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64 entries for this category:
 | Why did Jesus´ penalty for "sin" need to include physical and emotional pain - why not just spiritual separation from God? |
Metaphysically we do not view the crucifixion of Jesus as a tragedy but as a step toward a great victory. And Jesus assured us that the same victory illustrated in His story can be attained by us. During His crucifixion Jesus gave us seven statements. These statements are contained in scattered form among all four Gospels. I have listed these statements in the same order as used in the writings of Charles Fillmore, and also by Elizabeth Sand Turner in her book Your Hope of Glory. Each of the seven statements made by Jesus should be considered as a continuation of His teachings and like all His teachings, especially appropriate for us today. They are a unique form of highly condensed metaphysical teaching, almost a kind of verbal "shorthand." But for those "with eyes to see," they contain a significant spiritual meaning. The crucifixion itself symbolizes a process of crossing out, or eliminating that which is no longer needful for our continued unfoldment. What has fulfilled its purpose in us must be either lifted to a higher level of expression in consciousness, or let go of completely. Jesus' crucifixion illustrates both these meanings. The seven statements by Jesus from the cross verbalize seven great realizations of Truth which are necessary for our continued spiritual growth and unfoldment. (1) "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) Inner forgiveness is the mightiest of spiritual acts. Without it, nothing in the nature of real spiritual progress can be achieved. Jesus made this the first of His seven statements because of its primary importance. It is significant that He does not claim to be doing the forgiving. He acknowledges God as the only forgiving power. Human beings would be wise to do the same. We should try to realize that it really is not MY forgiveness, or YOUR forgiveness, but it is the forgiving love of God. It makes it much easier to forgive when we realize that it is not something personal which I must "cook up" for myself. All I do is consent. I consent to let the forgiving power of God simply be directed through me in behalf of others--others who need such forgiveness. "For they know not what they do." If people knew, REALLY KNEW what they were doing when doing something wrong, they simply would not go through with it. Behind all offenses there is a lack of understanding. Even a person who thinks he knows what he is doing when he harms another actually does not. (2).... today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) What is Paradise? Where is it? Jesus knew, and He told us about it many times in His teachings. Basically, Paradise is a name given to a here-and-now consciousness of oneness with God. Where is oneness with God? It is here. When is oneness with God? It is now. Jesus spoke these words to one of the thieves being crucified with Him. Charles Fillmore wrote that these two thieves symbolize past and future. Memories of the past can rob us. Anxiety about the future can rob us. But spiritual awareness (Jesus) never robs us, but rather gives us strength and protection. The thief to whom Jesus spoke represents the future. What does spiritual awareness in us (Jesus) say about our future? Does it tell us to fear it? Does it urge us to protect ourself from it? No. Spiritual awareness says to our future, "Today you will be with me in Paradise. " In other words, spiritual awareness says we can bring our concern for our future into our here-and-now consciousness of oneness with God. We need not project ourself into the future, but rather bring all thoughts about the future into "Paradise." Paradise is our oneness with God, and it is here, it is now, it is forever. (3) "Woman, behold your son! ... Behold, your mother!" (John 19: 26, 27) These words were spoken to Mary and, according to tradition, to the disciple John. Literally, Mary and John were not mother and son. But Jesus was speaking from a level of the highest understanding concerning the Truth of human relationships. One of the greatest realizations that can come to a person is the realization of his true relationship to every other human being in the human family. Whatever biological ties may exist, the metaphysical ties are stronger and more important. In Spirit we are each others' mother, brother, and sister. To realize this and to accept this will guarantee great steps forward in spiritual unfoldment. (4) "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) Jesus is here once again teaching by making of Himself an example. Notice, this statement is a question. Jesus was probably not asking that question for His own sake, because He knew the Truth that was the real answer. But He spoke the question to show us what is often in our own hearts as we seek to follow Him. The question states a wondering in us as to why we are feeling separated from God. Even when we know better, the feeling may creep over us before we are even fully aware of it. We wonder why we once again feel that God has forsaken us. We ask why. There is nothing very abnormal about this. It happens to the best of persons.
