus ever used the name Jehova. But he did pray to some person aside from himself obviously, a higher King. And Jehova is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords among men, but I told her NOT the One-True-And-Most-High-God. Jehova is the Owner and the Landlord but NOT the Creator. Jehova is a person of flesh and bone like ourselves, but still a mortal man like Jesus was. These things I told her.
I would never agree that Jesus himself was or is a God. There can be only one God, and a man can never become like God. The Spirit of God extends to every corner of Creation, at least she agreed with me on this. She proposed that Jesus himself helped create the Earth and Sun, which means that we have to allow for some kind of pre-existance. She said that God gives us Free-Will so that we can choose; but I said that God gives us Judgement so that we can make decisions.
I will fight for a ressurection and the Earth, because I choose to fight for these things. God has never told me what to do, or how to fight, or what exactly needs to be done. There is my Choice, I made it long ago and i'm commited to it. I will not join the ranks of Jehova's Witnesses myself so that they can feel that I belong. I do belong, whether or not they will agree with my point-of-view. So many people of some religous faith profess to have the truth, and as we all know the truth has all the power to deliver us to freedom. And the One-True-And-Most-High-God has all the power to reveal that truth to whomever it pleases, directly. Many people will profess that God's will has been revealed through the written scriptures because those men who wrote were directed and inspired. But all such written works are flawed because they were created by men. God is not flawed and there is no seperation between us and it. We need no mediation from other men and women, we can get what we need from our own personal experiences in life. At least this is the principle of spirituality, we don't know what prevents us from Understanding the truth that's available.
Clearly we have no special power to decide between truth and fiction, and to recognize a story from a fact. I told her that the Gensis story is a myth at best. According to that story our friend Adam would have lived less than 7000 years ago. But we know very well that Humanity has been here on Planet Earth for at least 100,000 years. Therfor if such a person as Adam had lived 7000 years ago, it would not be possible for him to have been the first Human Being. When I explained this to her she said but that, 1000 years may be a day to God. However this argument is irrelevant to the facts, it may be a reasonable assertion but it does not prove the Age of Adam. I told her that God creates life with evolution, this is a considerably well proven fact. And she said that dna does not support a theory of evolution. However DNA does indicate that it would take a very long time for Humanity to diversify as much as it has into the several different races that we see today. She said we are not Dogs and Cats or Trees, we are not made from the same elements! But I told her that we are made of the same elements; in fact all that substance of our flesh and bone has been here as part of the Earth from the very begining just waiting to become part of us.
Clearly I did not Create the Earth and Sun, I can not claim to be the progenitor of the Human species. I have a definate begining in Life, at the time of my conception or birth. And my parents gave me the name Kenneth Richard Hopper; however I have been known by other names including Token. Most of my friends just call me Ken. If I claim that I am also Jehova it will not be believed of course, but its true that I am Jehova. The God they have long believed in but not a true God, made real in flesh and bone and all mortality. I could claim to be Adam himself, reborn in the World because Adam never had this opportunity to have parents of his own and to be loved by them. There was an Eve, but she was in a sorry condition when i knew her and I don't know what has become of her.
Still Eve is depending on me to make the World right at long last, she professed as much to me. And she believed that I could do the job, God knows someone has to do it. My friend the Jehova's Witness said I should be worried about my own salvation, but I told her I worry enough already. I am saved already, I'm comfortable with my realationship with God, I trust that my place in Eternity is secure. We don't have to accomplish everything all at once, we do have time to become whatever we can become. But we should never expect to become Gods ourselves, in as much as we are children of God we can not become like him.
I told her that we do have a Creator and I name it Heaven. Not a person of flesh and bone like ourselves, but still a living thing in some sense. It too is blessed by God's gift of consciousness, in the same way that we have been blessed. But it is not the same thing as the One-True-And-Most-High-God. Heaven is my Lord and Creator, and she asked me if I do have a King. I told her that I am a King, and I told her that even Jesus has a King above him.
"Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come upon Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us. Deliver us from Evil because thine is the Kingdom and the Glory forever and ever." I paraphrase the Lord's prayer thus, to the best of my recollection.
We all know that Jesus lived as a mortal man and was put to death. And we know that before he died he prayed to Heavenly Father for our forgiveness. The prayer that he made upon the cross so long ago has been preserved down through the ages of time until 2000 years later we can still hear it. Did he pray to Heavenly Father or Jehova, I don't know the answer; but clearly he prayed to a person other than himself. And its long been considered true that Jesus himself was a King, and did promise the Earth as an inheiritance for the meek. According to the story his spirit and his flesh were reunited and he did ascend bodily into Heaven, we don't know what has become of him. But most people who believe in him believe that he lives, clearly he does not live here on Planet Earth. Some other planet perhaps? Perhaps there is another world in the whole of the Universe where the ressurection is already a fact. And we should think that Jesus lives there on some other planet and that he is not without some companions. But clearly the ressurection is not a fact here on Earth, and to the best of my own personal knowledge we have not been visited.
Earth is our home, our nativity, we belong to it. We should long to return to it after our travels. All things being considered, expecting nature to follow some predictable course, we can not expect the Earth to last forever. How long must the Dead be kept waiting for the opportunity of more life? Time is a funny thing, and when we are unconscious we do not notice it passing. And so the Dead are asleep in Hades, experience nothing not even the passage of time. They are not aware that they are waiting, but we remember them. Perhaps the time will soon come to call them all home, to awaken them once again.
Who is this Jehova? I said to her that Jesus urged us to pray to Heavenly Father, those were his words. In the 'JW' version of the Bible i'm fairly certain that all such terms have been converted to the name Jehova. Personally I do not know for certain that Jesus ever used the name Jehova. But he did pray to some person aside from himself obviously, a higher King. And Jehova is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords among men, but I told her NOT the One-True-And-Most-High-God. Jehova is the Owner and the Landlord but NOT the Creator. Jehova is a person of flesh and bone like ourselves, but still a mortal man like Jesus was. These things I told her.
I would never agree that Jesus himself was or is a God. There can be only one God, and a man can never become like God. The Spirit of God extends to every corner of Creation, at least she agreed with me on this. She proposed that Jesus himself helped create the Earth and Sun, which means that we have to allow for some kind of pre-existance. She said that God gives us Free-Will so that we can choose; but I said that God gives us Judgement so that we can make decisions.
I will fight for a ressurection and the Earth, because I choose to fight for these things. God has never told me what to do, or how to fight, or what exactly needs to be done. There is my Choice, I made it long ago and i'm commited to it. I will not join the ranks of Jehova's Witnesses myself so that they can feel that I belong. I do belong, whether or not they will agree with my point-of-view. So many people of some religous faith profess to have the truth, and as we all know the truth has all the power to deliver us to freedom. And the One-True-And-Most-High-God has all the power to reveal that truth to whomever it pleases, directly. Many people will profess that God's will has been revealed through the written scriptures because those men who wrote were directed and inspired. But all such written works are flawed because they were created by men. God is not flawed and there is no seperation between us and it. We need no mediation from other men and women, we can get what we need from our own personal experiences in life. At least this is the principle of spirituality, we don't know what prevents us from Understanding the truth that's available.
Clearly we have no special power to decide between truth and fiction, and to recognize a story from a fact. I told her that the Gensis story is a myth at best. According to that story our friend Adam would have lived less than 7000 years ago. But we know very well that Humanity has been here on Planet Earth for at least 100,000 years. Therfor if such a person as Adam had lived 7000 years ago, it would not be possible for him to have been the first Human Being. When I explained this to her she said but that, 1000 years may be a day to God. However this argument is irrelevant to the facts, it may be a reasonable assertion but it does not prove the Age of Adam. I told her that God creates life with evolution, this is a considerably well proven fact. And she said that dna does not support a theory of evolution. However DNA does indicate that it would take a very long time for Humanity to diversify as much as it has into the several different races that we see today. She said we are not Dogs and Cats or Trees, we are not made from the same elements! But I told her that we are made of the same elements; in fact all that substance of our flesh and bone has been here as part of the Earth from the very begining just waiting to become part of us.
Clearly I did not Create the Earth and Sun, I can not claim to be the progenitor of the Human species. I have a definate begining in Life, at the time of my conception or birth. And my parents gave me the name Kenneth Richard Hopper; however I have been known by other names including Token. Most of my friends just call me Ken. If I claim that I am also Jehova it will not be believed of course, but its true that I am Jehova. The God they have long believed in but not a true God, made real in flesh and bone and all mortality. I could claim to be Adam himself, reborn in the World because Adam never had this opportunity to have parents of his own and to be loved by them. There was an Eve, but she was in a sorry condition when i knew her and I don't know what has become of her.
Still Eve is depending on me to make the World right at long last, she professed as much to me. And she believed that I could do the job, God knows someone has to do it. My friend the Jehova's Witness said I should be worried about my own salvation, but I told her I worry enough already. I am saved already, I'm comfortable with my realationship with God, I trust that my place in Eternity is secure. We don't have to accomplish everything all at once, we do have time to become whatever we can become. But we should never expect to become Gods ourselves, in as much as we are children of God we can not become like him.
I told her that we do have a Creator and I name it Heaven. Not a person of flesh and bone like ourselves, but still a living thing in some sense. It too is blessed by God's gift of consciousness, in the same way that we have been blessed. But it is not the same thing as the One-True-And-Most-High-God. Heaven is my Lord and Creator, and she asked me if I do have a King. I told her that I am a King, and I told her that even Jesus has a King above him.
"Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come upon Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us. Deliver us from Evil because thine is the Kingdom and the Glory forever and ever." I paraphrase the Lord's prayer thus, to the best of my recollection.
We all know that Jesus lived as a mortal man and was put to death. And we know that before he died he prayed to Heavenly Father for our forgiveness. The prayer that he made upon the cross so long ago has been preserved down through the ages of time until 2000 years later we can still hear it. Did he pray to Heavenly Father or Jehova, I don't know the answer; but clearly he prayed to a person other than himself. And its long been considered true that Jesus himself was a King, and did promise the Earth as an inheiritance for the meek. According to the story his spirit and his flesh were reunited and he did ascend bodily into Heaven, we don't know what has become of him. But most people who believe in him believe that he lives, clearly he does not live here on Planet Earth. Some other planet perhaps? Perhaps there is another world in the whole of the Universe where the ressurection is already a fact. And we should think that Jesus lives there on some other planet and that he is not without some companions. But clearly the ressurection is not a fact here on Earth, and to the best of my own personal knowledge we have not been visited.
Earth is our home, our nativity, we belong to it. We should long to return to it after our travels. All things being considered, expecting nature to follow some predictable course, we can not expect the Earth to last forever. How long must the Dead be kept waiting for the opportunity of more life? Time is a funny thing, and when we are unconscious we do not notice it passing. And so the Dead are asleep in Hades, experience nothing not even the passage of time. They are not aware that they are waiting, but we remember them. Perhaps the time will soon come to call them all home, to awaken them once again.
What is Gen?
"Gen" is the english spelling of a Chinese word for Mountain. In Chinese mythology the Mountain can stand for a great General or Emporer. In the "Book of Changes" or "I Ching" a work of Confucian philosophy the Mountain stands for the idea of standing still and observing the world without taking action.
In Christian mythology the Mountain stands for the Kingdom of Heaven established on Earth. But it may also stand for a man, in the story of the small stone which was cut out without hands, which becomes the mountain.
The Chinese word may also be spelled as "Ken", but the letter E should have a carrot over it. So I have always identified myself with the Chinese character from "I Ching". The observer who does not act, the Mountain is standing still, but perhaps the Mountain can be moved. Every concept within the "I Ching" is represented by a hexagram made up of light or dark lines. The light lines embody the idea of Creation, the force that gives light and warmth to the Universe. The dark line embodys the idea of receptivity, that which is in need of the light and the warmth. One line stands for Heaven and the other stands for Earth.
It is called the "Book of Changes" because the conditions of our lives are always changing. The Hexagram which represents one condition eventually becomes old and changes into another state. There is a Hexagram for Peace, according to this philosophy it is a passing condition at best, it may be obtainable but only for a moment in time. The Hexagram for peace is called "T'ai", I have given this name to my oldest son. Each of these Chinese Hexagrams has the power to change into any one of the other Hexagrams, by changing a few of the lines. There are 6 lines in each full hexagram and this is a binary numbering system with two states for each line. This allows for 64 possible combinations or conditions, if we number them from 0-63.
The "Book of Changes" has been used as an Oracle in the past to make predictions based on the chance outcome of a coin toss. There have been other ways to use the book as an Oracle that do not involve the tossing of coins, but the element of chance outcomes is always preserved. It is through the element of chance that Heaven may excert its influence, and a higher Law works it way down to our lives here on Planet Earth. This is a basic principle of Confucian thinking that there exists a higher order in Heaven, in as much as that order is mirrored here on Earth all will be well and good. When we try to go against the order of Heaven, this is the cause of our problems here on Earth. This philosophy supports the idea of Heiearchys and Laws representing order very well.
In Christian mythology the Mountain stands for the Kingdom of Heaven established on Earth. But it may also stand for a man, in the story of the small stone which was cut out without hands, which becomes the mountain.
The Chinese word may also be spelled as "Ken", but the letter E should have a carrot over it. So I have always identified myself with the Chinese character from "I Ching". The observer who does not act, the Mountain is standing still, but perhaps the Mountain can be moved. Every concept within the "I Ching" is represented by a hexagram made up of light or dark lines. The light lines embody the idea of Creation, the force that gives light and warmth to the Universe. The dark line embodys the idea of receptivity, that which is in need of the light and the warmth. One line stands for Heaven and the other stands for Earth.
It is called the "Book of Changes" because the conditions of our lives are always changing. The Hexagram which represents one condition eventually becomes old and changes into another state. There is a Hexagram for Peace, according to this philosophy it is a passing condition at best, it may be obtainable but only for a moment in time. The Hexagram for peace is called "T'ai", I have given this name to my oldest son. Each of these Chinese Hexagrams has the power to change into any one of the other Hexagrams, by changing a few of the lines. There are 6 lines in each full hexagram and this is a binary numbering system with two states for each line. This allows for 64 possible combinations or conditions, if we number them from 0-63.
The "Book of Changes" has been used as an Oracle in the past to make predictions based on the chance outcome of a coin toss. There have been other ways to use the book as an Oracle that do not involve the tossing of coins, but the element of chance outcomes is always preserved. It is through the element of chance that Heaven may excert its influence, and a higher Law works it way down to our lives here on Planet Earth. This is a basic principle of Confucian thinking that there exists a higher order in Heaven, in as much as that order is mirrored here on Earth all will be well and good. When we try to go against the order of Heaven, this is the cause of our problems here on Earth. This philosophy supports the idea of Heiearchys and Laws representing order very well.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Glory to the Most-High
My cup is overflowing, it is neither half full or half empty; and we can only hope for a larger cup. We answer this hope with work, this is the true purpose of work. All of our efforts should be so focused but we are distracted by the need to eat and other neccessities of life. If the growth of the vessel depends upon the size of our brains, then we all know very well that the brain stops growing. But the human spirit may not be defined by our physicality, and it may not be judged by appearances. Its a very hard thing to love all people equally, without considering deeds. Perhaps it's too much to expect from one man, but God is constantly pouring out his strength.
Either we are men and women and belong to the human-species, or else we do not belong here at all. How many men are there in the world today whom we will refuse the hand of brotherhood? If we choose to discriminate between men for any reason at all, its makes the case that we are not Saints.
