Dear Friend, I'm Born Again...

Dear Friend,

You have been on my mind so much and the reason why might surprise you; it is because of a conversation we had quite a long time ago. I’d like to share with you my experience and the part you play in it. I can’t remember when we talked, but I remember chatting with you on the phone and for some reason we were talking about the church and some thoughts on Christianity. Within the course of our conversation you mentioned that, at that time, you didn’t really believe that people had to be born again. At the time I offered no opinion due to my embarrassment of being naïve in my faith; however in my spirit I thought the contrary.

This brings us to today. I have driven highway 231 in Alabama many times over the last two months and I have to pass a big white sign with bold black letters that reads, “Ye Must Be Born Again” (John 3:1-7). I have two thoughts every time I see that sign, the first of which is you. I wished I had been strong enough in my understanding to speak to you intelligently on the topic that day on the phone. I feel a tinge of regret whenever it comes to mind so you can understand that this letter is written as much for me as to you. Obviously you know the story of our lives as children; it was an unpleasant and confusing environment. That experience mixed with the other experiences out in the world has a large bearing on our development into the adults that we are today. And we have spoken about the many attempts to learn methods and coping skills to improve the quality of our lives. In that never ending quest to heal old wounds and prevent new ones, my journey lead me away from Christianity and then back to it. It was a circuitous and scenic trip that led me to meet a person who prayed with me. With his guidance I was able to accept that God knows me just as I am and still loves me and forgives me for my thoughts, my lifestyle, my transgressions, my mistakes, my sins. I admitted to myself what I had always known, that Jesus is the son of God and loves me and wants to carry my burdens but it is up to me to learn how to give my cares to him. Yes, I was saved; I was reborn with a newness in my heart. I was born again. It was like the heavy weights of the world had been lifted off of my shoulders and I knew things would be different and my life was going to be better; and it is.

The second thought that I have when I pass that sign is a reminder to me that being saved is not the final destination but just the beginning of life’s journey. Being born again takes us back to being a baby spirit with unlimited possibilities and potential. It is nothing more than renewing our mind to tune into our heart and spirit; to connect with God on a new level. This rebirth is a fresh start to become the person God intended me to be; to be myself. I think it is a misconception that we are saved and the world then conforms to our perfect place. The world does not and never will change; instead, we change. We are motivated by and look out at the world through our eyes of love instead of fear. Fear traps us in our own minds and continually feeds us the lies we want to believe. Love releases us to see through our hearts, to forgive, leave the baggage behind and keep moving higher. As we grow into more mature spirits we should be getting wiser and applying our knowledge to life. The world will continue to present challenges but the lessons that Jesus taught now have new meaning and in our Spirit we are developed, balanced and well adjusted to overcome each challenge. The result is, when the world is chaotic we are calm; when the world is in disarray we see clearly; when the world is a mess we are free and clean. In the end, it never ends; it is a process of maturing spiritually, a continual growth and enjoyment in the peace of the journey.

At this point my growth has steadily progressed since our conversation that initiated this so long ago and I appreciate you taking the time to read this. Of course my two thoughts lead to many more but I’ll spare you those for another time. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have it all figured out but I wanted to share this with you and let you know that I’m trying and do think of you all the time. I value you and feel blessed for your friendship.

God speed!

A Conversation

Do you believe in God?

Yes. I believe in God.

You mean to tell me that there is an existence of a life force that you cannot see, you cannot hear, you cannot smell, you cannot taste, you cannot touch.

Yes, I believe… believe in the existence of God.

Do you believe God created us?

Yes.

Do you believe that God created the earth?

Yes.

Do you believe that God create us and His desire is for us to have dominion over the earth?

Yes… with nature, in harmony with nature.

OK. So God created us; He created the earth. He gave us the earth with all of its sustainable resources to keep us alive indefinitely. He gave us intelligence, which no other creature has. And with our intelligence we are able to interpret and manipulate matter. So we are creators, just as God created us. So then, that is how God created us in His image. He made us all creators?

Yes, He has made us creators. He has given us life, intelligence and the earth.

What are we supposed to create?

