|
I am going to begin this message by stating that "Spirit
Must Be Free" as Liberty is the Nature Of God. God
must express through each of us with Liberty and Freedom otherwise our
consciousness contains fear, uncertainty and doubt which manifests as
depression and low self-esteem. We cannot repress that which
Spirit desires to express through us and as us and live fully.
Spirit expresses in and through All Of Life as joy, peace, love,
harmony, strength and light and we are to express all of these qualities
freely.
The ancients who
lived in the Old Testament had to change because the world that they
lived in did not support freedom and liberty. Their world
supported violence, obedience to the authority of man and a set of rules
to live by that would make even the most uncivilized person and even
fundamentalist Christians cringe. Fathers sold their daughters
like cattle. Brothers had to have sex with their dead brother's
widows in order to enlarge the tribes. People slaughtered animals
to appease a far-off-in-the-sky god that created more fear in the minds
of people than love. The beliefs and concepts of Life and God were
primitive to say the least. Religious practices were akin to
voodoo rather than worship. The Old Testament is a journal of the
"evolvement" of man/woman and their understanding of their
relationship with God.
The Master Teacher Jesus spent His
entire ministry teaching that the Law was fulfilled through Love.
"Love God and Love Your Neighbor As Yourself," He
stated were the fulfillment. As long as we adhered to this
statement which later was referred to as the Golden Rule ... we would
not be breaking any of the 10 Commandments given to us by Moses in the
Old Testament. Even in the Old Testament we can find references to
the "evolution" of this teaching. In the Book of Isaiah
we can read, "I have loved you with an everlasting Love."
Now this Is the Image Of God that we are All created in ... the image of
Love .. everlasting Love.
In Religious
Science we teach and practice "God Is All and God Is Love."
It is very simple. When we "miss the mark" (sin) is when
we express that which is not of God ... that which is not Love.
Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and
Pope John Paul II are three of the most influential religious leaders of
our time ... and the most political religious leaders of our time.
All three of these men call themselves Christian and profess that Jesus
is their Savior and the Son Of God ... but they don't practice the
teachings of Jesus to any great extent ... because they allow politics
to get in their way.
I believe that Pope
John Paul II has every right and responsibility to teach to Catholics
what he believes to be the Truth ... what he believes will bring them
closer to God ... but I do not share his beliefs and therefore I am not
Catholic ... and since I am not Catholic ... I don't appreciate Pope
John Paul II trying to politicize his beliefs and concepts of Life into
the laws that govern my Life or the lives of other non-Catholics.
I can say the same for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ... they can
preach their beliefs to whoever will listen to them and support them ...
but I don't ... and I do not want their Religions impinging on my rights
to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit Of Happiness ... and to go even further
... most of what they have to say comes from a consciousness that has
absolutely no understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus
would kick them out of the temple ... in a matter of seconds!
Their selfish, political goals have hurt and diminished the lives of
many more people than they can imagine. Both Jerry Falwell and Pat
Robertson have made statements that should create disdain ... but their
sheep know their voice ... why? ... because they speak to the
fearful, doubtful person who is still living under the Old Testament ...
those who have not taken the time to get to understand the teachings of
the man they call their Savior ... a teaching that tells them that
Love is the fulfillment of the Law ... instead they have allowed Falwell
and Robertson to manipulate them with their heresy ... "I have
loved you with an everlasting Love" ... to teach that this is not
true is blasphemous ... there is no God that would create a Hell and a
Heaven both ... the idea is childish and primitive ... more like voodoo
than religious ... and the concept denies the teachings of Jesus.
There is only One Mind, that Mind Is God, that Mind is ours to the
measure of our willingness to align our thought, our ideas and our
beliefs with Good. Marriage is a Divine Idea ... it is a
commitment to share, to care and to grow together ... Marriage is of the
Nature Of God ... its foundation is Love ... our legal system here in
the United States and in most countries of the world, protects the
concept of marriage by allowing husbands and wives to inherit their
community property ... property that they have accumulated together ...
it allows husbands and wives to be with each other in intensive care
rooms of hospitals where they may talk and see the person they love for
the last time while they are conscious to this life ... to deny this
Divine Idea to anyone is to deny them God ... Jerry, Pat and the Pope
have a marriage in mind ... they are married to the god of the Old
Testament ... lacking in understanding of the teachings of Jesus and the
evolution of man's/woman's relationship with God ... and are attempting
to deny us all the evolvement taking place in the Now Testament ... but
Spirit must Be Free ... and just like the dinosaurs ... Jerry, Pat and
the Pope's politics under the cover of religion ... will pass away.
And
So It Is!
Letting
Love Use Me In Its Own Good Way,
Henry
Lee Bates
|