Joseph Smith claimed to be a prophet and founded a church in North America, these people have become known as the Mormons. Whatever Joseph was in life, its clear that he was a brilliant young man and very charismatic. He may have been an honest man as well, but we do not know for certain. Of course we may choose to believe that he was honest, or to believe that he was dishonest; and there are shades of grey inbetween of course. Even an honest man can at times be misstaken about some things, and a dishonest man may be motivated with the best intentions. Its unfortunate that Joeseph didn't live long enough to become an old man like myself. He was murdered by an angry mob, and perhaps those people even had a good reason to feel angry. Despite the fact that he claimed to be informed by the One-True-And-Most-High-God; at the time there was no clear successor to the presidency of the new church. Owing to this fact the membership split at that time, and since that time many men have claimed to be prophets and successors to Joseph. The larger church is called "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."
Officially I became a member of that church many years ago, I was babtised and confered with a priesthood. Therfor I am a preisthood holder in the Aaronic Priesthood of that Church, it is the lesser of two priesthoods. At the time that I received the priesthood, there were no vows made, in fact I was not told that I was a priest. I only learned more about the priesthood over the course of my membership, until finally I had to ask the Bishop if i was in fact a priest of Aaron. I don't think I actually heard the news until several years after the fact.
The Aaronic Priesthood is primarily concered for the worldly welfare of Humanity in general. But under normal cicumstances our responsibilities are considered to extend only to the members of our immediate family. It may also extend to other church members within our ward if we are in attendance. The Aaronic Priesthood blesses the sacrement for the membership, I have done this myself on at least one occassion. The church wards are very well defined regions, and each one has a Bishop presiding over it. The responsibilities of a Bishop in the church are primarily the responsibilities of the Aaronic priesthood, and those responsibilities may extend to non-members who reside within the ward. But normally if you want the Bishop's help you have to ask for it, and most non-members will not know that they can ask. The church sends missionaires all over the world to recruit new members, they've even run ads on televison. But the fact that non-members might get help from this church is not well publicised. The Church leaders want us to make a commitment, and I've heard a few stories of them refusing to help. And for the most part we have to accept the help that's available even if its not exactly what we want.
The good members pay a full tithe, 10% of their worldly income; and because of this the church has become exceedingly wealthy and powerful. The church owns a great deal of land, and has made improvements on the land including the construction of several Temples. Recently a temple was built here in Saint Louis, Missouri and briefly it was open to the general public before being consecrated. Normally the temple is closed to non-members, and to members who are not in good-standing with the church. A long time smoking habit had prevented me from gaining the good-standing status, but I did tour the Saint Louis temple, and even helped out with a little work there.
When I married, I was not married in the Mormon temple as is the custom. My wife and I were married in a non-denominational Christian church; and we exchanged vows that included the words, "til death do us part." Whenever church members marry in the temple they make vows for eternity, and yet divorce is not uncommon. My wife and I have become seperated, a judge signed a settlement agreement between us, and she has since remarried. She even has a daughter with this other man, who was also previously divorced, and has a couple daughters from that marriage. However I never gave my consent to the divorce, I was never given the opportunity to speak with the judge who signed papers. I was not present in the court room when the papers were signed and I had no legal representative present at that time. And of course I do believe in a higher court, I think that the matter is relevant even if it's not relevant within a court of law. A judge of the Law can only decide these cases if both parties agree to be bound by his decision, he has no authority to annul marrital vows that were made in a church before God. That is my opinion, which only leads me to wondering how we so often fail to make lasting commitments.
It would be one of the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that as members we should be bound by the laws and customs of the land. They can propose the doctrine but they can't make me agree to it, it will always be subject to personal choice. And I choose not to be bound by artifical limitations and restrictions that men may impose upon one another. Of course I'm not entirely free to do as I please, national borders are enforced, my freedom of travel is restrained.
And if I am judged to have commited a crime in this country, my freedom of travel may be further restrained, or I may be subject to other kinds of penalties. Of course I am not strong enough to oppose the strength of the American people, they can do as they please without my consultation. But I am not a patriot of theirs, its my right and privledge to claim seperate interests, and to claim that my interests are disserved. Perhaps the federal authorities should consider me to be a resident alien, but I doubt they would be willing to consider soverignty.
If they would agree to soverignty they would be forced to exercise diplomacy at the risk of conflict. But of course I pose no threat to this or any other Nation of people that would be believeable. I have no army of the world's young men and women standing behind me who would be willing to fight and to kill for my cause. I do not employ assassination to eliminate the people who I do not like; and I have no desire for such an army. Nor will I commit the violent crime myself, because I beleive that it is a crime against Humanity. I will merely wish and wait patiently to gain the upper-hand, such has been the way of my life for the most part. And it may be a very long wait, watching the world, but I do have eternity if not eternal life. Besides it would be wrong of me to hope for dominion instead of equality. But one thing is abundantly clear, we must work and we are interdependent.
No-one is depending on me, i'm retired from the production of material goods and services. I make nothing but poo, on deposit in our septic tank. I don't have to worry too much about food, my life is fairly comfortable and think thats a good thing. It's good for all men to feel comfortable in life, and simply to enjoy spending time. But I think that some men would agree that it takes Hard-Work to be well-informed and to make good decisions. And for the most part I still do this kind of work, if only for my own gratification. We can only hope that we continue to grow, gain wisdom, knowledge, understanding; we can only pray that the vessel is enlarged by the process. And then we might hold more of this stuff that the One-True-And-Most-High-God is constantly pouring out. Is this Wealth, so easily available to one and all? It is only an indication of what we can become, if not Gods at least more than we have been. With greater ability comes the power to do more, and by growing God get's his glory.
Either we are men and women and belong to the human-species, or else we do not belong here at all. How many men are there in the world today whom we will refuse the hand of brotherhood? If we choose to discriminate between men for any reason at all, its makes the case that we are not Saints.
Joseph Smith claimed to be a prophet and founded a church in North America, these people have become known as the Mormons. Whatever Joseph was in life, its clear that he was a brilliant young man and very charismatic. He may have been an honest man as well, but we do not know for certain. Of course we may choose to believe that he was honest, or to believe that he was dishonest; and there are shades of grey inbetween of course. Even an honest man can at times be misstaken about some things, and a dishonest man may be motivated with the best intentions. Its unfortunate that Joeseph didn't live long enough to become an old man like myself. He was murdered by an angry mob, and perhaps those people even had a good reason to feel angry. Despite the fact that he claimed to be informed by the One-True-And-Most-High-God; at the time there was no clear successor to the presidency of the new church. Owing to this fact the membership split at that time, and since that time many men have claimed to be prophets and successors to Joseph. The larger church is called "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."
Officially I became a member of that church many years ago, I was babtised and confered with a priesthood. Therfor I am a preisthood holder in the Aaronic Priesthood of that Church, it is the lesser of two priesthoods. At the time that I received the priesthood, there were no vows made, in fact I was not told that I was a priest. I only learned more about the priesthood over the course of my membership, until finally I had to ask the Bishop if i was in fact a priest of Aaron. I don't think I actually heard the news until several years after the fact.
The Aaronic Priesthood is primarily concered for the worldly welfare of Humanity in general. But under normal cicumstances our responsibilities are considered to extend only to the members of our immediate family. It may also extend to other church members within our ward if we are in attendance. The Aaronic Priesthood blesses the sacrement for the membership, I have done this myself on at least one occassion. The church wards are very well defined regions, and each one has a Bishop presiding over it. The responsibilities of a Bishop in the church are primarily the responsibilities of the Aaronic priesthood, and those responsibilities may extend to non-members who reside within the ward. But normally if you want the Bishop's help you have to ask for it, and most non-members will not know that they can ask. The church sends missionaires all over the world to recruit new members, they've even run ads on televison. But the fact that non-members might get help from this church is not well publicised. The Church leaders want us to make a commitment, and I've heard a few stories of them refusing to help. And for the most part we have to accept the help that's available even if its not exactly what we want.
The good members pay a full tithe, 10% of their worldly income; and because of this the church has become exceedingly wealthy and powerful. The church owns a great deal of land, and has made improvements on the land including the construction of several Temples. Recently a temple was built here in Saint Louis, Missouri and briefly it was open to the general public before being consecrated. Normally the temple is closed to non-members, and to members who are not in good-standing with the church. A long time smoking habit had prevented me from gaining the good-standing status, but I did tour the Saint Louis temple, and even helped out with a little work there.
When I married, I was not married in the Mormon temple as is the custom. My wife and I were married in a non-denominational Christian church; and we exchanged vows that included the words, "til death do us part." Whenever church members marry in the temple they make vows for eternity, and yet divorce is not uncommon. My wife and I have become seperated, a judge signed a settlement agreement between us, and she has since remarried. She even has a daughter with this other man, who was also previously divorced, and has a couple daughters from that marriage. However I never gave my consent to the divorce, I was never given the opportunity to speak with the judge who signed papers. I was not present in the court room when the papers were signed and I had no legal representative present at that time. And of course I do believe in a higher court, I think that the matter is relevant even if it's not relevant within a court of law. A judge of the Law can only decide these cases if both parties agree to be bound by his decision, he has no authority to annul marrital vows that were made in a church before God. That is my opinion, which only leads me to wondering how we so often fail to make lasting commitments.
It would be one of the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that as members we should be bound by the laws and customs of the land. They can propose the doctrine but they can't make me agree to it, it will always be subject to personal choice. And I choose not to be bound by artifical limitations and restrictions that men may impose upon one another. Of course I'm not entirely free to do as I please, national borders are enforced, my freedom of travel is restrained.
And if I am judged to have commited a crime in this country, my freedom of travel may be further restrained, or I may be subject to other kinds of penalties. Of course I am not strong enough to oppose the strength of the American people, they can do as they please without my consultation. But I am not a patriot of theirs, its my right and privledge to claim seperate interests, and to claim that my interests are disserved. Perhaps the federal authorities should consider me to be a resident alien, but I doubt they would be willing to consider soverignty.
If they would agree to soverignty they would be forced to exercise diplomacy at the risk of conflict. But of course I pose no threat to this or any other Nation of people that would be believeable. I have no army of the world's young men and women standing behind me who would be willing to fight and to kill for my cause. I do not employ assassination to eliminate the people who I do not like; and I have no desire for such an army. Nor will I commit the violent crime myself, because I beleive that it is a crime against Humanity. I will merely wish and wait patiently to gain the upper-hand, such has been the way of my life for the most part. And it may be a very long wait, watching the world, but I do have eternity if not eternal life. Besides it would be wrong of me to hope for dominion instead of equality. But one thing is abundantly clear, we must work and we are interdependent.
No-one is depending on me, i'm retired from the production of material goods and services. I make nothing but poo, on deposit in our septic tank. I don't have to worry too much about food, my life is fairly comfortable and think thats a good thing. It's good for all men to feel comfortable in life, and simply to enjoy spending time. But I think that some men would agree that it takes Hard-Work to be well-informed and to make good decisions. And for the most part I still do this kind of work, if only for my own gratification. We can only hope that we continue to grow, gain wisdom, knowledge, understanding; we can only pray that the vessel is enlarged by the process. And then we might hold more of this stuff that the One-True-And-Most-High-God is constantly pouring out. Is this Wealth, so easily available to one and all? It is only an indication of what we can become, if not Gods at least more than we have been. With greater ability comes the power to do more, and by growing God get's his glory.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Right to Govern
To speak or to write our opinions is to take action in the world, and things that have been simply imagined become a part of reality. I have never been afforded the luxury of a career in life, as much as I have wanted it. But my time is very valuable I think, it doesn't really matter that I've never been paid to make a decision. I've never been able to command a fee just for my opinions, that sounds like nice work if you can get it. My words and my opinions are becomeing documented herein, and therefor work has been accomplished. It may be considered as evidence of rational thought; or it may just serve to prove how much a medical condition has governed my life and developement. I have been diagnosed as bi-polar and to be honest I have suffered a great deal in life. At first I didn't believe in the medical condition, and the medications I received didn't really help that much. But these days I do believe, fortunately the science of psychiatry has advanced a great deal over the past 20 years. Many years ago a doctor who worked at the Hopewell Clinic in Saint Louis, Missouri finally prescribed medication that worked. Medical Science has given me a certain advantage in life now, the advantage of an artificially regulated mood. I take medications daily and I will take them for the rest of my life because there is no cure. The condition is considered to be genetic in nature, apparently I was born this way. I can't help the way I was made, and I can't blame my parents, if anyone is to be blamed its our creator. Evidently our friend the creator is still trying to improve upon the Human Species, but clearly some people have been born with very debilitating conditions which do not improve the species one bit. Children who can not survive into adulthood and never become parents themselves. But as a group of people, Bi-polars have proven very successful at passing along our heritage. We are different but not enough to be considered a seperate species, and not especially blessed.
But in a way I have been blessed to experience the widest range of human conditions. From my own personal experience I have learned that we are really powerless over our own feelings, and feelings govern our thoughts to a large degree. No amount of positive thinking can turn a feeling hopelessness into hopefulness. When we are feeling hopelessness we can not help but think and wish for an end to our suffering.
And to be sure some of us have given up on life, we surrendered to those feelings of hopelessness, believeing in ill fate. I don't think its really a crime to give up the good fight, and to believe that we are powerless. I've heard people remark that God never gives us more than we can handle, but I think that sometimes he does.
Life's lessons can be very hard, and many of us learn that we really are powerless in the ways that we think important. But our judgement of what is truely important has never been very good; its hard to know exactly what it will take to be successful in life. Wealth, friends, family, intelligence, strength, speed, knowledge, faith; there are many ways to answer the question of success it seems.
To know that there is a God who cares about us, that is success and a gaurentee of victory. And knowledge is far better than mere belief.
Not everyone has been favored with a personal experience of divinity, and its hard to say why some people have been favored while others have not. And if we ourselves have no personal experience, its very easy to dismiss the testamony of others as a symptom of wishful thinking. The Human experience can be explained away perhaps because we are victims of our own biology. Chemistry plays a large role in how we do experience the Universe, and in subtle ways that we can never be fully conscious of.
Some aspects of life are simply beneath our capacity to notice them; and its not always easy to explain why we react as we do. The Human experience can be pretty extreem or even bizaar at times, but it is all genuine experience. Subsequently our behaviour may be deemed either appropriate or inappropriate by others observing us and judgeing us. But whether or not they are good judges, they can not experience the same thing that we experience. Therfor I believe that a fair argument could be made in favor of the idea that all human behaviour is appropriate, if only we could give full consideration to all conditions. But our limitations will not allow us to be aware of those conditions, therefor we make judgements from a position of ignorance.
We each have to decided that some things matter more than other things. We have to make judgements about tasks being more or less important. Clearly life comes with certain dependencies, and some jobs need to have priority over others. But thats not the same thing as making judgements about other people. Clearly some people should matter to us more than others, we are close to our friends, family, co-workers; seperated from others. There are varying degrees of seperation and we want to distance ourselves from those people who we don't care for; especially if their behaviour threatens our welfare. And if not deeds, even ideas alone may be construed as a threat. If some ideas became popular it could easily work out to be a dissadvantage for us, because the majority opinion is always the correct opinion. If a majority of the World's population consent to certain customs, then individually we are powerless to oppose. And of course we should all like to believe that we are important and that our opinions matter. But no matter how passionately we feel about our favorite principles, some opinions matter less.
