Anxiety

Anxiety flows like a river. You dam it up here and it breaks out over there. It’s like an inner trembling energy that is drawn out like lightning at one perceived threat after another. Then we mistakenly think the perceived threat is the problem rather than the trembling, inner energy. It is like an inner fire that flares up with the gasoline-like dousing of one perceived threat after another. The fire subsides but never goes out. The spark is always there, easily ignited by the hint, shadow or illusion of threat.

Faith and Truth extinguish the fires, again and again, until even the spark is extinguished and the inner trembling energy dissipates and a mysterious, palpable peace arises like mercury in a thermometer on a warm Spring morning; like the dawning of the sun, shining brighter and brighter, warming the very soul; like the slow relaxing of an infant at its loving mother’s breast.

Curiosity

 I love curiosity. Curiosity is one of the colors in the magnificent rainbow of Love. This is true because the more curious you are about people, the more you learn about them, and the more you know about someone [their joys, fears, sorrows, relationships, etc.] the better you can love them. And of course, that’s what this is all about. And the more curious you are about the world, the more you discover the awesome mystery of everything. And the more likely you are to come to admire the infinitely intelligent Creator Who has woven all this magnificent universe together in Love. I love curiosity because it will ultimately lead to the Truth that Jesus said “sets you free”. “Stay curious my friend.”

America: What I Love About Her

What I love about America:

The best that is available to all humans is free. Why should we fight for what is free and available to all? America does not fight to impose its will upon others. We do fight to protect and keep the blessings of freedom and democracy for ourselves, and we do the best we can to make sure that these blessings are available to the people of earth--- to those who desire them. The best that America has discovered and appropriated is what we are trying to give to the world. Those who fight against America, or who consider America their enemy, fight against the loss of power to a free people. They fear freedom; and if they are addicted to power, they hate it. America has not always used its freedom wisely and compassionately. We admit that. And America’s enemies point to our licentiousness and entitlement as reasons to stand against her. Our contemptuous conflict and division gives our enemies fuel for the fire of their contempt of us, and it empowers them in their efforts to exclude their citizens from the blessings we enjoy and offer to the world. Our civil unity amidst our differences is perhaps our greatest asset, and a necessary element of democracy. What we are learning [sometimes painfully slowly] is that freedom of the soul converts into material prosperity. This is true because freedom of soul means that the soul is free from fear, greed and the lust for things in the world that are ultimately contrary to the forward movement of the human family. The soul is only ultimately free when it is supremely motivated by Love for the entire human family, which is a manifestation of and product of Love for the God Who gives us all life. [The Bible says that “God is Love.” ] And when people generally live in an atmosphere of consciously chosen Love---respect, kindness, civility, honesty, compassion, patience, goodwill, etc.---this prosperity of soul manifests outwardly as material prosperity--everyone has what they need. And this is true, not because a governmental power tries to force it or make it happen, but rather it issues out of the Love in individual hearts who work peacefully together to insure it. It is a process that is not “top down” but rather “grassroots” so to speak. Socialism and communism do not trust that this can happen. Democracy does. It is a brave venture of faith in humans to govern themselves, or more deeply, to be governed by the internal Law of Love. No governmental system will work ultimately without this internal motive in the hearts of the governed. Those who are motivated by the base desires of human blindness must be controlled by power and fear. Spiritual immaturity [not the lack of education] leads to tyranny. Education is only valuable to the degree that it fosters spiritual maturity. Knowledge without wisdom can be dangerous. Our Founders instituted free public education specifically so that young citizens would be able to read the Bible and hold future law makers accountable to its precepts. {Google “The Old Deluder Satan Act”}.

What I love about America is that it has provided us a magnificent opportunity to be out from under governmental tyranny long enough to expand the limits of spiritual growth in an environment of prosperity, which presents its own subtle and powerful temptations. What can we do with our freedom besides trying to accumulate wealth and pursue pleasure? [It is clear now that these pursuits do not lead to happiness.] With our freedom and our prosperity, what can we unselfishly offer the world? How can we use our freedom and prosperity to facilitate the psycho-spiritual evolution of the human family?

I see and feel in the Christian Faith—in Christ Himself---the culmination of all the good I see in all world religions and philosophies. And I am free, in America, to practice Christianity openly and to even openly encourage it [that is ,Christ] to the world. We can know that America is truly a free nation as long as this continues to be true because a true Christian can never be a slave to tyranny. That is precisely why tyrants hate the Bible and kill Christians. This is what I love about America.

