The beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil (Part 4)

What if someone called you an idiot for believing in the existence of the sun?

Would this person be worth arguing with? Or would you assume his insanity?

You may not be able to scientifically argue about the sun. But you've experienced it.

No one can convince you against it.

Once a man said to me, "Demons are figments of human imagination and invention."

I knew as well as I know the sun that he had no idea what he was talking about.

Why?

Not just because the Bible makes it crystal clear that demons exist, but I've personally experienced them. I've experienced crazy people. And I've experienced demon possessed people. I know the difference, and so would you, if you don't already know.

Or take my 7 beautiful children. Which 5 of them shouldn't exist to satisfy the foolish American standard of 2 children being the acceptable number of children? Any sane person who even sees a picture of my children would know without doubt that they are divine, and that the world is a better place because they are here.  In other words, anyone who has a problem with how many children I have confirms her insanity, at best, or evilness, at worst.  After all, he is really suggesting that some of my children should not have been born, or should have been killed in my wife's womb.  What is the alternative to their “objection” of a certain acceptable number of children?

If a good person is ashamed or embarrassed or afraid, he or she lacks some real experience of the reality and goodness of God.

Anyone who experiences God as He is will be bold beyond belief.
How can he not be?
She has seen the face of God! 

To see God is to see beauty and reality and glory beyond anybody’s foolish notions.  There is no comparison. 

If we only keep this in mind, before our minds, we would see that good is beauty, and evil is ugly.

 

The beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The Apostle Paul

This is a command.  Don’t do this.  Do this.

Don’t be overcome.  Overcome.

Win.

Triumph.

Conquer.

Refuse to let evil defeat you.  Instead defeat evil.

How?

With good.

Good overcomes evil.

Good is better than evil.

More beautiful, desirable, powerful, reasonable.

Light exposes what’s hidden in the dark, eradicating darkness by simply being itself.

The same is true of good and evil. 

Take a Christ-like husband as an example.

A Christ-like husband is more attractive, beautiful, and powerful than an adulterer. 

He loves truly and permanently.  He becomes more like God everyday.  God is The Eternal Beautiful Powerful Desirable.  He cannot be boring because He is Eternal Life.  Every husband that imitates God will become more attractive everyday to his Christ-like wife.  Physically, he will please his wife because he loves her and has given himself to her alone.  He will please her mind because he becomes more interesting as the years pass, becoming more like God, and thus becoming new with each stage of life.  Spiritually his presence becomes more powerful with age.  He becomes more secure in his identity and destiny.

But the adulterer is the opposite of everything the Christ-like husband is.  He only loves himself and uses the adulteress for his own pleasure.  He is neither committed to God nor his wife.  He hides in hotels and in secret times and places.  He hides because he should.  He is ashamed of his dishonesty, and he should be.  He has no beauty or glory, because he rejects God's glory.  He refuses to be what God made him to be.

So everything that is truly attractive or desirable is made by God, and is as God made it to be.   

Evil is only a hidden perversion of something good.   

Satan seeks to make evil attractive, and himself attractive as the evil one.  But the mere presence of good exposes this lie.   

Good, by simply being itself, exposes and eradicates evil.

Clicke here for part 2....

Constant conversation connection

"Abide in me and I in you."  The Lord Jesus Christ

"Pray without ceasing."  The Apostle Paul

The cell phones that are ear pieces give me a good picture of abiding in Christ, or prayer without ceasing.  Two are always connected, always having access to each other.  They have this security.  As soon as they think of something, they are just a call away.  Others watch one of them talking, and it looks like he or she is talking to him/herself…until the ear piece is seen. 

I also remember a “super nanny” episode where the super nanny talked to the struggling mother through an ear piece.  In each situation, the nanny told the mother exactly what to do and say.  She simply listened and obeyed.  This gave me a clear picture of following the Spirit, as well as spiritual maturity.  It’s like the nanny became the mother’s new way of thinking, until she no longer needed the nanny’s instructions.

Abiding in Christ, and praying without ceasing, means constant connection conversation with God.

It also means constant direction from God’s Spirit.

I like talking to and listening to God all the time.

I like talking to my wife all day, throughout the day.

We have a constant conversation connection assumption.

This is life in the Spirit. 

This is intimacy with God and people, in heaven and on earth.

What God feels like to me (Part 3)

“No one knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person.  In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”  The Apostle Paul

How? How!!??  How???!!!

What do I mean by reaching out to God with my will and mind and intention and attention?

Here are some clues.

Listen to The Silence behind silence, when it is completely quiet.  Focus on it.

Feel The Stillness behind stillness when you are resting.  Focus on this.

Silence and stillness.  Like I said before, you can feel this even when a lot of people are around. 

Or pray.  Honestly pray.  Feel the attention of God listening to you pray. 

Feel the accompanying feeling of the One who you secretly knew; the One who was, and is, always with you.

The One you sometimes, or even often, try to avoid; to drown out with noise or activity.

When you go for a walk, or ride your bike, or drive your car, feel the insights that come to your mind while you think through a problem you feel you cannot solve. 