I have grown beyond caring how other people will feel about me as a person, I have no reputation to risk. Being labled with a mental illness has turned me into a third-rate citizen, suspect. I have lived at the bottom of the scale of social acceptability, many of my old friends have forsaken me, and i've lost touch with several who did not. But in all my life I have met one person who truely believed in me; and her name was Eve. At the time I met Eve in a hospital ward, I was feeling betrayed by my own family. Eve was an elderly and unattractive woman then, she would easily be counted among the least fortunate of human-beings. She survived in the world by giving old men blowjobs and housework, and when that failed to keep a roof over her head she went to the psychiatric wards. As I said she was unattractive, her life and appearance both; but she was my friend. We spent some time together playing card games, and on several occassions she told me my fortune with a standard deck of playing cards. Eve said that I would save the world, and she believed it. And I said, "yes, but I don't know what needs to be done." I was only 19 at that time, still a young man, but I had made my commitment. Eve never really heard me tell my story, but she gave me recognition, she gave me validation, something objective. Thats something that we must depend on others to give, but for my own satisfaction I have already received enough.
So now i've had it in mind to save the world for a very long time, and I've given much thought to the problem. Enough to have a plan, a plan with dependencies. Even the most expert imagination can not guess how people will respond in every situation; and we don't know who we will be dealing with, or what they will be like. But I still need validation from our Creator, approval and consent to provide labor. I have no doubt that it is aware of the plan, whether or not i write it out in great detail. Because in truth we do not enjoy any privacy, even in our own thoughts; not from the One-True-And-Most-High-God at least and to whomever it does choose to reveal. I've said it before in the past, the Universe has a way of remembering itself; and our personal memories would naturally be a part of that memory.
From my point-of-view our Creator is a person who does experience the Universe in exactly the same way that we do experience it. It is a person of remarkable capacities, but as we experience suffering it also shares the experience with us. By our great crimes and our suffering the Great and Ancient Dragon has been wounded, and I have dedicated my immortal soul to healing those wounds. It has never truely been chained, it has always had the power to destroy us, but did exercise restraint out of hope perhaps. I'm reminded of a song by Jewel where she sings that, "We are God's Hands." Some people by thier example in life seem to prove the theory that we are the fallen angels and demons. I can not be too cynical about human-nature myself because I've enjoyed the opportunity to meet a few exceptional people in my life. I must agree that we have something here on Planet Earth thats worth saving.
If I am given the authority that I crave, I will proceed to do my work. Then the Earth can be renewed and a new Heaven will be revealed unto the children of Humanity. Not an End to our story in wrathful judgement, but a new begining. But I am not like Jesus was, within an instant of getting that power I would produce the threat of destruction. I would never allow the authorities of the world to punish me, or to restrain my freedom of travel. I will not forgive the people for being ill-behaved, i will not allow for ignorance to prevail as an excuse. The people who do have some authority in our world today may have good reason to consider me a threat to that authority. I would like to be counted among the champions of justice, and an enemy to tyranny in all it's various forms. But I'll settle for being the greater tyrant, because thats what the world deserves. And thats what it will take to establish peace on Earth, this is my final conclusion.
But in a way I have been blessed to experience the widest range of human conditions. From my own personal experience I have learned that we are really powerless over our own feelings, and feelings govern our thoughts to a large degree. No amount of positive thinking can turn a feeling hopelessness into hopefulness. When we are feeling hopelessness we can not help but think and wish for an end to our suffering.
And to be sure some of us have given up on life, we surrendered to those feelings of hopelessness, believeing in ill fate. I don't think its really a crime to give up the good fight, and to believe that we are powerless. I've heard people remark that God never gives us more than we can handle, but I think that sometimes he does.
Life's lessons can be very hard, and many of us learn that we really are powerless in the ways that we think important. But our judgement of what is truely important has never been very good; its hard to know exactly what it will take to be successful in life. Wealth, friends, family, intelligence, strength, speed, knowledge, faith; there are many ways to answer the question of success it seems.
To know that there is a God who cares about us, that is success and a gaurentee of victory. And knowledge is far better than mere belief.
Not everyone has been favored with a personal experience of divinity, and its hard to say why some people have been favored while others have not. And if we ourselves have no personal experience, its very easy to dismiss the testamony of others as a symptom of wishful thinking. The Human experience can be explained away perhaps because we are victims of our own biology. Chemistry plays a large role in how we do experience the Universe, and in subtle ways that we can never be fully conscious of.
Some aspects of life are simply beneath our capacity to notice them; and its not always easy to explain why we react as we do. The Human experience can be pretty extreem or even bizaar at times, but it is all genuine experience. Subsequently our behaviour may be deemed either appropriate or inappropriate by others observing us and judgeing us. But whether or not they are good judges, they can not experience the same thing that we experience. Therfor I believe that a fair argument could be made in favor of the idea that all human behaviour is appropriate, if only we could give full consideration to all conditions. But our limitations will not allow us to be aware of those conditions, therefor we make judgements from a position of ignorance.
We each have to decided that some things matter more than other things. We have to make judgements about tasks being more or less important. Clearly life comes with certain dependencies, and some jobs need to have priority over others. But thats not the same thing as making judgements about other people. Clearly some people should matter to us more than others, we are close to our friends, family, co-workers; seperated from others. There are varying degrees of seperation and we want to distance ourselves from those people who we don't care for; especially if their behaviour threatens our welfare. And if not deeds, even ideas alone may be construed as a threat. If some ideas became popular it could easily work out to be a dissadvantage for us, because the majority opinion is always the correct opinion. If a majority of the World's population consent to certain customs, then individually we are powerless to oppose. And of course we should all like to believe that we are important and that our opinions matter. But no matter how passionately we feel about our favorite principles, some opinions matter less.
I have grown beyond caring how other people will feel about me as a person, I have no reputation to risk. Being labled with a mental illness has turned me into a third-rate citizen, suspect. I have lived at the bottom of the scale of social acceptability, many of my old friends have forsaken me, and i've lost touch with several who did not. But in all my life I have met one person who truely believed in me; and her name was Eve. At the time I met Eve in a hospital ward, I was feeling betrayed by my own family. Eve was an elderly and unattractive woman then, she would easily be counted among the least fortunate of human-beings. She survived in the world by giving old men blowjobs and housework, and when that failed to keep a roof over her head she went to the psychiatric wards. As I said she was unattractive, her life and appearance both; but she was my friend. We spent some time together playing card games, and on several occassions she told me my fortune with a standard deck of playing cards. Eve said that I would save the world, and she believed it. And I said, "yes, but I don't know what needs to be done." I was only 19 at that time, still a young man, but I had made my commitment. Eve never really heard me tell my story, but she gave me recognition, she gave me validation, something objective. Thats something that we must depend on others to give, but for my own satisfaction I have already received enough.
So now i've had it in mind to save the world for a very long time, and I've given much thought to the problem. Enough to have a plan, a plan with dependencies. Even the most expert imagination can not guess how people will respond in every situation; and we don't know who we will be dealing with, or what they will be like. But I still need validation from our Creator, approval and consent to provide labor. I have no doubt that it is aware of the plan, whether or not i write it out in great detail. Because in truth we do not enjoy any privacy, even in our own thoughts; not from the One-True-And-Most-High-God at least and to whomever it does choose to reveal. I've said it before in the past, the Universe has a way of remembering itself; and our personal memories would naturally be a part of that memory.
From my point-of-view our Creator is a person who does experience the Universe in exactly the same way that we do experience it. It is a person of remarkable capacities, but as we experience suffering it also shares the experience with us. By our great crimes and our suffering the Great and Ancient Dragon has been wounded, and I have dedicated my immortal soul to healing those wounds. It has never truely been chained, it has always had the power to destroy us, but did exercise restraint out of hope perhaps. I'm reminded of a song by Jewel where she sings that, "We are God's Hands." Some people by thier example in life seem to prove the theory that we are the fallen angels and demons. I can not be too cynical about human-nature myself because I've enjoyed the opportunity to meet a few exceptional people in my life. I must agree that we have something here on Planet Earth thats worth saving.
If I am given the authority that I crave, I will proceed to do my work. Then the Earth can be renewed and a new Heaven will be revealed unto the children of Humanity. Not an End to our story in wrathful judgement, but a new begining. But I am not like Jesus was, within an instant of getting that power I would produce the threat of destruction. I would never allow the authorities of the world to punish me, or to restrain my freedom of travel. I will not forgive the people for being ill-behaved, i will not allow for ignorance to prevail as an excuse. The people who do have some authority in our world today may have good reason to consider me a threat to that authority. I would like to be counted among the champions of justice, and an enemy to tyranny in all it's various forms. But I'll settle for being the greater tyrant, because thats what the world deserves. And thats what it will take to establish peace on Earth, this is my final conclusion.
Monday, December 7, 2009
King of Peace
Through the efforts of one man your immortality can be gaurenteed; various people would consider that either a blessing or a curse. To be certain some of us have been glad to embrace our mortality because the experience of life can be unpleasent. To be granted a ressurection and denied a mortal end, as demonstrated by Jesus or so the story goes. Is this something that we should hope for? Our observations of reality and it's nature renders the very idea irrational, but the Universe may still hold a few surprises for us yet. Its very hard to elminate a possibility with certainty until we experience the events, and the past becomes concrete. But all possibilities of Human accomplishment seem to depend on past accomplishments. If history simply repeats itself in predictable ways, its easy to see what our fate will be. But the power of the individual has always been enough to make a difference, and to change the world. Clearly it has not always been changed for the better by some individuals; but progress is always being made in the right direction. For many of us life has become characterized by instant gratification, and of course we don't like to be kept waiting for something good to happen.
It's well within reason for one man to decide that Humanity is underserving, and therefor refuse to make an effort. If we deny the possibility of our ressurection its even easier. And perhaps we choose to believe in the possibility of more life here on Planet Earth, and it has already been gaurenteed by the efforts of one saviour, for those who believe. And for those who believe this may not depend on our good works in life. God has a plan for the Ultimate fate of Humanity, if we trust it our deeds are of little consequence. And it doesn't matter what you know, or who you know, or how you delt with other people. If our saviour has the power to forgive then judgement has no power over us, we will not be punished.
Was the immortality of the Human Soul ever in doubt; I wonder? I think that there is enough evidence to suggest that the Universe has a way of remembering itself and remembering us individually. We do make some impression upon the fabric of reality that becomes indelible, I never worry that I will be remembered. It didn't take some epiphany for me to believe in something larger than myself, but a little knowledge helps me to understand the implications. If we can see ourselves standing at the very center of creation, then we should feel that we are most important. But if we are forced to see our insignificant place in the whole, we should not feel less important, we may be very small but still significant.
And so the very chains of death that did bind us have been broken by one man's sacrifice. We may be restored to life with all of our memories intact. Should this great boon be reserved for a few or should it extend to all? This once and future King promised the whole land to all those people who should be considered meek, he did not make this promise to his own people specificly. I would think that there have been excellent examples of meekness demonstrated by peoples of every ethnicity and nationality. Perhaps our deeds in life did matter, perhaps it did matter how we delt with one-another. When we impose our own will upon the world and make many demands upon others, then we are not meek. But I think the promise of an inheiritance goes more towards who should govern, who the leaders should be. It's not meant to exclude all those people who have shown aggression, just that they should be subdued in some way. And as soon as we deny the people mortality, we deny them the power to kill one-another, so that disputes can never be resolved in this way. We will have all the time and opportunity for conversation and argument, the force of persuasion is the only force that should prevail in the world.
So isn't there anything that we still need to get that promise of a ressurection gaurenteed? We have not had the Millenium of Peace on Earth yet! We have not had a day of Judgement without punishment, and the mystery of God is yet unrevealed. And who will God find to do the job of judgement, and to deliver Peace on Earth? Who will win this wonderful power to reform the world so that there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth. And not to end the story of Humanity but find a new begining. Humanity is yet in its infancy as a civilization, but eventually the time comes for us to leave behind our childish ways and begin to grow up. A rite of passage to adulthood and maturity, this is the meaning of judgement day.
Heaven our Creator governs the course of the stars and planets but it does not govern our lives so much. But I consider it likely that Heaven enforces certain rules upon advanced civilizations like ours. And rule number one is to practice non-violence. Its that same old commandment of Moses, thou shall not commit the crime of murder. And we have to get that rule right without making exceptions. Violent means will never serve to solve the problems of violence, this should be simple wisdom. And violence may be defined as any use of force no matter how civil. Dignified treatment and respect is what every person derserves, we should not have to earn this from one-another, nor should we be able to lose it. We are all victims more or less, even the criminal is a victim. When a man has done wrong, he deserves a better education, and he should not be made to suffer indignity to get that education.
Unfortunately Humanity will not be persuaded away from violent means so easily. The Nations have devoted literally billions of man-hours and gross-national-product to the technology of warfare. Who can ask all these Nations to sacrifice all that hard work for the sake of peace? No one can ask and get away with it, unless they have some authority to make demands. Normally all Human authority comes from the consent of our peers, but its a hard thing to figure how one man can get consent from every Nation. So it stands to reason that this authority can not come from popular support, it can not depend on men in any way. Which leaves our prospective peace maker seeking allies from Heaven, and Heaven's will to apply force or at least to produce a clear and preasent threat. The old addage of beating our swords into plowshares will never come to pass unless someone can demand the work be done. Unfortunately some people will never respect anything less than the power to destroy when it comes to certain demands. And I believe that it is well within Heaven's power to destroy us, given that there is any kind of will behind creation at all. Of course whenever Humanity has been confronted with natural disasters, we easily proclaim it to be the 'Wrath of God'. But its not really punishment, just mother nature at work, a process neccessary to life.
In order for one man to be crowned King of Kings, Judge of all Nations, and the long expected Messiah; he must be able to produce effects that are obviously super-natural.
It's well within reason for one man to decide that Humanity is underserving, and therefor refuse to make an effort. If we deny the possibility of our ressurection its even easier. And perhaps we choose to believe in the possibility of more life here on Planet Earth, and it has already been gaurenteed by the efforts of one saviour, for those who believe. And for those who believe this may not depend on our good works in life. God has a plan for the Ultimate fate of Humanity, if we trust it our deeds are of little consequence. And it doesn't matter what you know, or who you know, or how you delt with other people. If our saviour has the power to forgive then judgement has no power over us, we will not be punished.
Was the immortality of the Human Soul ever in doubt; I wonder? I think that there is enough evidence to suggest that the Universe has a way of remembering itself and remembering us individually. We do make some impression upon the fabric of reality that becomes indelible, I never worry that I will be remembered. It didn't take some epiphany for me to believe in something larger than myself, but a little knowledge helps me to understand the implications. If we can see ourselves standing at the very center of creation, then we should feel that we are most important. But if we are forced to see our insignificant place in the whole, we should not feel less important, we may be very small but still significant.
And so the very chains of death that did bind us have been broken by one man's sacrifice. We may be restored to life with all of our memories intact. Should this great boon be reserved for a few or should it extend to all? This once and future King promised the whole land to all those people who should be considered meek, he did not make this promise to his own people specificly. I would think that there have been excellent examples of meekness demonstrated by peoples of every ethnicity and nationality. Perhaps our deeds in life did matter, perhaps it did matter how we delt with one-another. When we impose our own will upon the world and make many demands upon others, then we are not meek. But I think the promise of an inheiritance goes more towards who should govern, who the leaders should be. It's not meant to exclude all those people who have shown aggression, just that they should be subdued in some way. And as soon as we deny the people mortality, we deny them the power to kill one-another, so that disputes can never be resolved in this way. We will have all the time and opportunity for conversation and argument, the force of persuasion is the only force that should prevail in the world.