Fear of Christianity

When you worry, or are even concerned [which can become a healthy replacement for “worry”] about what people may think of you if you actually, radically lived and spoke in the Holy Spirit of Christ, remember what people thought of Him: heretic, possessed of evil, a criminal worthy of death. He loved even those who judged Him, but, thank God, He did not allow their judgments to deter Him in His God-ordained, loving, redemptive mission. Our fears about what others will think of us have two basic roots: our uncertainty of the origin of our thoughts and deeds [“Is this really from God?”; or our egoistic pride in not wanting to be mocked or looked down upon by the arrogant, blind eyes of the world [sometimes manifested through those in our own household or social circles]. One aspect of our sanctification is to allow the Love of God in us to drive out those fears.

What does it mean to be Christian?

Somewhere between 70 and 80% of Americans claim to be Christian. What does it mean to be 

Christian? What would one say are the basic fundamentals of Christianity?

When      Jesus asked His disciples “Who do you say that I am?” Simon answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This was a profound response. Simon’s father, and his great-great-great-great grandfather were looking for the Messiah. What we call the Old Testament, which was Simon’s [and all the Jews’] Bible, which all his people followed as diligently as possible, had foretold for centuries that one would come and bring light, not only to Israel, but would be a Light to all nations and all generations. It had been four hundred years since the last known and recorded Word from their God. Now, inexplicably except for the Holy Spirit of Truth, Simon, who would become Peter, came to know that this long-awaited Messiah had come, and was standing before him. Jesus responded with an even more profound statement: “Now you shall be called Petros [Greek for stone] and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He made that statement two millennia ago, and its truth still shines brightly in the world. The Church is still extending grace and salvation to humans all around the earth. Billions have been positively impacted or influenced by the Love of Jesus being extended through His followers. Every day hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from the Church that was founded two thousand years ago. [I defy anyone to prove differently.] Nothing has ultimately prevailed against the Church of Jesus Christ---and nothing ever will.

So one thing we can say conclusively about what it means to be a Christian is that the person who claims to be one must say, along with Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And that means that we understand, [as did Peter and eventually all His disciples, as well as the Apostle Paul who encountered the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians there] that this Nazarene carpenter was God incarnate! If this is not how we see things, perhaps we should question the validity of our “Christianity.” But if we do actually suspect this to be true, then we diligently study His teachings. We would be deceiving ourselves if we said that we believed Jesus to be the Messiah, then ignored His teachings. I wonder how many who claim to be Christians are hard-pressed to quote a single teaching of His. A true follower of any teacher or guide pays very close attention to the teachings of that guide; meditates on his words; tries to walk in accordance with his teachings. If I say I am a Christian, that means that Jesus is my Lord---the primary determiner of my inner being! It means I meditate on His teachings, the predominant one of which is love---Divine Love offered and received, and flowing through our hearts like a “river of living water” as He said. It means that we do not hate any person or group of people, no matter how wrong-minded or even “evil” we believe them to be, because our Lord has commanded us to love our enemies [Mt. 5:44]. It means that we identify with Christ above every other identity—American, republican, democrat, any minority or majority group, any tribe or family---we are, first and foremost Christian; a Christ follower. How could we be otherwise if we believe that He is God incarnate? How could His way be inferior to any other way? Why would we waste our time on anything less---any political agenda or philanthropic endeavor? {Unless we felt led by His Spirit to do so.} If we have doubts about this, we should pursue them openly and diligently because it is possible to live in the half-life, fluctuating between doubt and belief. We should examine His teachings carefully to see if there be any smattering of ego, selfishness, or meanness; any teaching that would seem to lead men in the wrong direction or that was contrary to the common good of the human family; anything that would incite violence, hatred, fear or guilt. We should diligently seek any error, because a single error would negate His claim to be one with the all-knowing Creator of this universe. Was He a liar? Was He crazy? Was He a grandiose narcissist? What do His teachings indicate and point toward? Would we better or worse for following them? Is there anyone who has offered a better solution to the world’s problems? If so, we should follow him/her. But if not we should suspect that He might indeed be the Way, the Truth and the Life as he said. And if He is, then we ignore Him to our great peril. We drift into the darkness, bereft of the Light of the only Truth that sets and keeps us free. This is what the Founders of this nation firmly believed. It is what Christ Himself warned us against. He said in end times men’s love would wax cold and that nations would rise up against nations and kingdoms [parties, tribes, corporate structures] against each other [Mt. 24:7]. He told us not to fear in these times, but to rest assured of our redemption and endure [in His Love] to the end [Mt. 24:13]. This is something of what it means to be a Christian. There is, of course, so much more---more than can ever be expressed in words, but well within the reach of the humble, seeking heart.

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