Outside of food and shelter for our survival, we are supposed to create… love. To be able to interpret and manipulate matter can only be for our benefit or our detriment. Why would we want it to be for our detriment? Why would we want to destroy what God has given us? Why would we take the earth, which is supposed to sustain us indefinitely, and ruin it so that we will all eventually perish? What is the point? But if we live in harmony with the earth, we use it resources to sustain our lives, and we use our intelligence to replenish what we use, then we are using our creator-ness in a responsible way. The only thing outside of our own sustenance is to take care of one another. That is our purpose. We are creators, we are to survive, we are to take care of one another and love one another.

Do you believe that is all that God wants for us?

I believe that that is the basic idea, but that is not all that God wants for us. I believe God wants us to do more than just survive; just get by. I believe God wants us to prosper in all areas of our lives. He wants us to live in abundance, for what would be the purpose of barely surviving if we could not improve our station? And God's abundance is based in, and grows from love.

Our Daily Routine

Speaking for myself, I have spent a considerable amount of time studying the Word and pondering its meaning. It seems that the most challenging issue facing a believer in the Word and Jesus Christ is in the application. How are we to live our lives to not only attain citizenship in God’s Kingdom, but never leave? The following is a practice that I carry out daily to prioritize and act on Kingdom thoughts and ways. I pray that you will read this with an open mind and a teachable spirit for it is written in love to share love. God bless you in the name of Jesus as you go forward.

Our Daily Routine

Wake up and declare that God is our father.

Give thanks for the day and His son.

Ask for forgiveness of sins.

Declare victory over the day.

Declare that your spouse is your top priority after God.

Commit to whatever it takes to assist them today.

Ask your partner what they need to make their day their best.

Consider your children.

Offer up a prayer to God on their behalf.

Can I do anything to make their day the best?

Consider family, friends and all others.

Offer up a prayer to God on their behalf.

Can I do anything to make their day the best?

Consider yourself.

Offer up a prayer to God on your behalf.

Know that you are doing your best.

Keep your integrity and honesty and be active.

Create a habit of repeating these steps often throughout the day.

Before retiring to bed, tell your partner that you love them; hug and kiss.

Declare God is our father.

Give thanks for the day and His son.

Ask for forgiveness of sins.

Declare victory over the day.

Declare your spouse your top priority after God.

Commit to whatever it takes to assist them to make their day tomorrow the best.

Speaking praise and prayers out loud increases the Spiritual Power behind them! Amen!

Spiritual Energy

If you have ever tried to make some wholesale changes in your life, you’ve more than likely experienced an unpleasant phenomenon. It seems as though that when we set out to make improvements in any area of our lives, we invariably upset the apple cart and all of the rotten ones come rolling out to spoil our plans. I’ve often tried to change my habit of complaining; to stop myself before the words leave my mouth. I’ll set my mind to do it and when I feel the feeling to complain rise up in me, I’ll pause. Now you might think that suppressing a complaint may be like capping off a raging hot steam pipe; the result of which can be catastrophic when trapping such energy under pressure. But I can tell you that using that energy to try and think of a new thought and express a new point of view takes much more power and one will exert even more energy. When I have practiced not complaining I see immediate positive results, which of course motivates me to continue the practice.  However, it also appears that when I try to not complain, an increase of irritating events arise in my life. Not only that but I’ve had people tell me that not complaining is bad for my health! So the folks that should be supporting me with positivity are piling on the negativity; another reason to complain.

So what is this; this avalanche negativity that seems to roll over us when we make positive changes? Is it the devil? Some people would say so; Satan, bad karma, punishment for a sorry lifestyle. Or is it simply a phenomenon that occurs when we shine a light on the negative? Those annoyances, those irritating people and situations have always been there; we just accepted them and may have willingly and joyfully relished them! Now, in our desire to separate from them, they seem bigger and badder than ever. 

I see this as a milestone. I see this as a sign that I am on the right path, because quite frankly, when we choose a new path it usually doesn’t come with a roadmap. We don’t always know what to do different to break our old patterns and the only way to gauge if we’re on the right track is to be a little uncomfortable. It’s OK; it will pass. I know it’s just growing pains and I will be better for it. As a matter of fact, I have gotten to the point where I can get myself excited bout these challenges because I know a big breakthrough is coming!

God speed!

Spirituality

It is my nature when looking at things, to break them down in the simplest form. On the surface, many things can look complicated and an impossibility. But when the underlying roots are revealed, it can be seen for what it is, usually just a few main branches holding up the whole enormous tree.  Any issue or situation then, in it’s simplicity, can be managed; sometimes remarkably very easily. 