So isn't there anything that we still need to get that promise of a ressurection gaurenteed? We have not had the Millenium of Peace on Earth yet! We have not had a day of Judgement without punishment, and the mystery of God is yet unrevealed. And who will God find to do the job of judgement, and to deliver Peace on Earth? Who will win this wonderful power to reform the world so that there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth. And not to end the story of Humanity but find a new begining. Humanity is yet in its infancy as a civilization, but eventually the time comes for us to leave behind our childish ways and begin to grow up. A rite of passage to adulthood and maturity, this is the meaning of judgement day.
Heaven our Creator governs the course of the stars and planets but it does not govern our lives so much. But I consider it likely that Heaven enforces certain rules upon advanced civilizations like ours. And rule number one is to practice non-violence. Its that same old commandment of Moses, thou shall not commit the crime of murder. And we have to get that rule right without making exceptions. Violent means will never serve to solve the problems of violence, this should be simple wisdom. And violence may be defined as any use of force no matter how civil. Dignified treatment and respect is what every person derserves, we should not have to earn this from one-another, nor should we be able to lose it. We are all victims more or less, even the criminal is a victim. When a man has done wrong, he deserves a better education, and he should not be made to suffer indignity to get that education.
Unfortunately Humanity will not be persuaded away from violent means so easily. The Nations have devoted literally billions of man-hours and gross-national-product to the technology of warfare. Who can ask all these Nations to sacrifice all that hard work for the sake of peace? No one can ask and get away with it, unless they have some authority to make demands. Normally all Human authority comes from the consent of our peers, but its a hard thing to figure how one man can get consent from every Nation. So it stands to reason that this authority can not come from popular support, it can not depend on men in any way. Which leaves our prospective peace maker seeking allies from Heaven, and Heaven's will to apply force or at least to produce a clear and preasent threat. The old addage of beating our swords into plowshares will never come to pass unless someone can demand the work be done. Unfortunately some people will never respect anything less than the power to destroy when it comes to certain demands. And I believe that it is well within Heaven's power to destroy us, given that there is any kind of will behind creation at all. Of course whenever Humanity has been confronted with natural disasters, we easily proclaim it to be the 'Wrath of God'. But its not really punishment, just mother nature at work, a process neccessary to life.
In order for one man to be crowned King of Kings, Judge of all Nations, and the long expected Messiah; he must be able to produce effects that are obviously super-natural.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
More is Better
"IF you do not share our opinions, then you will not share our companionship."
The above statement is clearly false but we try very hard to make it true. Some differences we are willing to allow for; some we are unwilling to allow. Unfortunately we only get to make these choices for ourselves. And while we each make our own choices concerning matters of opinion, it is desireable to have company and undesireable to stand alone. Therefor when we have things in common we group ourselves into classifications. We believe this and not that, and we are unified or divided by our beliefs.
Opinions alone are of little to no consquence in the World, yet thoughts become deeds very easily. And its not what we think that matters but how we act. In the real world every action has it's consequences. Small differences of opinion can be the cause of seperate interests, which divide our world.
Once all of our needs have been satisfied we will still have wants. This is the nature of desire, that it has no limits. Seperation and Companionship are both desireable to us, but these are conflicting desires! That we are seperate and unique individuals is undeniable, but we are not seperate from the Universe at large. As manifest creatures of substance here in the Universe we exist in relationship to absolutely everything else. If we take the broadest views of Creation, its very easy to see the underlying unity of all things. And of course we do have a much more immediate relationship with all the substance of the Earth, and even more immediate is our relation to other Human-beings. Ever since Humanity invented Language we have been classifying the world and dividing it, there appears to be no limits to the number of ways we can divide ourselves from one-another. We have larger inclusive classifications and smaller exclusive classifications. Therefor we divide ourselves up into groups of people, but we forget that we are still members of the larger group.
"The greatest and most inclusive classification we can find here on Planet Earth, is to consider all of it's LIFE as a single class."
Humanity is a sub-class of this class; our many racial differences create sub-classes of Humanity and if that is not enough there are cultural differences as well to consider.
But that is not enough for us, its still too large to be manageable. We identify with special interests and create sub-classes of classes. No matter how many times you cut the deck, everyone of us should know that we are part of something larger than ourselves. If we can see that we are part of the Universe it is good for us, and if we can imagine something bigger than the Universe thats even better! It should be easy for us to see ourselves as a part of LIFE on Planet Earth, and as a part of Humanity. Whether or not we feel that we belong here, we do belong.
If i could reveal one Great Truth to the Children of Humanity and remove all doubts, it would be the Creator within the Universe. Unfortunately if the Creator is unwilling to reveal itself to us, there's not much that anyone can do about that.
At the very best, we can only ask for the evidence. If we are very good we may suggest what that evidence should be. If we can be specific in our desires, we can ask for exactly the thing we want. We can describe it in great detail and give shape to a plan. By doing this we create Great Expectations.
Expectations will get us into trouble more often than not. If our best laid plans never bare fruits we will be greatly dissappointed. And even the best laid plans can not account for every possibility, therefor we may be surprised by the outcome. If our plans depend on work being done by someone else, we don't always get what we bargained for. But if we are careful to define what we want, and describe how the work should be done, we are more likely to get the desired results. Most of our material goods do require a detailed plan, knowlege of methods, and the efforts of several different people. If we ask for divine favor it should be no different.
What can the Creator do that we ourselves can not do? Our ability to shape the world around us has limits, we should think that the creator is less limited. The advent of science and discovery has shown us a little bit about HOW the Creator shapes the world. Of course if it was plain and clearly guided by a will, we would have the evidence we desire, but its never been obvious. The creator moves the world in subtle and mysterious ways and we should probably wonder if it has the power to act more overtly. If we assume that our creator does have the power over reality to act in ways obivious to us, perhaps it is still unwilling to act. Or perhaps we are just underserving.
I think its fair to say that Humanity's greatest desire is to know that LIFE exists elsewhere in the Universe, to know beyond doubt that we are not alone. Considering the size of the Universe and the principle that it is governed by a set of rules which are the same throughout, we can make a fair assumption about LIFE here. But of course assumptions are never as good as hard facts. To get this knowledge we are willing to take some considerable risks and go to great expense. But I think it would be far better to know of a Creator. Thats a hard thing to be certain of, you can not solve the problem by throwing money at it.
If we are willing to consider Testamony as evidence, there is already enough! But testamony can never be as good as direct personal experience. If we find any of the testamony believable, some people do have a direct personal experience to relate. In a few cases, events have been plain and obvious to large groups of people who all witnessed the same thing. Evidently our Creator or some other higher-power has been willing and able to produce effects in the past. There are enough of these accounts to think that higher-powers have intervened in Human affairs. There are even accounts of men who have been able to bargain with them.
Clearly its a difficult thing to bargain with our Creator for services. If we do need to be deserving, we don't know what it takes to be deserving. The Catholics say that a vow of chastity will make us deserving of favor from God. But the Mormons say that we get favor from God when we become husbands or wives and parents. These two different points of view appear to be at odds with one another. According to the Israeli people we suffer from our seperation from God, and we need to become pure to heal that seperation. In order to make ourselves pure unto God we must obey many laws and be purified by priests in a temple. But the Christians say that it is enough just to take a bath!
Its very easy to see the seperation if we believe that God is a person of flesh and bone like us. And this is how the story of Genesis goes, such a personal God exits according to that account. Personally I think this is nothing more than evidence of our predjudice. Some people are willing to believe that God is a spirit without form, this is more like the God that I believe in. The God of my beliefs is everpreasent within the Universe to every corner. No one place can be more or less Holy, God's presence is everywhere. Therfore I do not see seperation or a problem of purity. But I do distinguish between that God and our Creator. In my own humble opinion God is constantly giving, and he has already given us everything there is to give. We can't ask for more from God, we can only trust that he sustains us and will continue to sustain us.
If we want more we have to work for it, and grow as individuals. Having more from God requires greater capacity to hold what is constantly given. For the sake of personal growth we do struggle and suffer great pains. At times we must suffer indignity or weakness to know that we are meek. We need to be reminded of Humility, as we find good reason to feel pride. Self-esteem and confidance is the goal of maturity. As we begin to feel comfortable in our strength, the Universe may prove us weak, and if for no other reason because we suffer from this mortal condition.
A Healthy degree of faith can make one man stand while the whole world shakes around him. It can make a man stand in defiance of death if he believes in Eternity. But this is not physical strength, it is not power over the very fabric of reality. It appears to be nothing of substance. But we can always ask for some help from our peers to get what we need, we never struggle alone. If we can see our Creator as one companion amidst the multitude, we can ask for it's help. And if we ask something from a peer we should hope that we can return favor for favor. Always there should be a fair exchange, but what does a mere human being have to offer a Creator? We have nothing of substance to offer, we have no property to call our own for all the substance of Creation belongs to the Creator already. We have no greater claim to the stuff itself, and because of our mortality we must surrender it back the world eventually. Therefor a man has nothing more than his time and attention to offer, and if he is able to do work, a commitment to do that work. Great favor should require great commitment; but once we have found our place in Eternity we can make a commitment that lasts that long. All that remains is a little trust. We each must have something of value to offer the world.
Perhaps even the Creator does need some work from us, perhaps it has a job to offer.
The above statement is clearly false but we try very hard to make it true. Some differences we are willing to allow for; some we are unwilling to allow. Unfortunately we only get to make these choices for ourselves. And while we each make our own choices concerning matters of opinion, it is desireable to have company and undesireable to stand alone. Therefor when we have things in common we group ourselves into classifications. We believe this and not that, and we are unified or divided by our beliefs.
Opinions alone are of little to no consquence in the World, yet thoughts become deeds very easily. And its not what we think that matters but how we act. In the real world every action has it's consequences. Small differences of opinion can be the cause of seperate interests, which divide our world.
Once all of our needs have been satisfied we will still have wants. This is the nature of desire, that it has no limits. Seperation and Companionship are both desireable to us, but these are conflicting desires! That we are seperate and unique individuals is undeniable, but we are not seperate from the Universe at large. As manifest creatures of substance here in the Universe we exist in relationship to absolutely everything else. If we take the broadest views of Creation, its very easy to see the underlying unity of all things. And of course we do have a much more immediate relationship with all the substance of the Earth, and even more immediate is our relation to other Human-beings. Ever since Humanity invented Language we have been classifying the world and dividing it, there appears to be no limits to the number of ways we can divide ourselves from one-another. We have larger inclusive classifications and smaller exclusive classifications. Therefor we divide ourselves up into groups of people, but we forget that we are still members of the larger group.
"The greatest and most inclusive classification we can find here on Planet Earth, is to consider all of it's LIFE as a single class."
Humanity is a sub-class of this class; our many racial differences create sub-classes of Humanity and if that is not enough there are cultural differences as well to consider.
But that is not enough for us, its still too large to be manageable. We identify with special interests and create sub-classes of classes. No matter how many times you cut the deck, everyone of us should know that we are part of something larger than ourselves. If we can see that we are part of the Universe it is good for us, and if we can imagine something bigger than the Universe thats even better! It should be easy for us to see ourselves as a part of LIFE on Planet Earth, and as a part of Humanity. Whether or not we feel that we belong here, we do belong.
If i could reveal one Great Truth to the Children of Humanity and remove all doubts, it would be the Creator within the Universe. Unfortunately if the Creator is unwilling to reveal itself to us, there's not much that anyone can do about that.
At the very best, we can only ask for the evidence. If we are very good we may suggest what that evidence should be. If we can be specific in our desires, we can ask for exactly the thing we want. We can describe it in great detail and give shape to a plan. By doing this we create Great Expectations.
Expectations will get us into trouble more often than not. If our best laid plans never bare fruits we will be greatly dissappointed. And even the best laid plans can not account for every possibility, therefor we may be surprised by the outcome. If our plans depend on work being done by someone else, we don't always get what we bargained for. But if we are careful to define what we want, and describe how the work should be done, we are more likely to get the desired results. Most of our material goods do require a detailed plan, knowlege of methods, and the efforts of several different people. If we ask for divine favor it should be no different.
What can the Creator do that we ourselves can not do? Our ability to shape the world around us has limits, we should think that the creator is less limited. The advent of science and discovery has shown us a little bit about HOW the Creator shapes the world. Of course if it was plain and clearly guided by a will, we would have the evidence we desire, but its never been obvious. The creator moves the world in subtle and mysterious ways and we should probably wonder if it has the power to act more overtly. If we assume that our creator does have the power over reality to act in ways obivious to us, perhaps it is still unwilling to act. Or perhaps we are just underserving.
I think its fair to say that Humanity's greatest desire is to know that LIFE exists elsewhere in the Universe, to know beyond doubt that we are not alone. Considering the size of the Universe and the principle that it is governed by a set of rules which are the same throughout, we can make a fair assumption about LIFE here. But of course assumptions are never as good as hard facts. To get this knowledge we are willing to take some considerable risks and go to great expense. But I think it would be far better to know of a Creator. Thats a hard thing to be certain of, you can not solve the problem by throwing money at it.
If we are willing to consider Testamony as evidence, there is already enough! But testamony can never be as good as direct personal experience. If we find any of the testamony believable, some people do have a direct personal experience to relate. In a few cases, events have been plain and obvious to large groups of people who all witnessed the same thing. Evidently our Creator or some other higher-power has been willing and able to produce effects in the past. There are enough of these accounts to think that higher-powers have intervened in Human affairs. There are even accounts of men who have been able to bargain with them.
Clearly its a difficult thing to bargain with our Creator for services. If we do need to be deserving, we don't know what it takes to be deserving. The Catholics say that a vow of chastity will make us deserving of favor from God. But the Mormons say that we get favor from God when we become husbands or wives and parents. These two different points of view appear to be at odds with one another. According to the Israeli people we suffer from our seperation from God, and we need to become pure to heal that seperation. In order to make ourselves pure unto God we must obey many laws and be purified by priests in a temple. But the Christians say that it is enough just to take a bath!
Its very easy to see the seperation if we believe that God is a person of flesh and bone like us. And this is how the story of Genesis goes, such a personal God exits according to that account. Personally I think this is nothing more than evidence of our predjudice. Some people are willing to believe that God is a spirit without form, this is more like the God that I believe in. The God of my beliefs is everpreasent within the Universe to every corner. No one place can be more or less Holy, God's presence is everywhere. Therfore I do not see seperation or a problem of purity. But I do distinguish between that God and our Creator. In my own humble opinion God is constantly giving, and he has already given us everything there is to give. We can't ask for more from God, we can only trust that he sustains us and will continue to sustain us.
If we want more we have to work for it, and grow as individuals. Having more from God requires greater capacity to hold what is constantly given. For the sake of personal growth we do struggle and suffer great pains. At times we must suffer indignity or weakness to know that we are meek. We need to be reminded of Humility, as we find good reason to feel pride. Self-esteem and confidance is the goal of maturity. As we begin to feel comfortable in our strength, the Universe may prove us weak, and if for no other reason because we suffer from this mortal condition.