(5) "I thirst." (john 19:28) This is an affirmation of a need. It is an asking. The statement was immediately followed by the meeting of that need. Jesus was given a sponge soaked with a mixture of vinegar and gall or myrrh, a soothing drink. Jesus had previously taught, " ... ask, and you will receive." (John 16:24) Here He gives us an example of practicing what He preached. There are times when a person finds himself in a situation where things look hopeless. During such times he will feel an overpowering "thirsting after righteousness." What should he then do? Jesus said, " ... ask, and you will receive." "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." (Matt. 5:6) With God, no situation is hopeless, for God is mightier than circumstances. Jesus is the sublime example. He affirms (asks) "I thirst," and He receives His drink. (6) "It is finished." (John 19:30) Everything that happens in a person's life is part of a cycle of learning, growing, and unfolding. Each event, each experience, each relationship, each victory, each defeat--all are factors in a great over-all pattern of evolution. One of the most difficult lessons many persons have to learn is to recognize when something has fulfilled its role in our life and is now to be seen as "finished business." Some persons never seem to learn to recognize that some things are finished. This pertains to other persons, possessions, jobs, pleasures, etc. But it especially pertains to cycles of experience in our learning process in life. If we have to go through certain difficult or painful experiences, we should try to learn the lessons they contain as quickly as possible. When we feel we have seen the lesson, then it is wise to say as Jesus said, "It is finished." Hold no grudges, nurse no hurt feelings, carry no unhappy memories. If it is finished, let it go. It has done its work. Greater good is now in store, and we let the past bury the past. It is finished. (7) "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46) In the beginning--God. In every ending--God. God is our all in all. Jesus had gone through a complete cycle in which He had accomplished exactly what He had come here to do. He had brought that cycle to a climax in the symbolism of the drama of the crucifixion. The words He chooses to verbalize that climax are in the statement which is the apotheosis: "Father, into thy hand I commit my spirit. " People often wonder, "What is going to happen to me next?" If we will follow the example of Jesus we can know that we can safely place ourselves, our lives, our bodies, our future in God's hands. We are not taking any risks when we do this. God is completely dependable, because God cannot be changed. When Jesus gives us His example of commending His whole spirit into God's hands He is once again demonstrating His own teachings. God is the answer to everything. God is the meaning behind everything. God is the only "fate" in store for His children. And God is absolute good.
 By: LEE AVANT
Category: Timeline & Words - Final Hours of Execution |
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| "Was Jesus trying to incite his death (eg. temple cleansing, accusation of leaders?) |
JESUS SAW in Himself the perfect pattern of the God-Mind. He lived so close to that pattern that He became its perfect expression. As He continued to live closer and ever closer to God He beheld all men as living inventions of God, and through His spiritualized mentality awakened the image of the perfect pattern of the God-Mind in those who came to Him for help. Thus by arousing their souls' energy to such an extent that the physical became immersed in the healing life He enabled the perfect man to come into manifestation. For example, when Jesus said in a loud voice to the spiritual man in the sleeping Lazarus who had been in the tomb four days, "Lazarus, come forth," the power of the Word in His voice aroused the spiritual man in Lazarus, who in turn awakened his soul to activity. Then the soul life in Lazarus resurrected and restored the seeming dead body, and Lazarus arose and walked out of the tomb. The more enlightened man becomes the greater is his desire for perfect health. This is logical, for to be healthy is natural. It is a state of being sound or whole in mind, body, and soul. To heal then is to bring forth the perfect Christ man that exists within each of us. There is quite a bit of misunderstanding on the part of both Christians and non-Christians with regard to the meaning of the words Christ and Jesus, and their use as applied to Jesus of Nazareth. Christ, meaning "messiah" or "anointed," designates one who had received a spiritual quickening from God, while Jesus is the name of the personality. To the metaphysical Christian--that is, to him who studies the spiritual man--Christ is the name of the supermind and Jesus is the name of the personal consciousness. The spiritual man is God's Son; the personal man is man's son. In the unregenerate God's Son is a mere potentiality. But in those who have begun the regenerative process Jesus, the Son of man, is in a state of becoming the Son of God; that is, man is being born again. At the time Jesus told Nicodemus, "Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God," He Himself was undergoing that mysterious unfoldment of the soul called the "new birth." He promised great power to those who followed Him in soul development. "Ye who have followed me, in the regeneration . . . shall sit upon twelve thrones." The Christ or Son-of-God evolution of man's soul is plainly taught in the New Testament as the supreme attainment of every man. "For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God." Without some evidence in us of the Christ man we are little better than animals. When through faith in the reality of things spiritual we begin soul evolution there is great rejoicing; "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Christ existed long before Jesus. It was the Christ Mind in Jesus that exclaimed, "And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." We should clearly understand that the Christ, the spiritual man, spoke often through Jesus, the natural man; and then again the natural man, Jesus, spoke on His own account. Spiritual understanding reveals to us when it was that Christ spoke and when it was that Jesus spoke. We know that Christ, the spiritual man, could not have experienced death, burial, and resurrection. The experiences were possible only to the mortal man, who was passing from the natural to the spiritual plane of consciousness. The Christ was present with Jesus, quickening and healing His body and finally raising it to the ethereal realm, where He exists to this day. By: LEE AVANT
