Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART X
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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We I started this blog over one year ago I was unemployed and looking for work; as time moved on I found employment in my field of expertise and began working rather full days about four months ago. Being committed to this idea of a daily blog, I found the time to continue my work on it,, sometimes starting it early in the morning and finishing it at times rather late at night. This is the way that things have been for me and I have rather grown acclimated to it working during the day because in today’s world there is little perceived alternative, and working on these essays in the evening. Today however is a new first as this is the first day of conceivably many that I am travelling for my employer and while this in and of itself is not noteworthy, it does cause some additional time pressures as regards my writing. As a result of this there may be a noticeable difference in the length of some essays as well as in the hour in which an essay may be published to the web but I do maintain my comminttement to this being the daily blog which it has been except for the two days we missed recently because of the sudden death of my grandson. This brings us to today; I am in Greenville SC and have been in meetings since early this morning after arriving rather late last night; wanting to start today’s essay then, I tried to get online through the hotel but was not successful. This morning I figured out the internet connection and set the page up and now here I am in the late afternoon writing these words while knowing that I must leave soon to go to a sponsored dinner and hoping for an early end so that I can finish writing later.
My purpose in telling you all this is twofold. First to let you know that there may be some change in the length and the timing of the daily posts and second to show just a bit of the ideas that the Master teaches us regarding the criteria of being His disciple as a practical approach to Life. ALL is, as we have long said, a matter of focus; focus on the things of the world and we remain grounded in those things and focus upon the things of God which brings us closer to the full realization of the Christ Within which is the Soul of man. It is unfortunate that as a people we are not living in the same type of world as did the Christ and His disciples over 2000 years ago; in that simpler time there was the ability of the man to live off the land and to survive in that way with little regard to what was happening around them and this is still likely possible in some places. Today, in the hustle and bustle of Life in the world where materialistic values have overcome the sense of having little regard, we find ourselves trapped. A place to live and food to eat are required by all and those who live contrary to this are considered vagrants or else they are seen as less than normal. This is not a good fate for the man who would focus on God as we should realize that to be so focused requires that a man serve and this is at best difficult if one is of those classes that are derided by others. At the same time as we say that this is unfortunate, we must also say that this is evolution and the change to this modern world is a beneficial part of what we might call the Plan of God. It presents mankind with new challenges and new ways of looking at the ideas of the Master regarding discipleship.
We could say that at the time that the Master was here that it was logical to expect that the disciple would forsake ALL to follow him and this because He was with us physically but this would not offer any the better understanding of discipleship as it should effect us here today. The Masters criteria is harsh as regards discipleship but this idea of harsh is only from the perspective of the man in form; this can be said as well about most other things that bring a man closer to God and further away from the ways of the world. This is the point that we should see and understand, that if we desire discipleship, we must move further away from the ways of the world. We will come back to this point in a bit but let us finish on the idea we started above regarding focus. In the hours that we spend reading and writing these essays and in the hours we spend thinking about what we have said and should say next, our focus is upon the things of God. In our desire to be read and our desire to teach and to reach others, the focus of our desires is on the things of God. This all takes up but a part of the day and in this we must see the ideas painted for us by the Master in His speaking on the choice of God and mammon and this is a dilemma that likely plagues many. How does one live in the world of things and at the same time not be serving mammon and what is the right interpretation of this idea of service?
We will try to intertwine these two ideas of God and mammon and of discipleship as the Master teaches us with out totally forgetting that we still have additional points on faith and believing to discuss in some detail and which we will leave at the bottom of this post as a placemarker. Let us begin here by citing again the Masters words on discipleship; He tells us:
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33).
In the allied saying from Matthew’s Gospel we read:
“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:37-39).
The Apostle John tells us this of the Masters words on disciplehsip:
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
“Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
We have here the essence of discipleship which is at first glance a very difficult task and this is as the Master tells us saying “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there bewhich go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”(Matthew 7:12-14) and in this we must see the idea that there are no shortcuts but that there is a narrow way that is difficult to find and this difficulty in found in our lives here in this world and in all those things that we do not want to leave behind or that we do not KNOW how to leave behind. In this modern world we may see that this is yet harder that it has ever been but this is likely not true as ALL is a matter of perspective and of realization. From the prespective of the man in form this is a difficult undertaking but when viewed from the vantage point of the Soul, ALL becomes easier as the things of the world lose their value. And this is our point, as we focus more and more upon the Soul and the Christ Within, the things of the world have less and less hold on us.
But how does this philosophy help us to understand the words of the Master on discipleship as we read them above? Simply in the doing would be the answer and in the consistency of doing which, to come full circle, is why I continue day after day to write these essays. And writing these is my perceived way but this is not the way for ALL; each of us can find some way to fulfill the charge of the Master in Love and in Service and in the consistency of so doing each will move closer and closer to the reality of discipleship.
As I said above I did have to stop writing and deal with my business relationships and I did get back rather late and, as I proceeded through the evening I wondered how I could find a way to not have to deal with these things of the world but I find no answer yet. We will continue on this line of thought in the next post.
I leave our other sayings on faith and believing for the next opportunity to get back to them.
- “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
- “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?…..For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him” (Matthew 21:25, 32).
- “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not…….” (Matthew 24:23-26).
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
We leave our quote of the day for another day as in it we find some of the realities of what is man as Spirit, Soul and the Life within the form. In this affirmation we find our understanding of our relationship to God and our relationship to man. Our relationship to God is as Part and Parcel of Him; our relationship to man is in service.
I am a point of light within a greater Light. I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine. I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God. And thus I stand I am a way by which men may achieve. I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand. I am a beam of light, shining upon their way. And thus I stand. And standing thus, revolve And tread this way the ways of men, And know the ways of God. And thus I stand.Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
Looking at Life as we depict it above in relation to this affirmation we can see the idea presented that we are a part of God and that this is true on multiple levels, the levels that we call the Trinity. Relating these first three lines to the chart above can offer some clarity as to the nature of God and of man. For more on the ideas in this Affirmation of the Disciple please refer to the Quote of the Day from In the Words of Jesus parts 179-181.