A Healthy degree of faith can make one man stand while the whole world shakes around him. It can make a man stand in defiance of death if he believes in Eternity. But this is not physical strength, it is not power over the very fabric of reality. It appears to be nothing of substance. But we can always ask for some help from our peers to get what we need, we never struggle alone. If we can see our Creator as one companion amidst the multitude, we can ask for it's help. And if we ask something from a peer we should hope that we can return favor for favor. Always there should be a fair exchange, but what does a mere human being have to offer a Creator? We have nothing of substance to offer, we have no property to call our own for all the substance of Creation belongs to the Creator already. We have no greater claim to the stuff itself, and because of our mortality we must surrender it back the world eventually. Therefor a man has nothing more than his time and attention to offer, and if he is able to do work, a commitment to do that work. Great favor should require great commitment; but once we have found our place in Eternity we can make a commitment that lasts that long. All that remains is a little trust. We each must have something of value to offer the world.
Perhaps even the Creator does need some work from us, perhaps it has a job to offer.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
A Message to the Latter-Day-Saints
I think that the Book of Mormon is nothing more than a story, it is a work of fiction. The most likely explaination for it's origin is that Joseph himself was the author. However I can not rule out the possibility that Joseph told the truth of its origin; in that case he was decieved and not the con man seeking power for himself. Joseph evidently was a very intelligent and charismatic young man, and its a shame that he didn't live long enough to become an old man. But while he claimed to be a prophet he pretended to be a King, we can see this because he promised land to the Saints. It has long been the domain of Kings to make a promise of land, and not prophets. And for all that I believe that the church members have been decieved, there is still something good. Your priesthood is good if only because the people believe in it, and you do pray to Heavenly Father as Jesus instructed the people to pray. It's beyond me why Jesus didn't say pray to God. Perhaps our friend Joseph Smith was motivated with the very best of intentions whatever he has done. And it does appear that he honestly believed in the power of brotherly love to overcome the World. But if this is the true Gosple and Church of Christ restored to the Earth, shouldn't it be Jesus himself at the head of the Church? And do we think that Jesus was a prophet or a King, there is a bit of a difference between the two. Unfortunately that Church has fragmented since the very begining; until now in the preasent there are several different men who claim to be prophets and successor's to Joseph. I think that our world has no more need of prophets and prophecy, we have enough. All those people who write the lyrics, and the screenplays, and scripts for the silver screen are as good as prophets to me. It is all inspired work.
If i were the Heavenly Father himself then I guess that I should be accountable to answer a few prayers. In as much as I have the power to grant you a wish (which power I do not yet have.) Perhaps instead I am only a pretender to the Throne, and my intent is only to deceive.
But Joseph is in the most unfortunate position of having affirmed the God of Moses, as our storyteller in the book of Genesis. It has become plain and clear that the Genesis story is a myth, at best a fable suitable for children. It is a deception and the Earth is exactly as it appears to be, old beyond the age of Humanity. And Humanity has survived here for 100,000 years at the very least; however all told Adam was created less than 7000 years ago. And if a man such as Adam had lived 7000 years ago, it would not be possible for him to have been the first human being. But there is one true thing in the Genesis story, it tells of our common heritage and ancestry. The Hebrew calander is based upon that date which Adam was created. If there had been a great flood to cover the entire land, and less than 7000 years ago, it is clear that the Native American people would not have survived that event. For it is considered true that the Native American people have lived on these two continents for at least 10,000 years. And they did not have horses or any kinds of domesticated livestock, horses were imported to America from Europe. But perhaps Joseph did not realize this?
Within the Book of Mormon we find Nephi, and God begs for him to take another man's life. Is this truely the God that we beleive in who would ask for a life? Is this the same God of Moses who said, thou shall not commit the crime of murder? But even Moses himself didn't get that one right. Evidently the God of Moses desires to see our world divided and at war! Moses promised land to the Israeli people but at least Moses was a King. But he had no right to that land so he said that God promised, now go and take the land by force. Which the Israeli people did, no matter that the land was occupied. Is this the One-True-And-Most-High-God or the Great Deceiver of Humanity? For what purpose does God want to see us divided, so that there can be no peace on Earth? Does he intend to conquer us, while we are fighting amongst ourselves? The one true God is only a God of truth and not deception, it does nothing but reveal truth.
There is nothing at all yet to be established, only that the Eternal Kingdom is here and now. And we live within the Kingdom of Heaven today. Life being what it is, can never become Eternal, because it does have a begining. And the Children of Humanity will never be divided between 3 Kingdoms. We are creatures of a terrestrial nature and that we will always be. The stars and planets and galaxies are celestials, that is what they are and they will always be that. The stars do not become men, and men do not become stars. Perhaps you have believed that there is another world within the Kingdom of Heaven, a world for you and your family to inhabit. You think that you deserve to live Adam's life? You have been made no such promise, the only promise that you should believe in is your ressurection to life on Planet Earth. A life among 14 billion or so men and women of every race and faith. The Muslims have not believed in a ressurection but surely it will come to them, no matter what they have thought about the life and teachings of Jesus. And a man may deny God, and hate the churches and still be saved for a new everlasting life. And some of the people may not want everlasting life, but they will not be given to choose from some other alternative. One World, One Earth, One Universe and no amount of seperation.
I think you know that the World will be judged and not destroyed but reformed. This age of Humanity will come to an End, unto a new begining we can only hope. And who do you think will be punished, after the Lord himself has prayed for forgivness? For our sin there is a pardon, because we did not know better, and thats the way it is. But we are expected to learn, and our Heavenly Father will not wait forever. He will not stand by and watch the Children of Humanity destroy themselves to extinction. I have met many of the Saints and I think them worthy of admiration with few exceptions. But this thing that you do in the temple, giving a secret name to one-another is a sham. It is a pale imitation of something more glorious, only Jesus himself may give the name, and it will be written upon a small stone which you will also be given. I wish that you would not do this thing. I think that the Mormens are in for a few surprises yet, and I hope that you are not dissappointed. For on judgement day it has been said that the mystery of God will stand revealed at long last. I do believe in you as a group of people and I hope that you will prove yourselves deserving of the title of Saints. I was one of you, but in truth I never surrendered my whole heart to the church. And perhaps I do not deserve to be counted among your members, but its far too late to divorce me now. I gladly embrace my Aaronic priesthood and do care for the worldly welfare of all people. Nothing makes us more like Adam than this priesthood, who should care for all the children. And its truely a difficult challenge to care, but I accept. Responsibility I accept. I have worked long and hard and continue to make the effort. If I fail to win the World and the Iron Rod, at least I tried and I think that counts for something. I wanted to win, and I was willing to claim the bad reward so that you could win.
If i were the Heavenly Father himself then I guess that I should be accountable to answer a few prayers. In as much as I have the power to grant you a wish (which power I do not yet have.) Perhaps instead I am only a pretender to the Throne, and my intent is only to deceive.
But Joseph is in the most unfortunate position of having affirmed the God of Moses, as our storyteller in the book of Genesis. It has become plain and clear that the Genesis story is a myth, at best a fable suitable for children. It is a deception and the Earth is exactly as it appears to be, old beyond the age of Humanity. And Humanity has survived here for 100,000 years at the very least; however all told Adam was created less than 7000 years ago. And if a man such as Adam had lived 7000 years ago, it would not be possible for him to have been the first human being. But there is one true thing in the Genesis story, it tells of our common heritage and ancestry. The Hebrew calander is based upon that date which Adam was created. If there had been a great flood to cover the entire land, and less than 7000 years ago, it is clear that the Native American people would not have survived that event. For it is considered true that the Native American people have lived on these two continents for at least 10,000 years. And they did not have horses or any kinds of domesticated livestock, horses were imported to America from Europe. But perhaps Joseph did not realize this?
Within the Book of Mormon we find Nephi, and God begs for him to take another man's life. Is this truely the God that we beleive in who would ask for a life? Is this the same God of Moses who said, thou shall not commit the crime of murder? But even Moses himself didn't get that one right. Evidently the God of Moses desires to see our world divided and at war! Moses promised land to the Israeli people but at least Moses was a King. But he had no right to that land so he said that God promised, now go and take the land by force. Which the Israeli people did, no matter that the land was occupied. Is this the One-True-And-Most-High-God or the Great Deceiver of Humanity? For what purpose does God want to see us divided, so that there can be no peace on Earth? Does he intend to conquer us, while we are fighting amongst ourselves? The one true God is only a God of truth and not deception, it does nothing but reveal truth.
There is nothing at all yet to be established, only that the Eternal Kingdom is here and now. And we live within the Kingdom of Heaven today. Life being what it is, can never become Eternal, because it does have a begining. And the Children of Humanity will never be divided between 3 Kingdoms. We are creatures of a terrestrial nature and that we will always be. The stars and planets and galaxies are celestials, that is what they are and they will always be that. The stars do not become men, and men do not become stars. Perhaps you have believed that there is another world within the Kingdom of Heaven, a world for you and your family to inhabit. You think that you deserve to live Adam's life? You have been made no such promise, the only promise that you should believe in is your ressurection to life on Planet Earth. A life among 14 billion or so men and women of every race and faith. The Muslims have not believed in a ressurection but surely it will come to them, no matter what they have thought about the life and teachings of Jesus. And a man may deny God, and hate the churches and still be saved for a new everlasting life. And some of the people may not want everlasting life, but they will not be given to choose from some other alternative. One World, One Earth, One Universe and no amount of seperation.
I think you know that the World will be judged and not destroyed but reformed. This age of Humanity will come to an End, unto a new begining we can only hope. And who do you think will be punished, after the Lord himself has prayed for forgivness? For our sin there is a pardon, because we did not know better, and thats the way it is. But we are expected to learn, and our Heavenly Father will not wait forever. He will not stand by and watch the Children of Humanity destroy themselves to extinction. I have met many of the Saints and I think them worthy of admiration with few exceptions. But this thing that you do in the temple, giving a secret name to one-another is a sham. It is a pale imitation of something more glorious, only Jesus himself may give the name, and it will be written upon a small stone which you will also be given. I wish that you would not do this thing. I think that the Mormens are in for a few surprises yet, and I hope that you are not dissappointed. For on judgement day it has been said that the mystery of God will stand revealed at long last. I do believe in you as a group of people and I hope that you will prove yourselves deserving of the title of Saints. I was one of you, but in truth I never surrendered my whole heart to the church. And perhaps I do not deserve to be counted among your members, but its far too late to divorce me now. I gladly embrace my Aaronic priesthood and do care for the worldly welfare of all people. Nothing makes us more like Adam than this priesthood, who should care for all the children. And its truely a difficult challenge to care, but I accept. Responsibility I accept. I have worked long and hard and continue to make the effort. If I fail to win the World and the Iron Rod, at least I tried and I think that counts for something. I wanted to win, and I was willing to claim the bad reward so that you could win.
The Subject of Belief and Objectivity
I am sure that I may be easily outnumbered by the experts. All of whom will have thier own opinions, and while they may be true opinions they are no more accountable to the truth than any other opinion may be. But its entirely fair for me to believe in myself. And I do not claim to be a God or Creator. While I do have much in common with our mythical Adam, clearly I can not claim to be the progenitor of the Human Species here on Planet Earth. However I can observe and judge the world, and see that it does need a Great Patriarch today. And many will deny that they need to be saved, because they already have a saviour. But the Earth itself still does need to be saved. Jesus was given the title Prince of Peace but failed to establish Peace on Earth. The Viability of Planet Earth is at risk due to Humanity, our technological advancement has given us the power to render it unfit for Human Life. I doubt that we have the power to render the Earth unfit for LIFE in General, but certainly we may cause our own demise. And eventually we will destroy ourselves just because we can. So long as the people continue to pursue this principle that, "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!" Even genocide becomes justifiable. We may easily find the rational for an END to our story here on Planet Earth. And all that it takes is for one individual to think it so, if he has the ability to make it happen. We can not argue with that. Is our extinction truly inevitable? If we consent to it, we need not act; but our survival as a species requires some work in order to be guarenteed. If we do nothing, we will surely die. If the status quo is allowed to proceed unchecked, we are marching towards that inevitable End. But many of us do enjoy a little comfort in life, and so long as there is some stability in the World we expect it will last. It may very well last long enough for us to enjoy life to the end of our mortal days. Many of us have saved and planned for a comfortable retirement here, we do not want to give that up for a World of uncertainty. But its hard to get any guarentees, as much as we do like to limit life's risks, we are powerless to elminate them completely.
We can not elminate that possibility from our future that one day a single man will have the power to destroy the World. And it doesn't really matter how this will happen. It may not even depend on technology as we imagine it should, but upon some power of faith. As such it may well be within our reach today, it may have always been within reach. Individually we are powerful, and history has shown that one man can make a difference and change the world. In fact each of us does change the world a little bit just by living in it. So many decisions get made and they are not all important, they are not all influential, they do not all affect our lives directly. But occassionally one man can make a decision that impacts our past and our future significantly. Clearly a great discovery could mean so much, and the man to reveal it becomes more important. Human understanding is advanced and it serves the Greater Good. When we learn our place within the Kingdom of Heaven and what roles we may play, the knowledge enables us to act. And for the most part we are all personalities within the Kingdom of Heaven, it is good enough that we have existed. We have become part of Creation and the Eternal Kingdom, we did live in Eternity. And over the course of our lives here we may have played several roles. Each person has had accomplishments of their own, and it doesn't really matter what they are. These things can not make us more or less important, as children of God we are equally important. The Universe itself is evidently a very durable thing, and we partake of that durability as soon as we become manifest here.
If we do have Immortal souls, and a spirit that lives beyond mortality, why should we care what happens to Planet Earth? We have done our time here and are finished with it. The fate of Humanity should not concern us, because we live within the Eternal Kingdom of God, but we live here together. That we have companions continues to be true beyond life, and most of us have a reason to feel grateful for our friends and family. These things bind us together, and bind all human beings because we share a common nativity here on Earth. Because it was once a good home to us we should always remember and cherish it. We should care for it and one another, we should never grow beyond caring. There is no escape from this trap, the trap of Humanity.
Now what can we do to save the World? If the Earth needs our care, what can we do that isn't already being done? Our concerns for the welfare of Humanity here are being addressed as much as possible it would seem. And while so much is being done, who can say that it's not enough? What problem faces our world today and remains unsolved? Some problems have been with us forever and defy solution. The threat of punishment has failed to solve the problem of violent and criminal behaviour. By all appearances there is no easy solution to this problem, but we continue to employ the ineffective solution for lack of something better. To see the criminal as a victim of society should help us to solve this difficult problem. We should help every person to become more socialized and let no child be neglected. But its a hard solution to put into practice unless everyone participates in the solution. And to be honest we don't want the world to interfer in our personal lives, we will accept only minimal intervention or think that our rights have been violated. Offer us some help and then let us decided whether or not to accept it, but don't force your help upon me! We will not feel grateful to be forced, instead we will hold a grudge. And clearly our world is full of angry people, in some cases we might even consider that anger to be justifiable. But it is not for the good of our World to have angry people. When we feel most powerless or unimportant we often feel angry about that.
There is some objectivity for you, Human Nature is what it is. We feel very passionate about some things; if we have opinions of our own we like them very much. And we can't help feeling the way we do, we have learned from our own experiences in life. What are we? We are real persons.
We can not elminate that possibility from our future that one day a single man will have the power to destroy the World. And it doesn't really matter how this will happen. It may not even depend on technology as we imagine it should, but upon some power of faith. As such it may well be within our reach today, it may have always been within reach. Individually we are powerful, and history has shown that one man can make a difference and change the world. In fact each of us does change the world a little bit just by living in it. So many decisions get made and they are not all important, they are not all influential, they do not all affect our lives directly. But occassionally one man can make a decision that impacts our past and our future significantly. Clearly a great discovery could mean so much, and the man to reveal it becomes more important. Human understanding is advanced and it serves the Greater Good. When we learn our place within the Kingdom of Heaven and what roles we may play, the knowledge enables us to act. And for the most part we are all personalities within the Kingdom of Heaven, it is good enough that we have existed. We have become part of Creation and the Eternal Kingdom, we did live in Eternity. And over the course of our lives here we may have played several roles. Each person has had accomplishments of their own, and it doesn't really matter what they are. These things can not make us more or less important, as children of God we are equally important. The Universe itself is evidently a very durable thing, and we partake of that durability as soon as we become manifest here.
