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On The Evil Of Christian Disunity

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

 
You ask me in effect why I am not a Roman Catholic. If it comes to that, why am I not—and why are you not—a Presbyterian, a Quaker, a Mohammedan, a Hindu, or a Confucianist? After how prolonged and sympathetic study and on what grounds have we rejected these religions? I think those who press a man to desert the religion in which he has been bred and in which he believes he has found the means of Grace ought to produce positive reasons for the change—not demand from him reasons against all other religions. It would have to be all, wouldn’t it?
 
Our Lord prayed that we all might be one ‘as He and His Father are one’ [John 17:21]. But He and His Father are not one in virtue of both accepting a (third) monarchical sovereign.
 
That unity of rule, or even of credenda [things to be believed], does not necessarily produce unity of charity is apparent from the history of every Church, every religious order, and every parish.
 
Schism is a very great evil. But if reunion is ever to come, it will in my opinion come from increasing charity. And this, under pressure from the increasing strength and hostility of unbelief, is perhaps beginning: we no longer, thank God, speak of one another as we did over 100 years ago. A single act of even such limited co-operation as is now possible does more towards ultimate reunion than any amount of discussion.
 
The historical causes of the ‘Reformation’ that actually occurred were (1.) The cruelties and commercialism of the Papacy (2.) The lust and greed of Henry VIII. (3.) The exploitation of both by politicians. (4.) The fatal insouciance (indifference) of the mere rabble on both sides. The spiritual drive behind the Reformation that ought to have occurred was a deep re-experience of the Pauline experience.
 
Memo: a great many of my closest friends are your co- religionists, some of them priests. If I am to embark on a disputation—which could not be a short one, I would much sooner do it with them than by correspondence.
 
We can do much more to heal the schism by our prayers than by a controversy. It is a daily subject of mine.
 
Mere acts of individual charity or prayer have more power to heal and reunify than all the theological controversies and theoretical debates in history combined. Such individual acts are the locus of God’s presence in the world for good. When these acts become daily subjects of ours, we are discharging God’s will for us, for our best good and the best good of all those lives we touch. This is how God creates the Eden in which we created to abide forever with him and each other.
 
In prayer and action for communion,
Z gardener

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On Developing Church Participation For Evil Ends

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

On Developing Church Participation For Evil Ends
 
Author’s Note: The speaker in this piece is Screwtape, a C.S. Lewis character who is one of the Devil’s minions. He is instructing another demon (Wormwood) on how to trick believers by leading them into unacceptable practices.
 
“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.
 
The reasons are obvious. In the first place the parochial organization should always be attacked, because, being a unity of place and not of likings (preferences), it brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity the Enemy (Jesus) desires. 
 
The congregational principle, on the other hand, makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction. In the second place, the search for a ‘suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil. What He wants of the layman in church is an attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful, but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise—does not waste time in thinking about what it rejects, but lays itself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going. (You see how groveling, how unspiritual, how irredeemably vulgar He is!) 
 
This attitude, especially during sermons, creates the condition (most hostile to our whole policy) in which platitudes can become really audible to a human soul. There is hardly any sermon, or any book, which may not be dangerous to us if it is received in this temper.”
 
Is this not the same technique used to justify sectarian violence between religious sects. It seems to work just fine for the Devil in these circumstances that rationalize the terrorism, murder, hate and fear that kills the innocents while it imperils regional and world peace.
 
This attitude is no less dangerous to us in our daily lives and worship. When we choose criticism over humble acceptance and judgement over teach-ability, we fall for the Devils’s tricks. And the price we pay can ruin our lives.
 
Today, let us seek unity, peace and communion with our brothers and sisters as well as our faith. Then we can see the truth through the lies and deceptions of the adversary and its tricks.
 
Being taught,
Z gardener

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On Worship

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

On Worship
 
He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any good, or fear, like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can bring about “His glory’s diminution”? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word “darkness” on the walls of his cell. 
 
But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God—though it may be the nearest approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain.
 
Worship is our response to God’s call. How we respond will be based on how well we know God. To know God, we must seek him each day and search for him in every thing we experience. When we truly find and know God, we must submit to God’s will and guidance. 
 
So, it is knowledge put into action that constitutes true worship. And true worship will yield a humility that causes us to fall to our knees and on our faces out of awe, respect and overwhelming love for God. Until that point of humility and awe, we may be on the right path, but have yet to arrive at the full knowledge of the true God of love.
 
In humility,
Z gardener

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On the difference between wordless prayer and the practice of the presence of God.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on November 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
No, by wordless prayer I didn’t mean the practice of the Presence of God. I meant the same mental act as in verbal prayer only without the words. The Practice of the Presence is a much higher activity. I don’t think it matters much whether an absolutely uninterrupted recollection of God’s presence for a whole lifetime is possible or not. A much more frequent and prolonged recollection than we have yet reached certainly is possible. Isn’t that enough to work on? A child learning to walk doesn’t need to know whether it will ever be able to walk 40 miles in a day: the important thing is that it can walk to-morrow a little further and more steadily than it did to-day.
 
I don’t think we are likely to give too much love and care to those we love. We might put in active care in the form of assistance when it would be better for them to act on their own: i.e., we might be busybodies. Or we might have too much ‘care’ for them in the sense of anxiety. But we never love anyone too much: the trouble is always that we love God, or perhaps some other created being, too little.
 
As to the ‘state of the world’ if we have time to hope and fear about it, we certainly have time to pray. I agree it is very hard to keep one’s eyes on God amid all the daily claims and problems. I think it wise, if possible, to move one’s main prayers from the last-thing-at-night position to some earlier time: give them a better chance to infiltrate one’s other thoughts.
 
