Life--Valuing and Living It

Take a moment to get in touch with the value of your life. How valuable is your life? And the lives of your loved ones? Think of your "awesomely made" body; your mysterious and wonderful mind. Feel the beating of your faithful, consistent heart, pushing life-nourishing blood through your veins, into capillaries, supplying each one of your 120 trillion cells, each of which is a microscopic universe of life supporting activity in which warfare is conducted against harmful invaders; proteins produced, cells replicated.  You are being sustained, maintained and protected by your cells as they work together collaboratively with the single goal of keeping you alive and conscious! You are a conglomerate of living systems working harmoniously to keep you alive. You had absolutely nothing to do with this miraculous gift, but you use your mysterious, powerful mind to enhance or deter it through the lifestyles you choose; the choices you make; the very thoughts that you think.

     Most of this goes on unnoticed; but I am asking you to notice it. The deeper you go into awareness of your life and the biological and psychological processes of your life, of life itself, the more amazed you will become. The more gifted you will feel. And thankful to the Giver. This is an aspect of maturity.
I don't want to wait until I or someone I love gets the big, bad diagnosis or has a life-threatening accident to get in touch with the value of my life and the lives of my loved ones. I want to embrace the miraculous gift of life on this incredibly beautiful and life-sustaining earth every day--every moment if possible. I will not fear death [I know that life continues beyond it] but I will allow it to evoke within me the gift of valuing life on this earth, and doing my best to be a good steward of my allotted time here. And for me that means bringing as much of the Love and Truth of Jesus Christ into this world as possible. I have spent some time trying to think of a better way to live, and I cannot.

The Arena of Love and Truth

If you are in the arena of human endeavor, trying to bring more love and truth into the world, you will make some mistakes. And those little souls, sitting on the sidelines, will delight in pointing them out and harping on them. Your brothers and sisters, however--those who are also in the arena--will encourage you, forgive and be gracious to you, because they are aware of the mistakes they have made in this great endeavor. We must not waste our time being indignant toward those on the sidelines, nor trying to defend ourselves against their persistent accusations, which would simply distract us from the needed efforts. We have compassion for them, pray for them, invite them into the the joyful endeavor, remembering that they "know not what they do." Then we carry on. Jesus did not chase Judas around trying to get him to "get it." And He did not dance around, trying to dodge the bullets of criticism and threats of heresy (punishable by death in His culture) that were being hurled at Him by the powerful, "religious" elites of His culture.

Authority of Mind

How do you want to feel?  Feel that way!
What thoughts do you prefer to think? Think those thoughts!
What do you want to do with your frustration and anger? Do it! [But do not sin!]
How much peace do you desire?  Receive it!  It is a gift!
How free do you want to feel?  Wake up! You are free!
How much love do you want to receive?  Give that much and you will discover that you receive it!

If you cannot do these things, recognize that there are forces beyond you that control or influence you. [Who has authority of your mind and heart?] Jesus will enable you to master these forces. 

Or you may continue to suffer. You are free to do so.

Opioid Addiction

Churches Work to Combat Opioid Crisis More than 72,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2017, according to the CDC.

In the last few years, much attention has focused on a drug problem decimating American communities: addition to opioids. In 2016, Christianity Today devoted an entire issue to the problem. In response Congress has passed some legislation, signed into law by the President. Thankfully churches have stepped up in communities across the country to help alleviate the problem. In Indianapolis several local churches have partnered with the Overdose Lifeline to receive training and tools to help addicted people in their communities: The group meets inside Carmel Christian Church—a church that's embraced the call to action to help stop the opioid epidemic. Pastor Jerry Zehr is part of a new effort by the Overdose Lifeline to form an interfaith coalition and develop a strategic plan for churches to be a powerful force in the battle against addiction. "We are trying to be a place, a recovery church, a place where people can come to find a sense of hope and grace and love and that they'll be encouraged rather than judged," Zehr said. At just their second meeting, members received a hands-on lesson on Naloxone and a free Narcan kit for faith leaders. Helping those addicted to opioids can be complicated. In a helpful piece (Hope for America’s Opioid Epidemic Is Grace in a Syringe), an emergency physician in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, explains why recovery is often a long and difficult road: While the goal for most users attending recovery programs is to get clean, the process is extremely difficult. Because opioid use permanently changes the structure and chemistry of the brain’s reward and pleasure systems and the body’s perception of pain, withdrawal is excruciating and the rate of relapse is exceptionally high: around 90 percent despite the most effective therapies. Overdoses happen most frequently when an addict relapses after a period of abstinence because their body’s tolerance to the drug drops substantially, and the same dose that may have only barely touched their pain previously is now lethally potent. The drug depresses the user’s respiratory and central nervous system so much that they stop breathing, and the resulting lack of oxygen quickly leads to brain and vital organ injury and minutes later to cardiac arrest. This means that one of the most lethal periods in an opioid addict’s struggle—the time they are most likely to overdose—is when they are trying to get clean.