If we do have Immortal souls, and a spirit that lives beyond mortality, why should we care what happens to Planet Earth? We have done our time here and are finished with it. The fate of Humanity should not concern us, because we live within the Eternal Kingdom of God, but we live here together. That we have companions continues to be true beyond life, and most of us have a reason to feel grateful for our friends and family. These things bind us together, and bind all human beings because we share a common nativity here on Earth. Because it was once a good home to us we should always remember and cherish it. We should care for it and one another, we should never grow beyond caring. There is no escape from this trap, the trap of Humanity.
Now what can we do to save the World? If the Earth needs our care, what can we do that isn't already being done? Our concerns for the welfare of Humanity here are being addressed as much as possible it would seem. And while so much is being done, who can say that it's not enough? What problem faces our world today and remains unsolved? Some problems have been with us forever and defy solution. The threat of punishment has failed to solve the problem of violent and criminal behaviour. By all appearances there is no easy solution to this problem, but we continue to employ the ineffective solution for lack of something better. To see the criminal as a victim of society should help us to solve this difficult problem. We should help every person to become more socialized and let no child be neglected. But its a hard solution to put into practice unless everyone participates in the solution. And to be honest we don't want the world to interfer in our personal lives, we will accept only minimal intervention or think that our rights have been violated. Offer us some help and then let us decided whether or not to accept it, but don't force your help upon me! We will not feel grateful to be forced, instead we will hold a grudge. And clearly our world is full of angry people, in some cases we might even consider that anger to be justifiable. But it is not for the good of our World to have angry people. When we feel most powerless or unimportant we often feel angry about that.
There is some objectivity for you, Human Nature is what it is. We feel very passionate about some things; if we have opinions of our own we like them very much. And we can't help feeling the way we do, we have learned from our own experiences in life. What are we? We are real persons.
Friday, November 20, 2009
What is This?
The Blog represents some documentation of my Life-Long work and Hobby; available to the General Public Free of Charge. It is not so much a commentary on current events, it has more to do with Human Nature and our relationship to divinity. As such it is more opinion than facts, but these are my opinions. If you are a person to dismiss higher-powers from all Human Afairs, then you might not enjoy reading my Blog. But if you believe in any kind of God, this one's for you.
If you have MSN you can connect with me for live chat using the address token_rh@hotmail.com.
I can also be found on Facebook using the address token63@centurytel.net.
Either of those addresses will also work for e-mail.
My SKYPE address is kenneth.r.hopper if you prefer voice chat. I have it installed but i've never actually used it. I have used Ventrillo or Teamspeak to communicate in the past; however i do no operate my own server, that would be an option if you have a server.
If you have MSN you can connect with me for live chat using the address token_rh@hotmail.com.
I can also be found on Facebook using the address token63@centurytel.net.
Either of those addresses will also work for e-mail.
My SKYPE address is kenneth.r.hopper if you prefer voice chat. I have it installed but i've never actually used it. I have used Ventrillo or Teamspeak to communicate in the past; however i do no operate my own server, that would be an option if you have a server.
A Career for the Ages
Of course nobody knew that the position was available waiting to be filled. A person would have to be chosen by God, we can not choose for ourselves; but we do choose. As individuals we do have that much authority in life to make our own choices, God does not choose for us. But of course the power to make choices is not the power to create opportunities, we must have options to choose from. That is why the position of King of Kings is not voted on by us, we can not choose our favorite candidates. But we can vote for ourselves and choose to be candidates, and by doing so we prove that we are willing to make the neccessary sacrifices. If a man offers to risk his own soul for the opportunity to govern the world, there can be no greater sacrifice a mortal man can make. For the man who wins that Job answers the Ages old riddle of Christ, "What should a man gain if by winning the world he should lose his own soul in the same process?" But it is a desireable thing to win great power over the world; many men have desired it, and some have been successful to an extent. But no man has ever won complete and total dominion over all the Nations of the Earth, and over the substance of the Earth as well. No man has ever won the title of Great Patriarch and Landlord, and how will the world ever give recognition to one man? Perhaps men have failed for the lack of making the appropriate effort, no-one has tried for the job of Heavenly Father because the position is already filled. The Heavenly Father has always been considered an Eternal God and Creator, He gave form to the first Human Beings on planet Earth. And as an eternal he must exist in the preasent moment of time in order for the continuity of time to be preserved; and he may have no definate begining. But even the Universe itself has a definate begining, and time is a funny thing here, it passes unevenly. Personally I prefer that all good things always move forwards in time, and that we have no cause to intervene in past events. But we have heard of higher-powers intervening in Human affairs if we will consider testamony as evidence. But as well as evidence of testimony, I also do have some personal experience to depend on. For some reason I have been favored, and I do not know how I was deserving.
I made a simple choice to consider John's great vision as inspired, and the promise of our ressurection a true thing. This turned out to be a good choice I think. We can not help but believe in something greater than ourselves, whether we call it God or the Universe; there is some Noble cause behind all things. Some may think the Creation simply a matter of Possibilities and Consequences, a Machine and nothing more, they can see no Mind behind it. But at the same time they can not deny that a Mind exists, they must be forced to believe in themselves at the very least. And the people have made choices; to believe in one thing and to dissbelieve in something else. When we believe in something without evidence we say that it requires faith. And for a long time Humanity has told and heard many stories of a Creator, or some other higher-power. They have believed in many Gods, they have accounted the Stars and Planets of Heaven as Gods, including our Sun. People have often accounted a Mind and a Will behind Mother Nature here on Earth, they have accounted dissaster as the Wrath of God. The Evidence that Life has Evolved here on Planet Earth is very strong, but most of us will still believe in some kind of Intelligent Design. And clearly Intelligence has played an important role in shaping our World today, even if we only believe in Human Intelligence. Some will choose to dissbelieve in a higher-power guiding the processes of Life, instead they believe in Free-Will.
Many people have chosen to believe in a Great Deceiver, a Spirit of pure Evil intentions. They believe that Free-Will on Earth is overshadowed by this higher-power, and that our World is in need of deliverance. Therefor they have imagined a great and bloody battle called Armageddon, so that Evil may be vanquished once and for all. But after all has been said and done, it is only human nature to practice deception. We do not need to blame a higher-power for what we are or do in the world. If there is to be a battle here on Planet Earth, it is only the battle for Peace. For the World to be delivered from Armed Conflict and Violence; for the people to be motivated by Love and NOT fear or hatred. Civil behaviour at the very least is a sure sign of maturity. And how will the people ever grow out of their childish ways and become mature and civilized? Youth and Ignorance are ever replenished in our World as every hour of the day new children are being born. But it is the older and wiser among us who are taking advantage of the young men and women. Those of us who have become established in the World do not fight the battles, instead they make all the rules and conditions. The established men and women hold every title and deed to the land and resources of Earth. They deny every other man an equal share, a part of the World for which we should not have to work, instead a right of birth here. Those men and women who have assets proceed to exploit the World to thier own ends, and the greater good is disserved. Few will serve the cause of peace without making exceptions, if it is a dissadvantage to us. Instead we will serve tyranny because it serves us, the strength of numbers has all the force required to impose its will upon the World. The majority opinion is always the correct opinion, unless there is a more vocal minority with the will to violence. Because "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!" We put our full faith and trust in superior firepower. The power to destroy is what gives men authority to govern, and it has always been easier to destroy than build. Clearly a man may have Good Reason and still do the Wrong Thing. We can always find someone to kill for us, we can always justify some cause, we can always reason that the enemy deserves to die. We distinguish between combatants and innocent civilians and go off to fight our battles in good conscience. But for every good soldier on the battlefield there is always a commanding Officer; therefor we may judge some World leaders to be deserving of assasination. A man who intends to do harm to Humanity deserves to be stopped by any means. But often we can convince the people of our Good Intentions and then proceed to do harm with supporters. Few men have ever managed to get power and authority over the World without a fair share of supporters. But for the power of faith to win every battle we only need support from God and Creator, if they are not the same person. We only have to believe in our own durability and then we may survive long enough to fight, if we trust God that much we should never surrender.
But every man needs his rest and therfor it is ok to give up the fight for a time, in the knowledge that we may rejoin the battle again for as long as it is unwon.
But if the battle is unwinnable should we struggle so much? By struggleing we grow into acceptance for the things that we can not change, we gain our maturity and wisdom. And if we lack knowledge we can get that too in due course of time. The Truth is absolute and it stands forever if only as a memory, but there is always someone to remember it. And if that person is God or Creator, it also has the power to reveal Truth to whomever it pleases to do so.
Each of us does experience the Universe in a very unique way, and we often believe that we enjoy some personal right to privacy. However we do not have that right gaurenteed, as much as we might like to have it. Neither our feelings or our very thoughts can be hidden away from Creation, in truth we have no secrets. And if our very thoughts may stand unrevealed at least our deeds have made their impression upon the fabric of space and time. How we have been motivated remains for anyone to guess perhaps, if we never have the opportunity to explain ourselves. But the Creator and the Mind of the Universe has knowledge of us, because we are part of it. It knows us so intimately well as to experience the world in same way that we do experience the world. Inasmuch as we do experience suffering it also knows suffering, therfor we are a burden of suffering upon our Creator. But also we have experienced great Joy, if this has been a blessing to us it has also been a blessing to our Creator. Clearly the experience of Life and Humanity is not always pleasent, for some of us it has been most uncomfortable at times. The Human experience may at times have been pretty bizzaar so as to defy any rational explaination, non-the-less it has all been genuine experience. Our memories of Life can never be the same thing as Intellectual Property, that we may exercise some rights over them to say who may or may not benefit from them. We may not demand to be rewarded if someone does benefit from our experiences. If we have been inspired we have no right to its sources, the source of inspiration is the same for all men. And in all the World there is nothing more valuable than personal experience, not money or material goods are so valuable. Because if there is anything at all that we may take away from the World with us, that would be it. So if its true as Jesus claimed, that there is a burried treasure here, that would be it's nature. The great treasure can be nothing less than the Human experience, whole and complete. And this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, a great storehouse of experiences buried away in the middle of some field.
Upon finding the treasure and its true nature, how can one man claim it? And for that matter who would want it; knowing that the content therof includes the whole of Human suffering? What work can a man do to claim the field, how can he pay for the Whole Earth and all it's long history? But that fullness of history does belong to every person as a birth right, no one of us can make a greater claim to it. As children of God; no more or less important than one another, if one of us deserves great wealth we all do. But once again, who wants to claim the treasure? Some of us may be satisfied to forgo great wealth, we can be happy with what we have. A personal soul and a personal experience, who would sacrifice that? Because not one of us may claim the great treasure and be unchanged by it. But one of us must make that sacrifice and claim the treasure so that the Ancient of Days can be born. The one who can judge us as individuals because he knows us. This person does not yet exist, if there is anything at all eternal about him it is only this principle of judgement. It is the office and not the man who stands unborn, but the office must be filled by flesh and bone. For every intelligent species under Heaven, there must be a great patriarch to sponsor them. This is simply how things are done within the Kingdom, we need no other explaination.
I do deserve the title of King and Patriarch today, and may only become more deserving. I don't really need your recognition or admiration, not everything may depend upon popularity. You may think that I am not honorable or righteous; instead you may believe that I am sick or insane. One small stone, of which the builders and framers of our society set aside as unsuitable material, that I am. I am the hopeful romantic, believing in possibilities beyond reason. Perhaps I am out of touch with Reality, or perhaps it is just a Reality unfamilure to you. I will and do judge all the Nations of the Earth, with or without authority, because I was made for judgement. I judge people individually and I judge myself, and I will continue to do this work. And I think that the Children of Humanity do deserve an education, they should benefit from better knowledge or understanding, but they should not have to suffer to get an education. Who should have to pay for truth, who should be unwilling to trade deception for one true thing? We may have to sacrifice our favorite opinions, we might discover that we have invested our faith unwisely. We gave up our doubts when we should have held onto them. But the difference between Good and Evil is not always obvious, for this we can not be blamed.
I made a simple choice to consider John's great vision as inspired, and the promise of our ressurection a true thing. This turned out to be a good choice I think. We can not help but believe in something greater than ourselves, whether we call it God or the Universe; there is some Noble cause behind all things. Some may think the Creation simply a matter of Possibilities and Consequences, a Machine and nothing more, they can see no Mind behind it. But at the same time they can not deny that a Mind exists, they must be forced to believe in themselves at the very least. And the people have made choices; to believe in one thing and to dissbelieve in something else. When we believe in something without evidence we say that it requires faith. And for a long time Humanity has told and heard many stories of a Creator, or some other higher-power. They have believed in many Gods, they have accounted the Stars and Planets of Heaven as Gods, including our Sun. People have often accounted a Mind and a Will behind Mother Nature here on Earth, they have accounted dissaster as the Wrath of God. The Evidence that Life has Evolved here on Planet Earth is very strong, but most of us will still believe in some kind of Intelligent Design. And clearly Intelligence has played an important role in shaping our World today, even if we only believe in Human Intelligence. Some will choose to dissbelieve in a higher-power guiding the processes of Life, instead they believe in Free-Will.
Many people have chosen to believe in a Great Deceiver, a Spirit of pure Evil intentions. They believe that Free-Will on Earth is overshadowed by this higher-power, and that our World is in need of deliverance. Therefor they have imagined a great and bloody battle called Armageddon, so that Evil may be vanquished once and for all. But after all has been said and done, it is only human nature to practice deception. We do not need to blame a higher-power for what we are or do in the world. If there is to be a battle here on Planet Earth, it is only the battle for Peace. For the World to be delivered from Armed Conflict and Violence; for the people to be motivated by Love and NOT fear or hatred. Civil behaviour at the very least is a sure sign of maturity. And how will the people ever grow out of their childish ways and become mature and civilized? Youth and Ignorance are ever replenished in our World as every hour of the day new children are being born. But it is the older and wiser among us who are taking advantage of the young men and women. Those of us who have become established in the World do not fight the battles, instead they make all the rules and conditions. The established men and women hold every title and deed to the land and resources of Earth. They deny every other man an equal share, a part of the World for which we should not have to work, instead a right of birth here. Those men and women who have assets proceed to exploit the World to thier own ends, and the greater good is disserved. Few will serve the cause of peace without making exceptions, if it is a dissadvantage to us. Instead we will serve tyranny because it serves us, the strength of numbers has all the force required to impose its will upon the World. The majority opinion is always the correct opinion, unless there is a more vocal minority with the will to violence. Because "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!" We put our full faith and trust in superior firepower. The power to destroy is what gives men authority to govern, and it has always been easier to destroy than build. Clearly a man may have Good Reason and still do the Wrong Thing. We can always find someone to kill for us, we can always justify some cause, we can always reason that the enemy deserves to die. We distinguish between combatants and innocent civilians and go off to fight our battles in good conscience. But for every good soldier on the battlefield there is always a commanding Officer; therefor we may judge some World leaders to be deserving of assasination. A man who intends to do harm to Humanity deserves to be stopped by any means. But often we can convince the people of our Good Intentions and then proceed to do harm with supporters. Few men have ever managed to get power and authority over the World without a fair share of supporters. But for the power of faith to win every battle we only need support from God and Creator, if they are not the same person. We only have to believe in our own durability and then we may survive long enough to fight, if we trust God that much we should never surrender.