Category: Timeline - Final 1 Week |
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| "Which of these purposes do you believe Jesus accomplished?" |
God is love. We cannot see love or grasp any comprehension of what love is, except as love is clothed with a form. All the love in the universe is God. The love between husband and wife, between parents and children, is just the least little bit of God, as pushed forth in visible form into manifestation. A mother's love, so infinitely tender, so unfailing, is God's love, only manifested in greater degree by the mother. God is wisdom and intelligence. All the wisdom and intelligence that we see in the universe is God, is wisdom projected through a visible form. To educate (from educare, to lead forth) never means to force into from the outside, but always means to draw out from within something already existing there. God as infinite wisdom lies within every human being, only waiting to be led forth into manifestation. This is true education. Heretofore we have sought knowledge and help from outside sources, not knowing that the source of all knowledge, the very Spirit of truth, is lying latent within each one of us, waiting to be called on to teach us the truth about all things--most marvelous of teachers, and everywhere present, without money or price! God is power. Not simply God has power, but God is power. In other words, all the power there is to do anything is God. God, the source of our existence every moment, is not simply omnipotent (all-powerful); He is omnipotence (all power). He is not alone omniscient (all-knowing); He is omni-science (all knowledge). He is not only omni-present, but more--omnipresence. God is not a being having qualities, but He is the good itself. Everything that you can think of that is good, when in its absolute perfection, goes to make up that invisible Being we call God. God, then, is the substance (from sub, under, and stare, to stand), or the real thing standing under every visible form of life, love, intelligence, or power. Each rock, tree, animal, every visible thing, is a manifestation of the one Spirit--God--differing only in degree of manifestation; and each of the numberless modes of manifestation or individualities, however insignificant, contains the whole. One drop of water taken from the ocean is just as perfect ocean water as the whole great body. The constituent elements of water are exactly the same, and they are combined in precisely the same ratio or perfect relation to each other, whether we consider one drop, a pailful, a barrelful, or the entire ocean out of which the lesser quantities are taken; each is complete in itself; they differ only in quantity or degree. Each contains the whole; and yet no one would make the mistake of supposing from this statement that each drop is the entire ocean. So we say that each individual manifestation of God contains the whole; not for a moment meaning that each individual is God in His entirety, so to speak, but that each is God come forth, shall I say? in different quantity or degree. By: LEE AVANT
Category: Statements of Purpose |
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| How does Jesus link intimacy to him with obedience to him?" a "New" commandment? |
When Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, He said to her, "God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24 A.V. reads, "God is a Spirit," but the marginal note is, "God is Spirit," and some other versions render this passage, "God is Spirit.") To say "a Spirit" would be to imply the existence of more than one Spirit. Jesus, in His statement, did not imply this. Webster in his definition of Spirit says: "In the abstract, life or consciousness viewed as an independent type of existence. One manifestation of the divine nature; the Holy Spirit." God, then, is not, as many of us have been taught to believe, a big personage or man residing somewhere in a beautiful region in the sky, called "heaven," where good people go when they die, and see Him clothed in ineffable glory; nor is He a stern, angry judge only awaiting opportunity somewhere to punish bad people who have failed to live a perfect life here. God is Spirit, or the creative energy that is the cause of all visible things. God as Spirit is the invisible life and intelligence underlying all physical things. There could be no body, or visible part, to anything unless there was first Spirit as creative cause. God is not a being or person having life, intelligence, love, power. God is that invisible, intangible, but very real, something we call life. God is perfect love and infinite power. God is the total of these, the total of all good, whether manifested or unexpressed. There is but one God in the universe, but one source of all the different forms of life or intelligence that we see, whether they be men, animals, trees, or rocks. God is Spirit. We cannot see Spirit with these fleshly eyes; but when we clothe ourselves with the spiritual body, then Spirit is visible or manifest and we recognize it. You do not see the living, thinking "me" when you look at my body. You see only the form which I am manifestingBy: LEE AVANT
Category: Invite Me to be Close to You |
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| Why does Jesus call "Love One Another" a "New" commandment? |
Jesus weeping over Jerusalem is the picture of a great love welling up in the heart and flowing out to all the earth--the love of the good Father for His erring and willful children. Such is the love of Christ for His own; such is the love of God through Christ for all creation. We may talk about the wisdom of God, but the love of God must be felt in the heart. It cannot be described, and one who has not felt it can have no concept of it from the descriptions of others. But the more we talk about love, the stronger it grows in the consciousness, and if we persist in thinking loving thoughts and speaking loving words, we are sure to bring into our experience the feeling of that great love that is beyond description--the very love of God. It is popularly taught and believed that there is but one love; that God is love and that all love is from Him, hence that all love is God's love. Love is a divine principle and man can know it in its purity by touching it at its fountainhead. There it is not tinged in any way by man's formative thought, but flows forth a pure, pellucid stream of infinite ecstasy. It has no consciousness of good or evil, pure or impure, but pours itself out in great oceans of living magnetic power, to be used by whosoever will. By: LEE AVANT
Category: Love One Another |
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