Some thoughts have occupied my mind during the day.
My retired Pastor friend’s words I copied to the end of the 27th entry is one. The contemplation has been between how I have attempted to ensure I used open concepts and words so alienation doesn’t take place, and my friend using ‘Lord’.
My thinking, to now, has been to use ‘I AM’ for God and ‘Yeshua’ for Jesus, so the names become ‘open’ and don’t bring out preconceived notions; so an open mind can be had to have a new experience. But I suspect I have been both too clever (meaning a smart ass, not intelligent) and disrespectful to, well, God!
I try and work through as many of my thoughts, contemplations and considerations over spiritual and temporal issues myself. I attempt not to refer to the ‘theological opinions’ of others. In the past, I did look and became bogged down by highfalutin words, arguments and hot air from those of a grandiose disposition. So here, you get ‘me’, well most of the time because I do have guides and mentors (written and verbal) that I respect because of the simple truths which are spoken, and can be felt in the heart.
That now said, my opinion is partisan ‘religion’ is not what God intended. There’s a little saying I remember which goes ‘There is only one God – and it isn’t me!’ What your conception of the one God is, is yours, and look to God; not at the fingers pointing the way (religions)!
But what am I now going to use in this Latin script as a name for God? I went to my Bible for ‘I AM’ and ‘Yeshua’ so I went back there again, keeping my Pastor friend’s word in mind. I settled upon John 13:13 (NASB):-
You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’; and you are correct, for so I am.
However, in the King James Bible it is:-
Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
God, Master, Lord, Holy Spirit.
Jesus was born into the world; not of it. (A good sentence for consideration.)
I have three separate Powers, but yet only one Power. It is a Trinity beyond my comprehension. God, who took on human form as Lord Jesus, and this/their Power in the form of the Holy Spirit. (Another consideration – if God and Jesus are one and the same, when Jesus died for three days did God also die for three days? My answer is ‘no’ because the consideration is in terms of what the human mind perceives, and God is WAY beyond that! Anyway, just a thought.)
Decision? From now on it will be God, Lord and where necessary, Holy Spirit. And if minds snap shut at their use, then tough.
Another contemplation has been the first of the ‘The Beatitudes’, Matthew 5:3 (NASB. Heck knows why, it’s just been there!
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
My experience of me is I can read but not see, and I can read but not feel.
In this case, for the first time, I saw and felt the depth of meaning of ‘poor in spirit’. The destruction of self (centredness); humility (the absence of self – not the belittling of self). After the past few days and events in my life, there is the realisation I am nothing without God.
And the last thing to occupy my thoughts – John 16 v31 (NASB)
Jesus replied to them, “Do you now believe?“
The disciples had got all fired up like at a Trump rally and shouted ‘Now we believe.’ But the Lord asks, ‘DO YOU now believe?’ Like the Lord knows something (which He does) and they don’t.
So I looked at myself, DO I now believe? (In God; The Lord; The Holy Spirit) or am I just playing at it? I have found if I rely on self, me, I produce what the Bible terms ‘tribulations’ or I just term it cock-ups and chaos. Or, put another way, I have to ensure I can bring to mind with sufficient consciousness my faith in God. Everything I do must spring from the habit of referring everything back to my Lord and Master. He is the Father, I am His child and must evidence childlike faith. Am I walking the walk, or only talking the talk?
My parental upbringing seems to have instilled in me a desire to do the right thing and be seen to do the right thing. Try at all costs to avoid making errors of judgement that can lead to physical, emotional and social problems. And this makes it all the harder to let go and let God.
If you just listen to God and go and do what He says, you could easily be ridiculed.
But I’m going to choose now to Listen…. and Go and to heck with the ridicule.
Blessings
p.s. At this moment, 20:26 on the 28th, I listen and hear I’m being told to shut up for a while.
Mountains of my Mind 