But every man needs his rest and therfor it is ok to give up the fight for a time, in the knowledge that we may rejoin the battle again for as long as it is unwon.
But if the battle is unwinnable should we struggle so much? By struggleing we grow into acceptance for the things that we can not change, we gain our maturity and wisdom. And if we lack knowledge we can get that too in due course of time. The Truth is absolute and it stands forever if only as a memory, but there is always someone to remember it. And if that person is God or Creator, it also has the power to reveal Truth to whomever it pleases to do so.
Each of us does experience the Universe in a very unique way, and we often believe that we enjoy some personal right to privacy. However we do not have that right gaurenteed, as much as we might like to have it. Neither our feelings or our very thoughts can be hidden away from Creation, in truth we have no secrets. And if our very thoughts may stand unrevealed at least our deeds have made their impression upon the fabric of space and time. How we have been motivated remains for anyone to guess perhaps, if we never have the opportunity to explain ourselves. But the Creator and the Mind of the Universe has knowledge of us, because we are part of it. It knows us so intimately well as to experience the world in same way that we do experience the world. Inasmuch as we do experience suffering it also knows suffering, therfor we are a burden of suffering upon our Creator. But also we have experienced great Joy, if this has been a blessing to us it has also been a blessing to our Creator. Clearly the experience of Life and Humanity is not always pleasent, for some of us it has been most uncomfortable at times. The Human experience may at times have been pretty bizzaar so as to defy any rational explaination, non-the-less it has all been genuine experience. Our memories of Life can never be the same thing as Intellectual Property, that we may exercise some rights over them to say who may or may not benefit from them. We may not demand to be rewarded if someone does benefit from our experiences. If we have been inspired we have no right to its sources, the source of inspiration is the same for all men. And in all the World there is nothing more valuable than personal experience, not money or material goods are so valuable. Because if there is anything at all that we may take away from the World with us, that would be it. So if its true as Jesus claimed, that there is a burried treasure here, that would be it's nature. The great treasure can be nothing less than the Human experience, whole and complete. And this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, a great storehouse of experiences buried away in the middle of some field.
Upon finding the treasure and its true nature, how can one man claim it? And for that matter who would want it; knowing that the content therof includes the whole of Human suffering? What work can a man do to claim the field, how can he pay for the Whole Earth and all it's long history? But that fullness of history does belong to every person as a birth right, no one of us can make a greater claim to it. As children of God; no more or less important than one another, if one of us deserves great wealth we all do. But once again, who wants to claim the treasure? Some of us may be satisfied to forgo great wealth, we can be happy with what we have. A personal soul and a personal experience, who would sacrifice that? Because not one of us may claim the great treasure and be unchanged by it. But one of us must make that sacrifice and claim the treasure so that the Ancient of Days can be born. The one who can judge us as individuals because he knows us. This person does not yet exist, if there is anything at all eternal about him it is only this principle of judgement. It is the office and not the man who stands unborn, but the office must be filled by flesh and bone. For every intelligent species under Heaven, there must be a great patriarch to sponsor them. This is simply how things are done within the Kingdom, we need no other explaination.
I do deserve the title of King and Patriarch today, and may only become more deserving. I don't really need your recognition or admiration, not everything may depend upon popularity. You may think that I am not honorable or righteous; instead you may believe that I am sick or insane. One small stone, of which the builders and framers of our society set aside as unsuitable material, that I am. I am the hopeful romantic, believing in possibilities beyond reason. Perhaps I am out of touch with Reality, or perhaps it is just a Reality unfamilure to you. I will and do judge all the Nations of the Earth, with or without authority, because I was made for judgement. I judge people individually and I judge myself, and I will continue to do this work. And I think that the Children of Humanity do deserve an education, they should benefit from better knowledge or understanding, but they should not have to suffer to get an education. Who should have to pay for truth, who should be unwilling to trade deception for one true thing? We may have to sacrifice our favorite opinions, we might discover that we have invested our faith unwisely. We gave up our doubts when we should have held onto them. But the difference between Good and Evil is not always obvious, for this we can not be blamed.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Circumstances
I have a hearing with the Social Security Administration later today, on Thursday November 19th, 2009. And the judge will make a decision on my dissability case. I am not expecting a favorable decision. This is a serious problem for me because I have debts, and no way to pay without the benefits past due. One of those debts is with the Social Security Administration for overpayment of past benefits, the full amount is near $5000 dollars. My father has already said that he will pay that debt, but I think its unjust if he has to do that. I have not been employed these past 5 years, my only source of income is grass cutting money and I just do that for my parents. Have lived with my parent's in this house for about 7 years now, and they pay all my bills. I do have a car titled in my name but Dad pays for it entirely, and it is convienient for them so they don't have to drive me everywhere and to doctor's appointments.
I have worked in the past, my longest term of employment was with the National Archives here in Saint Louis, Missouri. I worked in thier mailroom for 3 years as an intermittent employee. Intermittent's work a certain number of hours per year and are then laid off until thier anniversay date and they can return to work. Eventually my hours were cut and I ended up being fired from that job. The office manager wanted to cut hours on her staff, and I was always the first man to be sent home early. Right after I lost that job I started getting dissability benefits from the SSA, and I did receive those benefits for many years. I did make an effort to work again, I pretty much had to because I got married and had a family to support. But I've never had much success in holding a job, and I went from one job to another, never staying at one for very long. Its hard to say why all those jobs were lost, it was never one single reason and it wasn't always my fault. My problematic medical condition had nothing to do with it in several cases and sometimes it did. I have always had a problem with Insomnia and falling to sleep, and even with the medications I take now I still have the problem. Keeping to a fixed schedule has always been a problem for me.
The judge may decide that I'm able to work, and for the most part I am able, I am not physically impaired in any way; but its not that simple. In my own humble opinion I am unemployable, irreguardless of what the SSA judge decides my own opinion will not change. They have all my medical histories and some other personal records, and clearly it is a history of suffering. I have not suffered alone, my entire family has suffered as well. If they will not grant me the benefits I can only imagine it will cause more suffering. But I will not be forced into work, I am retired, I have done enough. I certainly do not deserve more suffering, my life has become fairly comfortable as it is, I'm mostly happy. But still there is this problem of debt, I owe a growing debt of child support to my ex-wife. For a long time I did pay the support, either from my SSA benefits or from a paycheck, I am willing to pay. However I simply have not had the means to pay for at least the past 5 years. The Missouri govt agency in charge of these things did make an effort to suspend my driver's liscense, and my parents paid up the debt at that time, in the amount around $2000. As the debt re-accumulated they asked for my liscense again. I wrote them a letter explaining my situation incl. some of my bank records, they had assumed the $2k was my money of course. The result is they did not suspend my liscense.
Now my father is a fairly wealthy man, he was well employed his whole adult life as an aviation engineer. He did retire but he still does some contract work for Boeing, soon he will retire from that. My mother also worked as a real estate agent for many years, they both paid taxes and they both paid the FICA tax of course. My parents are good and patriotic American citizens, more than I'll ever be. Of course my two sons were born here in the States and I believe they will also be employed here and pay the taxes as we all do. The FICA tax i think of more as an insurance premium than a tax, it is insurance administered by the Federal Government but it is still insurance. And I think we have paid for it, and I believe that my children will pay for it, I think that we deserve to benefit from it. In fact I do need the help just in order to get my medications, because if my dissability case fails they will also stop the medicare; they have already stopped the prescription drug coverage. Lately I have been getting my medications from the clinic where i see my doctor, they give me free samples. They have been trying to get me into a program where the pharmacutical company pays for the meds, but as far as I know that has not been approved. The medications that I take would cost around $800 per month otherwise, but once again my father has gaurenteed that he will pay if neccessary. To be certain I'm completely dependent on that stuff and feel grateful for the advances that have been made in the field of psychiatry these past 20 years. The medications have not always been so good as they are today, and for many years i suffered numerous hospitalizations while the doctors tried and failed to help. It has only been recently that a psychiatrist at the Hopewell clinic prescibed something that proved effective. I took Zyprexa and Wellbutrin for a while, after i moved with my family and left the Hopewell clinic, they recommended the Crider Center near Wentzville, Missouri. My doctor, Dr. Raza is a very kind man, I like him very much. He took me off the Zyprexa and gave Geodon, because the Zyprexa does cause weight gain and I am overweight. In fact I've had problems with weight gain on other medications in the past. Well I've never managed to get my weight back down to normal, I don't exercise. I'm 6'1" and around 250lbs.
Medical Science has give me a wonderful advantage in life, the advantage of an artifically regulated mood. My Intelligence is well above average, I'm a farily well educated man and capable of rational thought. The imagination is our greatest asset, no thing gets made in the world unless someone first imagines it. A lot of our greatest discoverys and the science behind them depends on imagination. In the past I have been accused of being, "Out of touch with Reality". And my memory of my own past is fairly decent, I must admit I've given in to fantasy in the past. A really good fantasy can be a very desireable thing, especially if it helps us to feel more important. So you could say I have a whole lot of personal experience reguarding fantasy and imagination, enough that I think I've managed to learn something from it. And I have grown wiser in matureity, I'm not the same man that I was at the age of 19, I have changed. I see reality in an uncommon way, blessed with a romantic heart. From my point of view we live in the Universe, and not simply here on Earth. I've learned to take the broadest perspectives, in terms of space and time, and give them thier due consideration. I find it true that nobody likes to think they are powerless or unimportant, we all like to believe that we are important. Its a hard thing to view the immensity of the Universe and our place in it, and not think that we are less important or even insignificant. Most people would say that it is Humanity that brings purpose to the Universe, if we were not here to wonder about it and experience it, if Life itself never existed here, it would all be meaningless. But I do believe in something larger than myself and larger than Humanity, the Universe does not depend on us, we depend on it. We depend on the Earth and Sun, we depend on the life of Dirt and many other kinds of life here. And we depend on Heaven's Creator even if it is only one of many higher powers and less than the One-True-And-Most-High-God. There can be only one true God, but clearly there are also a multitude of personalities here in Creation. And individually we are one, a single personality within the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are important. We are significant but its something of a CRIME to think that we are MORE IMPORTANT. We share the Universe with our companions and peers, some we would not choose but we are not given the opportunity to choose. We have to take what we have been given and make it better, of course we always want more but so long as we are surviving the possibility of more exists. Being convinced of Eternity as I am, you might think that I could easily afford patience; but I much like anyone else don't like to be kept waiting for something good to happen. We are so blessed because of our Interdependence, and cursed because of our dependence. Sometimes we have to wait for work to be accomplished by someone else if we do not have the ability to do it ourselves. And we have to make certain that the other person is willing to provide us with labor, which naturally requires some kind of exchange. Sometimes it is good enough to make a promise of future consideration, we forge a commitment. If we keep our commitments we are honorable people, worthy, and just. If we are creditable the other party will believe that we have something of value to offer. The fruits of our labor perhaps, although not all of our labors produce material goods. If we have something substantial to offer, its easy to see the value of well formed material.
But what value is the Knowledge of Truth, that is something insubstantial? Perhaps it is more important to understand methods than to know one fact. How can it be done? How do we make a thing? What are the Rules that govern manifestation? We would like very much to understand these things because that knowledge empowers us to build the world around us. The world becomes more and more comfortable to life when it is well ordered; and we impose our own sense of order upon it. And so we struggle for control of reality. But it is not matter that we need to control; the man who can control the shape of space and time will control the world. The vast and empty expanse of space stands between us and the rest of Creation, it stands between us and unlimited material wealth. And its not simply out there above the sky, the vacume extends everywhere, it is here, it is part of us. We are intimately in touch with it, its closer than most people think. But no power of the human mind can control it, we influence it naturally because of our physical mass and in subtle ways. But this does not seem to depend on consciousness in any way. The only thing that we know can affect the shape of time and space is the motion of particles through it and the force of gravity. However its common thinking among physicists that every force depends on some particle, even though no-one has ever seen a particle of gravity. But what does consciousness depend on? Is it a force of Nature? Is there a particle for it? It would be easy and obvious just to say that it depends on the One-True-And-Most-High-God, and leave it at that. But somehow consciousness is connected to the stuff of creation, evidently it is only connected to living things. Without a muscle to move the World, consciouness has no power over reality. Reality is not altered in any way when we simply observe it; or is it true that we shape the possibilities of creation by looking? By all indications the shape of Reality does not depend on our awareness of it, but exactly how many observers are there in the Universe, and how much can they be aware of? This we can not account for. We can only imagine One Supreme Observer, a personality of substance that does not depend on biology. If it exists it preceeds the formation of the stars themselves and planets. And we can imagine that this person has some definate begining, it is not eternal it was born, it is less than The-One-True-And-Most-High-God, but far greater than a human-being. If there is consciouness it depends on God, in the same way that we depend on God for our consciouness.
In one old and very popular prophecy we are introduced to a personality within the Kingdom of Heaven. That person was called the Ancient Dragon, and it was characterized as a person of great strength and power. We can not distinguish the vision of one old man from reality, we do not know whether to call it wishful thinking or divinely inspired. But the story has become very popular because it holds out the possibility of a ressurection to everlasting life. The possibility of more life is a very desireable thing, its something that many of us want. Unfortunatley wanting does not give shape to reality, it doesn't really matter how many people believe in a thing or how passionately they feel about it. For such a thing to be possible in this Universe seems to go against nature, so we have good reason to doubt. None-the-less many people do choose to believe in it, for them it represents HOPE. If its truely inspired and the possibility is real, its something worth fighting for isn't it? A dream for Humanity worthy of great sacrifice.
Heaven is holding out some reward that none of us has ever won. The good reward is the Authority to Govern and Judge the Nations among other things, and the bad reward is unending torment. Of course no-one wants to claim the bad reward, who would choose suffering? But evidently the promise of our ressurection has conditions, and while its not always clear what those conditions amount to, a few things are clear.
And one clear thing is the Millenium of Peace on Earth. Considering the conditions of our world today, no-one can imagine how it will happen. Perhaps it will never happen, the Nations will not give up thier Arms easily, they will not give up thier strength for weakness. Its possible that Humanity will fail to secure the promise, and its possible that its all just a wonderful dream. Unless someone can force the world into Peace, because the people must be forced.