Even better.

Think about your mind, the fact that you are thinking right now.  Focus on the “you” behind your thinking, your awareness of your own thinking.  That awareness is your spirit, like it says in the opening verse.  Focus on The Awareness behind your own awareness, or The Awareness that is behind everything.  Like silence.  Like stillness. Like mind. 

That is God.

That is how God feels.

The feeling you feel ALL THE TIME, but sometimes ignore.

When He speaks, the tone of His voice sounds like the tone of your mind’s voice, but sharper.  Somewhat electric sometimes, when you understand something you couldn’t figure out.  The feeling of epiphany while you are thinking.  Sometimes this feels like honey slowly falling on your brain, and the revelation somewhat oozes into your consciousness. 

This too is God.

But we often take credit for revelations like this, forgetting that an hour earlier we had no clue what the solution to the problem was. 

He is not far from us.

If we would only reach out for Him, we would not only find Him, but we’d realize He’s really been there all of our lives, from our first consciousness of consciousness. 

What God feels like to me (Part 2)

“God is Spirit.  Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  The Lord Jesus Christ

But can you feel Him with me and in me? 

If my wife was with me you’d see her, hear her speak, and feel her presence.  It’s the same with God.  But if you chose to ignore my wife and tried to focus just on me, you could, at least for a moment.  When I realized you were ignoring my wife, you’d have to ignore me--because you can’t have me without her.

It’s the same with God and his children.

Those who are one with God will not be separated from Him.  You know them with Him, or not at all. 

Our attention determines whether we experience God or not.

He is in the room with you right now.  He always has been. 

The beginning of the experience of God is to simply acknowledge that truth. 

If you believe in Him, you must believe He is everywhere, which includes where you are right now.

After acknowledging Him with you, focus your attention on the invisible, intangible, inaudible--the very real person that God is. 

Reach out for Him with your will or attention. 

The Scripture says that God put us where we are in history and geography to grope for Him, reach out for him, and indeed find him, though He is not far from each of us. 

Click here for part 3….

What God feels like to me (Part 1)

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God.  The world is crowded with Him.  He walks everywhere incognito.  And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate.  The real labor is to remember, to attend.  In fact, to come awake.  Still more to remain awake.” 
C.S. Lewis

I feel God listening behind silence and stillness.  I feel Him in me and outside of me. 

What does God feel like? 

He feels like eyes and ears and hands, but more so the deep reality behind these. 

I feel truly seen and heard and touched, or connected to.  All the time.  No matter where I am.  No matter how I feel.  I can feel these things if I choose, or ignore them.  Both are equally easy.

I feel God in the room when the room is filled with people and when the room is empty.  I can hear God’s voice when it is loud or quiet. 

How?

The same way I can hear my thoughts no matter what is going on around me.  But there is a Mind behind my mind.  This is the Mind of God.  There is a Peace behind my emotions, whether I am peaceful or not.  This is the Emotion of God.  There is a Will behind my will.  Moving yet Immovable.  This is the Will of God.

This is what God feels like to me. 

Click here for part 2…

Being needed (Part 2)

"It embittered me that the Fox should even desire to leave me.  He had been the central pillar of my whole life, something (I thought) as sure and established, and indeed as little thanked, as sunrise and the mere earth.  In my folly I had thought I was to him as he was to me.  'Fool,' I said to myself. 'Have you not learned that you are that to no one?'" 
Orual, from "Till We Have Faces."

I understand Orual’s feelings because I’ve felt the same way.  I wanted to know if I’m mutually needed by the people I love.  Orual loved three people desperately, but these three people seemed ok without her.

Bardia had his wife to go home to.

Lysias had his freedom in Greece.

Psyche had a god she worshipped.

But who wanted to come home to Orual?

Who felt free with Orual alone?

Who loved and worshipped her? Who couldn’t live without her?

Who loved Orual desperately?

No one.

No one seemed to need Orual. 

I know how she feels.

But praise God, I do have people who need me!

My wife.  My children.  My supervisors.

I make a very real difference in their lives, as much as they do for me.

I thank God for giving me the honor of being needed.

I thank him for “needing” me in the sense that he has left certain things up to me.

If I don’t love Lucy as her husband, she has no other husband to love her.

If I don’t provide for and protect my children, they have no other father on earth.

If I don’t come to work, my supervisor must replace me.

My presence and absence make a difference

There are people and things that depend on me alone.

Even God’s image in me is up to me to express.  If I don’t express God in the way God made me to, no one in the universe can or will.  I am the only me for all eternity, in heaven, on earth, in hell, and in all of creation.  I am a unique and single divine reflection. 

I thank God for this honor very much. 

I occupy this space and time.  This will always be the case. 

The one and only husband and father and officer. 

The one and only man that I am.

Wherever I am, I reflect God in a way that no one else can. 

And how is that?

Me!

Just by being here, being me.  Doing what I do and saying what I say how I say it!

Hallelujah!

I am a man, the image and likeness and glory of God.

As long as I don’t contradict this, God is present and reflected wherever I am. 

This is true of you.

Be happy with me that you are needed!