Seeking the Kingdom

I had a restless night. I was plagued with uncertainty and confusion. So I called into the night, “I am so confused. I do not understand who I am supposed to be or what my life is all about. How can I find myself?”

A small, still voice answered: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7

Recognizing the voice as that of God, I stated a new question: “what is it that I am to seek?”

He answered; “seek ye first the Kingdom of God. . . .” Matthew 6:33

“OK,” I answered. Just where shall I seek the Kingdom?”

“The Kingdom of God commeth not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here or, Lo there for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17 20-21.

These scriptures fly in the face of many of the “establishment” churches. It says that each of us must seek God’s Kingdom within our own being. And as each of us is unique, the Kingdom we find within ourselves is also unique.

Now, what is that important? It makes the argument that we each have a unique relationship with God. And in order to build and strengthen that relationship, we have to be acceptable and tolerant of the unique relationship others have with Him.

My personal relationship with God is based on my unique spirit. So is yours. The way I express that relationship is something I alone can determine. The same is true for you.

People with similar views of God’s Kingdom gather into churches of different types. Each of these churches is legitimate, in that it helps its members to discover and express their personal relationship to God.

It was with this in mind that Congress approved, and the states ratified the second amendment stating that Congress was prohibited from establishing a religion, or denying the right of the people to worship as they please.

So if you are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim or any other religion, you have the right to practice your faith without government interference.

Jesus himself made that clear. When he was asked what the most important rule is, he answered: “The first is to love your God with all your strength; and the second is similar, that you love your neighbor as your self.”

So God’s formula for our lives is based on Love. We must love our God, and our neighbors. In other scriptures he makes it clear that our love for each other must be unconditional. No matter what our neighbors believe, we still must love them. No matter which religion they practice, we must tolerate that and love them equally.

Jesus entire body of teachings is based on us loving our God and each other. If we can build a world around this simple concept, we will finally have Peace on Earth.

God speaks to us every day. His message most usually comes as a whisper in the night. To hear God, we have to quiet our minds and listen carefully. If you would hear the voice of God, be quiet and listen

GOD IN MAN

The letter below is my answer to a correspondent who said that “We are God:”

I agree that we are God to the degree that when God created the universe, he created it out of his own essence. Therefore everything in the universe, including us, is God. This is an article of faith among many Native American religions. They had ceremonies to honor the “spirits” of everything they encountered. For example, if they had made a clay pot and had no further use of it, they would break the pot to release its spirit prior to throwing it away.

There is one caveat to this idea. I believe that when sentient beings, such as humans on Earth and what ever type if creatures exist on other planets throughout the universe, were created or evolved, they were made free agents. That included the freedom to deny God and block him from their souls. Therefore, only within the soul of sentient beings can God’s presence be denied.

When God designed the universe, he used the dual principle of existence and non-existence to produce divergent phenomenon. For example, light is an existing energy. When electromagnetic radiation of the proper frequency is in an area, we have light. If it is dark, we can operate a light bulb that will generate light. The absence of light energy creates the opposite condition of darkness. We cannot build a dark bulb to fill a room with darkness. If it is light, and we want to sleep, we have to put up curtains to block out the light.

Darkness is the absence of light. Yet darkness is a very real thing. You can sense it. You can become aware of the atmosphere it creates. It can be restful or frightening. Therefore while darkness is created by denying light, it is still very real.

The same goes for heat and cold. Cold is the non existence of heat. Hatred is the non existence of love. When a positive energy is denied, it allows a negative essence to arise.

Now back to God as the source of our existence. As I said, we have the choice of embracing God or blocking him from our soul. If we block him, then we allow a negative essence to emerge. We call this negativity “Satan,” the Devil himself. Evil exits because we do not exercise love. The Devil exists only because we block God from our souls.

Frank Gillispie

Of Good and Evil

I have heard the question repeated in several forms in the last week. People are asking, “If God exist, why does he allow so much evil to happen?” I have thought about that quite a bit, and I have found an answer that satisfies my mind. Dear readers, please understand that this is a creation of my own mind. It may or may not have any truth in it. I will not be surprised or hurt if you reject it out of hand.

In order to illustrate my idea, I have to paint you a word picture. Suppose you are in a black room. The floor ceiling, walls, table and chair are all black And there is no light. You would be blind. With no light and no colors, you would not be able to see the chair, the table or even the walls.

What if just the opposite happened. You are in a white room. Everything is white. The ceiling, the walls, the floor the table and chair are all pure white. And the light in the room is coming from all directions at once. In such a room, you would be equally blind. You would not be able to see the table or chair. You would not be able to judge the size of the room because you would not be able to see the walls or ceiling.

In order for you to see, you have to have contrast. You have to have light and shadows. If the light is coming from one side of the room, the shadows on the back edges of the table and chair will allow you to see them.

The same is true with God. God, if he exist, fills the universe evenly. We cannot know him directly because we can only see when there are shadows. That includes spiritual energy just as much as the energy that produces light. So the only way we can know God is to see the shadows caused where his being is denied.

I know of only one place where God can be denied, and that is in the human soul. We can deny God. We can block him out. And when we do, we create the shadows that allow him to be seen.

Now, darkness is the absence of light. Cold is the absence of heat. Evil is the absence of good. God is good and where He is, evil cannot exist. So it is not God who permits evil things to happen. We do that when we deny his presence.

Let us be clear about that. When people do evil, especially when they do evil in the name of God, it happens because the purveyors of evil have blocked God out of their souls. They choose to turn to the Dark Side and the ruler of the dark takes over their souls.

Evil exist because we allow it. Satan lives because we give him empty souls to occupy. So when evil happens, don’t blame God. He allows shadows so we can know him. When we allow the shadow to rule our lives, then Satan and the world of evil arises.

Jesus said: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” IF we all follow that simple rule, evil will have no room to attack.

Someone say AMEN!