All those people who account this prohpecy as divinely inspired, have long expected an anti-Christ to rise to power. The greatest Villian of all time, that man will claim the bad reward, that man will go to unending torment in the company of the Ancient Dragon. Is it remotely possible that man will be a reightous man? Is it possible that he will be motivated by compassion for the plight of Humanity? Think of it as a JOB or a Career and it will be easier to understand how a mortal man can do it. By all appearances and according to the story its neccessary. Therefore the promise of your ressurection depends on one of us to be willing and able to do that job and claim the reward. Who will be the first to offer themselves as a sacrifice, who will make a commitment that goes well beyond mortal life? Who will commit to the Ancient Dragon and serve him and possibly deliver the Children of Humanity into it's jaws? Should we call it tough-love or tyranny, for a King to force the world into Peace? All that it really takes to win the Great-Game-Of-Life is for one of us to solve the mystery of faith and move mountains. As soon as that happens, everyone wins, and there will be your King. And how can one man succeed where all others have failed? Is it even true that faith has the power to make one man stand against armies? Evidently Jesus did have some power over the world, if we believe his storytellers. But clearly he never used that power to threaten people, not even to save his own life. It's a curiosity that he cursed one tree to death, for having no fruits. He forgave sin and the people were healed! And when he did judge the people he did not propose punishment. Instead he prayed to a higher authority for our pardon, to the one who could judge and punish. Eventually someone came up with the idea of a Holy Trinity and said that the Father and Son are Gods. But no I think not, they were both and will be mortal men however Holy. The Muslims have the truth, there is and can ever be, only one God. Men can become great and powerful persons, but there is absolutely nothing that can make them Gods, even if they are made to live forever. Consider our loving Heavenly Father as not just a person but a JOB and a Career, and it will be easier to understand how a mortal man can do it. Its a true challenge to love some people, but facing the greatest challenges life has to offer us presents the very best opportunities for personal growth. If I ask, what does the Enemy deserve, who will say Good Will? How many will say the the enemy deserves to die? If we are good soldiers unto God we should say that every man is worth fighting for, leave no-one behind. We should fight against tyranny even if it serves us, we should fight the Good Fight. We should fight for fairplay and justice, but we can not take it by force, we can not make demands. If we make demands we are not meek and do not deserve to inhierit the Earth. So how do we fight then if we may not impose our own will upon reality and make the world conform to our rules? We may only do so by offering our friendship to every person, to be willing to give of our time and attention. A simple conversation best serves the cause of justice, if we are unwilling to have that conversation we do harm. We may excuse ourselves for being pre-occupied, but we may not be forgiven if we deny a person the right to exist and to enjoy companionship. Consider forgiveness as a possibility, judgement a certainty. Forgiveness is a process that will take time, and for that work to be complete we must be able to forgive ourselves. We are all given this talent for judgement, there are 14 billion judges more or less counting the living and the dead.
Those 14 billion may not be well pleased with our deeds in life, they may think us guilty of crimes, perhaps they will also be able to see us as victims. But no matter what we deserve, our place in the Eternal Kingdom can not be taken away. And the fact that we were merely Human binds us together forever and ever. Heaven is a wonderful place full of possibilities, and it is a real place not some mystical realm of unmanifest spirits. Clearly it is not the place of perfect tranquility where nothing ever happens, it is a place of change, birth and destruction. It seems to be a true thing that nothing lasts forever, but nothing truely ends in this Universe unless it is replaced by something new. But perhaps the Earth can be made to live forever because we need it, and the Sun can be made to shine forever because we need it too. For as long as we would like to abide here until we are ready to move on.
I have worked in the past, my longest term of employment was with the National Archives here in Saint Louis, Missouri. I worked in thier mailroom for 3 years as an intermittent employee. Intermittent's work a certain number of hours per year and are then laid off until thier anniversay date and they can return to work. Eventually my hours were cut and I ended up being fired from that job. The office manager wanted to cut hours on her staff, and I was always the first man to be sent home early. Right after I lost that job I started getting dissability benefits from the SSA, and I did receive those benefits for many years. I did make an effort to work again, I pretty much had to because I got married and had a family to support. But I've never had much success in holding a job, and I went from one job to another, never staying at one for very long. Its hard to say why all those jobs were lost, it was never one single reason and it wasn't always my fault. My problematic medical condition had nothing to do with it in several cases and sometimes it did. I have always had a problem with Insomnia and falling to sleep, and even with the medications I take now I still have the problem. Keeping to a fixed schedule has always been a problem for me.
The judge may decide that I'm able to work, and for the most part I am able, I am not physically impaired in any way; but its not that simple. In my own humble opinion I am unemployable, irreguardless of what the SSA judge decides my own opinion will not change. They have all my medical histories and some other personal records, and clearly it is a history of suffering. I have not suffered alone, my entire family has suffered as well. If they will not grant me the benefits I can only imagine it will cause more suffering. But I will not be forced into work, I am retired, I have done enough. I certainly do not deserve more suffering, my life has become fairly comfortable as it is, I'm mostly happy. But still there is this problem of debt, I owe a growing debt of child support to my ex-wife. For a long time I did pay the support, either from my SSA benefits or from a paycheck, I am willing to pay. However I simply have not had the means to pay for at least the past 5 years. The Missouri govt agency in charge of these things did make an effort to suspend my driver's liscense, and my parents paid up the debt at that time, in the amount around $2000. As the debt re-accumulated they asked for my liscense again. I wrote them a letter explaining my situation incl. some of my bank records, they had assumed the $2k was my money of course. The result is they did not suspend my liscense.
Now my father is a fairly wealthy man, he was well employed his whole adult life as an aviation engineer. He did retire but he still does some contract work for Boeing, soon he will retire from that. My mother also worked as a real estate agent for many years, they both paid taxes and they both paid the FICA tax of course. My parents are good and patriotic American citizens, more than I'll ever be. Of course my two sons were born here in the States and I believe they will also be employed here and pay the taxes as we all do. The FICA tax i think of more as an insurance premium than a tax, it is insurance administered by the Federal Government but it is still insurance. And I think we have paid for it, and I believe that my children will pay for it, I think that we deserve to benefit from it. In fact I do need the help just in order to get my medications, because if my dissability case fails they will also stop the medicare; they have already stopped the prescription drug coverage. Lately I have been getting my medications from the clinic where i see my doctor, they give me free samples. They have been trying to get me into a program where the pharmacutical company pays for the meds, but as far as I know that has not been approved. The medications that I take would cost around $800 per month otherwise, but once again my father has gaurenteed that he will pay if neccessary. To be certain I'm completely dependent on that stuff and feel grateful for the advances that have been made in the field of psychiatry these past 20 years. The medications have not always been so good as they are today, and for many years i suffered numerous hospitalizations while the doctors tried and failed to help. It has only been recently that a psychiatrist at the Hopewell clinic prescibed something that proved effective. I took Zyprexa and Wellbutrin for a while, after i moved with my family and left the Hopewell clinic, they recommended the Crider Center near Wentzville, Missouri. My doctor, Dr. Raza is a very kind man, I like him very much. He took me off the Zyprexa and gave Geodon, because the Zyprexa does cause weight gain and I am overweight. In fact I've had problems with weight gain on other medications in the past. Well I've never managed to get my weight back down to normal, I don't exercise. I'm 6'1" and around 250lbs.
Medical Science has give me a wonderful advantage in life, the advantage of an artifically regulated mood. My Intelligence is well above average, I'm a farily well educated man and capable of rational thought. The imagination is our greatest asset, no thing gets made in the world unless someone first imagines it. A lot of our greatest discoverys and the science behind them depends on imagination. In the past I have been accused of being, "Out of touch with Reality". And my memory of my own past is fairly decent, I must admit I've given in to fantasy in the past. A really good fantasy can be a very desireable thing, especially if it helps us to feel more important. So you could say I have a whole lot of personal experience reguarding fantasy and imagination, enough that I think I've managed to learn something from it. And I have grown wiser in matureity, I'm not the same man that I was at the age of 19, I have changed. I see reality in an uncommon way, blessed with a romantic heart. From my point of view we live in the Universe, and not simply here on Earth. I've learned to take the broadest perspectives, in terms of space and time, and give them thier due consideration. I find it true that nobody likes to think they are powerless or unimportant, we all like to believe that we are important. Its a hard thing to view the immensity of the Universe and our place in it, and not think that we are less important or even insignificant. Most people would say that it is Humanity that brings purpose to the Universe, if we were not here to wonder about it and experience it, if Life itself never existed here, it would all be meaningless. But I do believe in something larger than myself and larger than Humanity, the Universe does not depend on us, we depend on it. We depend on the Earth and Sun, we depend on the life of Dirt and many other kinds of life here. And we depend on Heaven's Creator even if it is only one of many higher powers and less than the One-True-And-Most-High-God. There can be only one true God, but clearly there are also a multitude of personalities here in Creation. And individually we are one, a single personality within the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are important. We are significant but its something of a CRIME to think that we are MORE IMPORTANT. We share the Universe with our companions and peers, some we would not choose but we are not given the opportunity to choose. We have to take what we have been given and make it better, of course we always want more but so long as we are surviving the possibility of more exists. Being convinced of Eternity as I am, you might think that I could easily afford patience; but I much like anyone else don't like to be kept waiting for something good to happen. We are so blessed because of our Interdependence, and cursed because of our dependence. Sometimes we have to wait for work to be accomplished by someone else if we do not have the ability to do it ourselves. And we have to make certain that the other person is willing to provide us with labor, which naturally requires some kind of exchange. Sometimes it is good enough to make a promise of future consideration, we forge a commitment. If we keep our commitments we are honorable people, worthy, and just. If we are creditable the other party will believe that we have something of value to offer. The fruits of our labor perhaps, although not all of our labors produce material goods. If we have something substantial to offer, its easy to see the value of well formed material.
But what value is the Knowledge of Truth, that is something insubstantial? Perhaps it is more important to understand methods than to know one fact. How can it be done? How do we make a thing? What are the Rules that govern manifestation? We would like very much to understand these things because that knowledge empowers us to build the world around us. The world becomes more and more comfortable to life when it is well ordered; and we impose our own sense of order upon it. And so we struggle for control of reality. But it is not matter that we need to control; the man who can control the shape of space and time will control the world. The vast and empty expanse of space stands between us and the rest of Creation, it stands between us and unlimited material wealth. And its not simply out there above the sky, the vacume extends everywhere, it is here, it is part of us. We are intimately in touch with it, its closer than most people think. But no power of the human mind can control it, we influence it naturally because of our physical mass and in subtle ways. But this does not seem to depend on consciousness in any way. The only thing that we know can affect the shape of time and space is the motion of particles through it and the force of gravity. However its common thinking among physicists that every force depends on some particle, even though no-one has ever seen a particle of gravity. But what does consciousness depend on? Is it a force of Nature? Is there a particle for it? It would be easy and obvious just to say that it depends on the One-True-And-Most-High-God, and leave it at that. But somehow consciousness is connected to the stuff of creation, evidently it is only connected to living things. Without a muscle to move the World, consciouness has no power over reality. Reality is not altered in any way when we simply observe it; or is it true that we shape the possibilities of creation by looking? By all indications the shape of Reality does not depend on our awareness of it, but exactly how many observers are there in the Universe, and how much can they be aware of? This we can not account for. We can only imagine One Supreme Observer, a personality of substance that does not depend on biology. If it exists it preceeds the formation of the stars themselves and planets. And we can imagine that this person has some definate begining, it is not eternal it was born, it is less than The-One-True-And-Most-High-God, but far greater than a human-being. If there is consciouness it depends on God, in the same way that we depend on God for our consciouness.
In one old and very popular prophecy we are introduced to a personality within the Kingdom of Heaven. That person was called the Ancient Dragon, and it was characterized as a person of great strength and power. We can not distinguish the vision of one old man from reality, we do not know whether to call it wishful thinking or divinely inspired. But the story has become very popular because it holds out the possibility of a ressurection to everlasting life. The possibility of more life is a very desireable thing, its something that many of us want. Unfortunatley wanting does not give shape to reality, it doesn't really matter how many people believe in a thing or how passionately they feel about it. For such a thing to be possible in this Universe seems to go against nature, so we have good reason to doubt. None-the-less many people do choose to believe in it, for them it represents HOPE. If its truely inspired and the possibility is real, its something worth fighting for isn't it? A dream for Humanity worthy of great sacrifice.
Heaven is holding out some reward that none of us has ever won. The good reward is the Authority to Govern and Judge the Nations among other things, and the bad reward is unending torment. Of course no-one wants to claim the bad reward, who would choose suffering? But evidently the promise of our ressurection has conditions, and while its not always clear what those conditions amount to, a few things are clear.
And one clear thing is the Millenium of Peace on Earth. Considering the conditions of our world today, no-one can imagine how it will happen. Perhaps it will never happen, the Nations will not give up thier Arms easily, they will not give up thier strength for weakness. Its possible that Humanity will fail to secure the promise, and its possible that its all just a wonderful dream. Unless someone can force the world into Peace, because the people must be forced.
All those people who account this prohpecy as divinely inspired, have long expected an anti-Christ to rise to power. The greatest Villian of all time, that man will claim the bad reward, that man will go to unending torment in the company of the Ancient Dragon. Is it remotely possible that man will be a reightous man? Is it possible that he will be motivated by compassion for the plight of Humanity? Think of it as a JOB or a Career and it will be easier to understand how a mortal man can do it. By all appearances and according to the story its neccessary. Therefore the promise of your ressurection depends on one of us to be willing and able to do that job and claim the reward. Who will be the first to offer themselves as a sacrifice, who will make a commitment that goes well beyond mortal life? Who will commit to the Ancient Dragon and serve him and possibly deliver the Children of Humanity into it's jaws? Should we call it tough-love or tyranny, for a King to force the world into Peace? All that it really takes to win the Great-Game-Of-Life is for one of us to solve the mystery of faith and move mountains. As soon as that happens, everyone wins, and there will be your King. And how can one man succeed where all others have failed? Is it even true that faith has the power to make one man stand against armies? Evidently Jesus did have some power over the world, if we believe his storytellers. But clearly he never used that power to threaten people, not even to save his own life. It's a curiosity that he cursed one tree to death, for having no fruits. He forgave sin and the people were healed! And when he did judge the people he did not propose punishment. Instead he prayed to a higher authority for our pardon, to the one who could judge and punish. Eventually someone came up with the idea of a Holy Trinity and said that the Father and Son are Gods. But no I think not, they were both and will be mortal men however Holy. The Muslims have the truth, there is and can ever be, only one God. Men can become great and powerful persons, but there is absolutely nothing that can make them Gods, even if they are made to live forever. Consider our loving Heavenly Father as not just a person but a JOB and a Career, and it will be easier to understand how a mortal man can do it. Its a true challenge to love some people, but facing the greatest challenges life has to offer us presents the very best opportunities for personal growth. If I ask, what does the Enemy deserve, who will say Good Will? How many will say the the enemy deserves to die? If we are good soldiers unto God we should say that every man is worth fighting for, leave no-one behind. We should fight against tyranny even if it serves us, we should fight the Good Fight. We should fight for fairplay and justice, but we can not take it by force, we can not make demands. If we make demands we are not meek and do not deserve to inhierit the Earth. So how do we fight then if we may not impose our own will upon reality and make the world conform to our rules? We may only do so by offering our friendship to every person, to be willing to give of our time and attention. A simple conversation best serves the cause of justice, if we are unwilling to have that conversation we do harm. We may excuse ourselves for being pre-occupied, but we may not be forgiven if we deny a person the right to exist and to enjoy companionship. Consider forgiveness as a possibility, judgement a certainty. Forgiveness is a process that will take time, and for that work to be complete we must be able to forgive ourselves. We are all given this talent for judgement, there are 14 billion judges more or less counting the living and the dead.
Those 14 billion may not be well pleased with our deeds in life, they may think us guilty of crimes, perhaps they will also be able to see us as victims. But no matter what we deserve, our place in the Eternal Kingdom can not be taken away. And the fact that we were merely Human binds us together forever and ever. Heaven is a wonderful place full of possibilities, and it is a real place not some mystical realm of unmanifest spirits. Clearly it is not the place of perfect tranquility where nothing ever happens, it is a place of change, birth and destruction. It seems to be a true thing that nothing lasts forever, but nothing truely ends in this Universe unless it is replaced by something new. But perhaps the Earth can be made to live forever because we need it, and the Sun can be made to shine forever because we need it too. For as long as we would like to abide here until we are ready to move on.
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