I believe that my soul is the immortal energy that dwells within me. It’s my core electrical life force that gives me character, drives my personality and enables me to love. I also believe that as it radiates out from my body it becomes my spirit. My spirit connects with the universe and it’s a two way communication. It’s obvious to me that my spirit connects directly to the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and it also connects with every other living thing. My recognition of this and my wholeheartedness to stay actively cognizant of it is my spirituality. 

If you look up spirituality in the dictionary it will say something like, matters of the spirit, a concept tied to a spirit world, a multidimensional reality and one or more deities. To me, spirituality is simply the essence of our soulful energy. It is the being of our spirit life. I, being in a sensory world, tend to unwittingly ignore what I cannot perceive with my five senses; we are easily distracted aren’t we? Speaking from my own experience, when a conscious decision is made to be more spiritual I tend to try it on like a new set of clothes. Like a dressy shirt, I’ll throw it over my shoulders and slip my arms in the sleeves. I’ll wear it for a few days and then move on to a pair of pants... only to realize I am once again shirtless. It’s the materialistic way of viewing spirituality; yes trying it on. Then a revelation will come and I’ll remember that true spirituality comes from WITHIN. It lives in my soul tucked up right under my heart. Here, where the Holy Spirit waits to greet me, yet again. (And all of this after years of studying spiritual ideology and striving to get close to God. So many good things have come out of my spiritual journey including the knowing that each day is a brand new chance to get it “right”.) This revelation comes from where? From studying the spirit; I am thinking about it, reading about it, listening to spiritual teachings, living it. When I am working at being more spiritual I am living the lifestyle! It cannot be treated as a hobby; to pick up when one is bored or needy and then set aside until the mood strikes again. Yes, as with anything worthwhile, it takes commitment and consistency. Spirituality is a lifestyle, a practice in living.

God speed!

Life Is Short; Too Short

Life is short. I say this all the time to keep myself motivated in an attempt to live in the moment. But like anything, I try to keep it as a mantra and stay focused only to realize days later that it has never once crossed my mind. It is usually realized in passing when talking to someone about some event in their life.

So I have been listening to some teaching by Kenneth Copeland and he was covering the topic of God’s grace. I got digging into the Word and reading passages such as Ephesians 2:7-10 (KJV) that states, 

“7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

I, in my heart of hearts believe this to be true, for as sure as my heart beats I know that I love people with grace. I do not have a level of grace to compare with God, but I do have people in my life that I love no matter what; and they don’t have to do a single thing to earn it. No matter what they do that I may disagree with, I always forgive and give them a free pass and love them whole heartedly anyway, every time. There is nothing they could do that love does not overcome.

As silly as this may sound to some; consider a person that loves their pet. Short of looking cute in one’s perception, that animal can do nothing to perpetuate the feelings a human has towards it. An animal does not go looking for a particular person that they like or find attractive and then try to impress that person so as to initiate a loving relationship. They do not instinctually pursue human relationships and yet once claimed by a person, that pet is wholly loved. That’s grace.

As brother Copeland said, there is nothing a person can do to earn God’s grace. We would all fall short. We would only get a skinny portion of what is abounding toward us. This doesn’t give a us a free pass to be rotten or lazy by any means, for God has a system that we must abide by to enable us to be our best. But thank God that when we are weak, when we fall down and get off the tracks, God’s grace is there to catch us, to forgive us, to dust us off and get us back on track.

I apologize for being so long winded, but I’d like to bring you back to my mantra of “life is short”. I realize that this is a worldly idea since our souls are eternal, but personally, I need to find useful tools or mechanisms that help me cope in the world. With that said, I was watching a movie yesterday with my wife and one of the characters said, “Life is too short.” Gong! Like a bellwether my head started ringing and it occurred to me that once I discovered God’s grace many years ago, that life became too short. It is if you want to do good things for others! We are only here for a short time and there is so much to do; so many people to love, so many lessons to learn, so many lessons to teach, so much to share. My life is so wonderful since living in God’s grace. I am blessed and all I want to do is share it. Won’t you join me?

God speed!