Religious Freedom and Sexual Freedom

Below is a quote from Denison Forum regarding the retirement of judge Anthony Kennedy. His comments about religious freedom in his majority opinion statement seem to be important for all religious folks to know and remember.

Anthony Kennedy is best known as the "swing vote" on many rulings across his tenure. One biography describes him as "a surprising and unpredictable justice on the Supreme Court, displaying thoughtful independence that at times, fails to reflect any particular ideology."

Most significantly, he wrote the majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 five-to-four ruling guaranteeing the right to same-sex marriage. His vote not only legalized gay marriage in this country—it also opened the way to the escalating conflict between religious freedom and sexual freedom we are witnessing today.

In his opinion, Justice Kennedy stated: "It must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned."

He added: "The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths."

New World

We are always standing on the edge of the New World.

God's mercies are "new each morning."  We are "new creatures" in Christ. We only need to wake up.

Every moment is universally unique.

We overcome ALL in the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus.  All oppression. All fear, worry, guilt, remorse, shame. Everything that drags down the soul. In Him we rise perpetually upward, move beyond old horizons, into the New World. Welcome to the New World!

We cannot strain or work or figure our way into the Freedom Place. We can only wake up. Wake up!
Love and be free! The universe is a manifestation of Love. You are a manifestation of Love. You have problems because of Love. When you realize this, you are free with a perfect and growing freedom.

Body and Spirit

If we don't seek we don't find; we drift in the darkness of unknowing where we unconsciously inflict ourselves and others with unnecessary suffering.  All the enlightened ones see this and feel sad about it. ( Mt 23:37). But what the enlightened ones have discovered by seeking engulfs that sadness like a macrophage engulfs and devours harmful bacteria in the body, restoring, in this case, their minds and hearts, to the health of knowing the Truth. The Truth sets you free--even from being dragged down by the sadness of unnecessary human suffering. [John 8:32] That sadness is sublimated into the only meaningful activity in the human realm: Love.
The Spirit of Christ may be compared to the immune system of the human body. Jesus said His Way would be like "leaven" or yeast in a lump of dough, enhancing it and bringing it to life. His Spirit in humans causes them to be safe and life-enhancing for societies in the way that macrophage cells protect the human body from infection. The Church, in its reality, is the earthly, collective embodiment of the Spirit and Truth of Christ. But we see in the Church, as in the physical body, evil, as pathogens, invades the healthy body and replicates itself therein. Here you have the cults. Here you have greed, lust and even hatred disguised as religion. The Spirit of Christ has departed from these, no matter if His Name is spoken, shouted and lauded a thousand times in their contexts.

"In their role as a phagocytic immune cell macrophages are responsible for engulfing pathogens to destroy them. Some pathogens subvert this process and instead live inside the macrophage. This provides an environment in which the pathogen is hidden from the immune system and allows it to replicate." (Wikipedia).

When this happens in the human body, physicians do not treat the pathogen-invaded cells the same as the healthy cells--they try to destroy them to protect the body. The human body is not "tolerant" of everything that enters it because it has innate wisdom to protect the overall health of itself--ultimately the consciousness that it carries--from  being destroyed by lesser, pathological organisms. There is a hierarchy of value. The human body does not value--in fact it seeks to destroy--pathogenic cells. This is not selfish or unjust of the body. It issues from a higher wisdom that seeks to preserve consciousness at a higher-than-cellular level. This higher wisdom is not motivated by hatred or fear of those pathogens; it is motivated by love for life and all that is good in it. It recognizes that there is good and evil: that which enhances and that which destroys the good. Disease is a manifestation of evil because it is parasitical to a higher form of consciousness.Good manifests as cosmic Love that generates kindness, harmony, peace, good will, and joy in the human family. Enlightenment recognizes that the entire universe is a manifestation of Love, [1John 4:8]
[John 1:1-3] and we come Home when we surrender to and align ourselves with this Love--the Love of Christ. In this place of Love is a progressively clearer vision of life as it is--in other words, Ultimate Truth. There is no arrogance here, and no compulsion. But there is a sincere and holy desire to see this Love-Truth propagated in the human family. This is true evangelism, or the motivating factor behind it. This Love is recognized as Life itself--like the energy contained in atoms. As we connect with and release this energy within ourselves,  we create heaven for ourselves. [Jn 14:20] If we do not discover this Reality on the Spiritual level, we may destroy ourselves by its physical equivalent in the material world. [See Gen MacArthur's speech, at the surrender of Japan, spoken from the U.S.S. Missouri].
https://ussmissouri.org/learn-the-history/surrender/general-macarthurs-radio-address#