Democracy: Preserving It

In America [indeed, in the world, but we must start here] nobody wins unless we all win. By winning, I mean that we maintain and improve on what we’ve been given: this amazing Democracy, and all that it promises. Our wise Founders knew that we could only do so if we were a spiritually mature people. The primary result of spiritual maturity is the ability to love all humans, a palpable humility, being expandingly thankful to God for what we have, being amazed at this incredible journey that we are all, on this small planet, embarked upon, having been brought forth by some amazing Source or magnificent act of benevolence that we would all be wise to seek or meditate upon. By loving I mean that we face and, with help from the God Who gave us life, progressively overcome our own personal darkside/shadow/sinful nature. We cannot love without doing that. It is impossible. The unacknowledged darkside will always win the day. Darkness prevails if not dragged out into the Light that it hates. If we do not do this personally, individually, we will not be able to do it in the world outside ourselves. But if we do it, we will do more than preserve our Democracy, we will create the beginnings of heaven here on earth.

Mark Graham

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A Word for Terrorists From the Bible

“Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword,
whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.
“Elam is there, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into the world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
They have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain. Eze 32:22-25

Imagine!

Einstein said that imagination is greater than knowledge because knowledge is limited in ways that imagination is not. Imagination can lead us into places that knowledge will pave the way to. We, alone among the creatures of this earth, can imagine things being different than they are, and bring that difference into physical reality. Every good and evil thing on this planet has come from our collective imagination. Nature is neutral—neither good nor evil. What an amazing blessing, and curse, is our imagination!

Imagine that we are manifestations of a divine, beneficent Source that could best [though in a very limited way] be described as infinitely powerful and intelligent Love. Imagine that everything that is happening has deep and profound meaning, in large part because evil and suffering are allowed. Indeed, imagine that the allowance of evil and suffering are manifestations of this Divine Love. Imagine that we have been brought forth into an amazing adventure, full of infinite potential for harm and good, and that it has temporarily been left up to us to discern, cling to and move toward the good, and to overcome the unrelenting decay of the evil and alleviate as much as possible of the suffering. Imagine that we are here to learn how to love each other---to awaken to the fact of our familihood. Imagine that all the fairy tales that end with “happily ever after”; all the dramas that have come from our imagination in which the good, just and true triumph over evil; all our imagined written and visual dramas, all our high adventures of the good pitted against the evil with good winning in the end, sometimes after colossal battles---imagine that these imaginings are coming from an almost or completely unconscious place in our souls that knows the Truth, and is projecting it into this-world “reality”. Imagine that somewhere within us is an unknown but awakening knowledge that we are, always have been and will always be connected to the Divine Source that is imperfectly defined as Love—the love of a mother for her infant; the love of a soldier for his comrade in battle; the love that would cause a man to fall on a hand grenade to save his brothers; the love that would bring forth a million manifestations of beauty, manhood and womanhood, the innocence and beauty of a child. And that we can take, indeed must take an active conscious part in the awakening. Imagine that death is the doorway into a shimmering, glorious other-world with infinite new adventures extending into eternity. Imagine that the best that you can imagine is True.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. [Eph 3:20-21]