LIFE AND SELF

we spend our lives sliding with alacrity down the attractive slippery slope of
what turns out to be a whitewater experience that could be one, some or all of pelf, pleasure, possession, position, power… while avoiding or pushing away like jutting boulders and crags aches, complications, obligations, pains, responsibilities and troubles…

instead of living, moving and having our being in the One-Source-Of-All where all we need to be content, fulfilled, happy and peaceful are already present…set on a table… awaiting our savouring…in gratitude and oneness with the Father, in, with and through Jesus, the Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit…

we live in the prison of self which is the “i” deludedly believing in the illusion of the ego – edging god out – that it is separate from and even a counterpoint to the Most High; identifying itself with incompleteness and inadequacy, this “i” engages in unending “sisyphusian” efforts at self-improvement, not realizing that every added “strength”, “capability”, “knowledge”, “flexibility” and other “desired attribute or possession” brings with it its own seeds of frustration and despair…

the Light of God reveals that the prison of self does not really exist but is merely the strongly-held illusion of the deluded “i” which also does not really exist in Self;

we free ourselves from this delusion-illusion by being aware that we are part of and one with Self, by having a personal connection to and relationship with the Almighty, and by living in faith not by sight: that He created us in His own image – good, perfect, whole; that we have been redeemed despite our sinfulness, mercy abounds for us and all we need do is accept Jesus and His sacrifice as our salvation while repenting of our sins; and that when Jesus is alive in us, we live, move, walk in the charmed circle of His infinite Love, where all things we need are already present and where we grow in the guidance of the Holy Spirit…

DO YOU KNOW?

DO YOU KNOW?

My Friend,

Do you know that each one of us is:
a beam of God’s awesome Light that shines on
and reaches beyond All Universes?
a drop of God’s all-encompassing, unfathomable
and never-ending Ocean of Love?
a grain of God’s infinite, ever-shifting yet
ever-consistent Sands of Time?
a creative word of God’s unlimited and eternal
Word – the Alpha and the Omega?

Do you know that because we are sparks of His Divinity
God cannot help but love us even unto death?
And that is why despite our sinfulness – blinded as we are
by pride, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy and wrath -
He still loved us so much that He gave His only begotten
Son to become both sacrificial lamb and escape goat;
to be the final sacrifice according to the laws given
through Moses so that God’s covenant with Abraham
got sealed with the blood of the Christ and its blessings
got delivered once and for all time – consummatum est?

Do you know that the blessings in the Abrahamic covenant
are eternal salvation, health, prosperity and well-being of
family and they are ours by grafting in, with and through Jesus?

Do you know that through Jesus, in faith and by free choice,
accepting, receiving and declaring Him as our Lord and Savior:
we, too, are gods, sons or daughters of God and co-heirs of Jesus?

Do you know that by choosing Life in, with and through Jesus, the Lord,
we in effect change our default destination from hell to heaven?

Because when we accept Him in the name of The Father, The Son and
The Holy Spirit, we die with Jesus to our carnal nature and we resurrect
with Him in the Spirit who empowers and enables us to live and obey
the law of Love?

Do you know that indeed without faith we
cannot have any salvation and redemption?

But that even with faith that gets us invited to the Lord’s
wedding feast, we could still be thrown out for not having the
right garment of righteousness and obedience to the Father?
Also, that even with faith that showers down talents
the Lord expects us to invest His Word and gifts
otherwise we will be adjudged wicked and lazy?
And that with faith receiving the seeds of His Word,
we are expected to be good soil bearing much fruit
and not be distracted by affliction or persecution,
by worldly worry or the deceitfulness of wealth?

Do you know that all we ever need are already done –
His Mercy, His Forgiveness, His Healing, His Abundance,
His Joy, His Peace - have all been prepared for us by Christ
and set as a table before us in the presence of our enemies
and that unbelief bars us from them?

Do you remember Jesus said: ask and you shall receive,
seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you?
Shall we not then ask His help with our unbelief, so that when
we pray we can believe we already have what we pray for?
Shall we not seek the Holy Spirit’s help Who groans in prayer
for us because we do not know how to pray to the Father?
Shall we not knock on the Holy Spirit’s heart Who readily
aids us with knowledge, understanding, wisdom, discernment?

Do you recall Jesus saying that His true followers are those who
hear his words and obey them, and that His true kin are those
who do the will of the Father? Shouldn’t we hear, obey and do?

Do you know that, for Love, Jesus was sent as The Atonement so that
we can be At-One-Ment with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?

Shall we not then ponder on and appreciate these, my friend?
And thus dwell in the Shelter of the Most High and abide in His Shadow?
And, knowing the Almighty respects our free will, choose wisely?

Edwin D. Bael
ambachrist@gmail.com