3 Truths

I couldn’t sleep last night so I got out of bed and started reading about philosophers and such. In particular, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Putnam, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, Henry David Thoreau, and James Russell Lowell, etc. Some of them had participated in a group called the Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Mass. back in the 1830s and 40s. They were apparently the driving force behind transcendentalism at that time that turned into a coherent movement. The group published frequently in their journal The Dial, along with other venues. 

So it got me to reading about transcendentalism. Among transcendentalists' core beliefs is an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition rather than through the doctrines of established religions. This contrasts the idea of immanence, derived from the Latin in manere - "to remain within" - that refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, which hold that some divine being or essence manifests in and through all aspects of the material world. As you know, major faiths commonly devote significant philosophical efforts to explaining the relationship between immanence and transcendence by casting immanence as a characteristic of a transcendent God.

Well, I could go on and on but I need to stay on track with my wee-hours-of-the-morn education. So I then discovered that the Transcendent Club were heavily influenced by the philosophical writings of German Philosopher Immanuel Kant. (Trust me, this is leading to something.) Among other things, Kant believed he was creating a compromise between the empiricists and the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired through experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt (or Methodic doubt) and that reason alone provides us with knowledge.

OK, this is where my reading ended due to dreary eyes, BUT, I then clearly realized that my experiences gave me a thought provoking insight into how I learn. Not only that, but how the culture of the area where I live directly effects my learning methodology, most particularly in the things unseen--the spirit life.  I had a recent laugh with my sister about her response to coming to visit me in Florida being a quick “no”. She said, “I can’t help it, I’m a Northerner.” We laughed, but TO ME, there is suddenly so much truth to that. I have lived in the North and the South. I have experienced to different points of view from two different cultures and I can now clearly see the once invisible path that directly leads one’s beliefs. 

I have always said that I came to my Christianity through trying to prove that the christian ways, and the bible just couldn’t be true. To me, they seemed to pollyanna-ish. So I learned about other religions and considered their beliefs and methods; this also includes such things as paganism and worldly self reliance. I tired this and that and as I went on my journey to gain spiritual insight, all roads kept leading to Christianity. Let me clarify, not the Christian religion per se, but Christianity in the teaching of Jesus. So I am  (or at least I used to be) a doubter and use methodic doubt to prove to myself what my truth is! When I hear something new I immediately say, “Oh no, I’m not so sure about that.” Then I have to consider it, mull, analyze and re-mull, and weigh all of the circumstances and “what ifs” and try on all shoes before I’m ready to accept it as being true. 

In turn, I have also been a witness to the Southern culture, which interestingly enough tends to take things literally and at face value. We’ve all heard of southern hospitality for example, where one is welcomed to share in all they have and accepted for who one says they are. I believe that this willingness to accept things at face value comes from the rural, bible belt mentality for what is faith but accepting what we cannot see. So my point is that a faith based culture tends to be more willing to accept a man’s word and turn a deal on a handshake. Of course the contradictory cultural philosophies are well documented throughout the course of American history, so I digress. 

Luckily for me, the journey I am on is a spiritual one and I have taken it to improve the quality of my life. I’ve made the choice to find a means to be happier, healthier, and have less cares and no worries. To me, it is a matter of simplicity. So how much more work is it to be a doubting Thomas? Too much I say. As a remedy, I have trained myself to be discerning to the Spirit and trust God for as we know, the balance of things lies in the middle of the path. And remember our friend Immanuel Kant? How he worked to dwell between the empiricists and the rationalists because he was wise enough to know that there is truth in both sides. The spirit doesn’t lie so I can trust it. In following it I cannot be taken or misled. In following it I can expedite reaching the destination of my journey for how many times I rejected a spiritual teaching out of habit only to years later find myself believing it because of experience and reasoning.  But to me, that was valuable time wasted. As a matter of simplicity, I would be crazy to reinvent the wheel every time I want to drive my car, yet I am so willing to disregard the lessons others have shared for the sake of my own intellect. So in the end, the journey that we each take, be it a famous philosopher and religious leader, or you and me; the destination has always been the same. Our intellect may lead us to believe that our reasoning and experience hold all the answers, yet the answers have always been provided from the beginning of time. We can see an example in the lesson of the fig tree in Matthew 21:20-22 (King James Version)

 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!

 21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

 22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

God speed!