It seems clear we could hardly go wrong with any of these efforts to commune with God. That which also seems clear is that we can’t love too much or care too much. We must be watchful however that our efforts are not misdirected by personal motives that are not loving and caring or those that are more about us than the person to whom we are directing our love and concern.
 
So, bothers and sisters, pray freely, often and in every form. And be sure that all our concerns be for the right thing, done the right way and being done for the right reasons. One can not go wrong if they are going right. This writer’s prayer is that God guide each of us to that righteousness and to the garden in which it abides.
 
Abiding in prayer,
Z gardener

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On Life In The New Creation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on November 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
The letter and spirit of scripture, and of all Christianity, forbid us to suppose that life in the New Creation will be a sexual life; and this reduces our imagination to the withering alternative either of bodies which are hardly recognizable as human bodies at all or else of a perpetual fast. 
 
As regards the fast, I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer ‘No,’ he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. 
 
In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it. We are in the same position. 
 
We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it. Hence where fullness awaits us we anticipate fasting. In denying that sexual life, as we now under- stand it, makes any part of the final beatitude, it is not of course necessary to suppose that the distinction of sexes will disappear. What is no longer needed for biological purposes may be expected to survive for splendor. 
 
Sexuality is the instrument both of virginity and of conjugal virtue; neither men nor women will be asked to throw away weapons they have used victoriously. It is the beaten and the fugitives who throw away their swords. The conquerors sheathe theirs and retain them. ‘Trans-sexual’ would be a better word than ‘sexless’ for the heavenly life.
 
Well, this is the first discussion of sexuality in heaven that this scribe has read. It is a very interesting concept that goes to the key questions we all have about the afterlife. Those questions usually center around such questions as, “will I be me, will I know my family and friends or will I have a body/” 
 
My simple answer has been that we will be us, yet there will no longer be the illusion of separation from God or each other. We will be us, and we will know and experience total communion with others, God and the universe. In that scenario, we would be ourselves, we would know our family, etc., we would have bodies and our consciousness. 
 
It will be the end of those things that prevent us from total communion and that imprisons us in the world of limited sensory perception and carnal existence. That is something to which we can all look forward with anticipation and joy. So much so that our lives here below can be lived in the Garden that was created for us until we can transcend the merely physical to be one with God and all creation.
 
Gardening for eternity,
Z gardener

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Divine Abundance

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
When you go down to the seashore, you find what is practically an unlimited supply of sea water at your disposal. There are billions upon billions of gallons there, but the amount that you can carry away will depend upon the vessel with which you have provided yourself. If you take a ten-gallon can, you can get ten gallons, but if you take only a pint pot you can take away only a pint, and if you have nothing bigger than a thimble, you would not be able to take away more than a thimbleful.
 
So it is with divine abundance. The only limit is the limit of our capacity to receive.
 
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing (Psalm 145:16). 
 
How big is your bucket? It is the same size as your faith and confidence in God. Increase the size of the bucket and increase the blessings that can be carried in it.
 
Growing my bucket,
Z gardener
 

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The Use of Intelligence

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on September 20, 2013| 1 Comment »

 
It is your duty to God to run your life on intelligent lines. God gives us all as much intelligence as we can possibly need, but, unfortunately, in most cases we use very little of it.
 
Ask yourself today if you are really conducting your life intelligently. Are you eating and drinking intelligently? Do you select your reading intelligently? Do you spend your money intelligently? Do you consider intelligently the things that you hear, or do you just accept them uncritically? Do you exercise intelligence in carrying out your daily work? Do you seek to approach each new problem with intelligence instead or mere emotions?
 
Have you intelligent plans for the future? Do you know what you would really like to do or to be, and if not wouldn’t it be only intelligent to go to work and find out and then draw up an intelligent plan for gaining your desire?
 
The world needs more intelligence. There is plenty of will, but because people will not use enough intelligence, mankind everywhere is in difficulties. Your intelligence is the light of God in your soul.
 
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) 
 
Our intelligence is God’s consciousness working through us.But we must exercise and direct our intelligence or we become an obstacle to God’s will. By the way, would God give us the intelligence to question our faith if he were not supremely confident that our faith would be affirmed? 
 
Think intelligently, question intelligently and live in peace with the conclusions. It is God’s way for us.to find our way.
 
Finding God’s way,
Z gardener

 

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Be Specific!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on July 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
Man has dominion over all things when he knows the Law of Being and obeys it. Do not put off your study of the law any longer. Take stock of your life this very day. Write down the things you really wish for. Be specific, not vague. Then write down underneath the conditions that you wish to remove from your life. If you do this candidly, you now have an extremely valuable analysis of your own mentality. In course of time this will tell you a great many things about your self that you do not at present suspect, and as your knowledge of spiritual Truth increases, you will be able to handle the new knowledge about your self in a surprising way.
 
Having forgotten your main points in front of you, work on each one separately with all the spiritual knowledge you possess. Remember, it is not really very important how much of this knowledge you have so long as you make use of all that you do have. Repeat this treatment every day for a month, and by the end of that time it will be very unusual if a change for the better has not manifested itself in your conditions.
 
For those unfamiliar with spiritual treatment, an effective method of working is this: Claim gently but definitely that the great creative Life Force of the universe is bringing each of the needed changes into your life in its own way, in it own time, and in its own form. Do not try to dictate the exact form in which the new conditions shall come about. Do not be tense or vehement. Do not let anyone else know that you are doing this. Do not look impatiently every day for results.
 
Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do (Deuteronomy 29:9).
 
Lord, bring to all your children the needed changes into their lives in your own way, in your own time and in its own form. And, let each of us accept it wholeheartedly.
 
Being specific,
Z gardener

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With What Measure Ye Mete

Posted in Good Morning, Uncategorized, tagged , on March 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again(Matthew 7:2).
If the average man understood for a moment the meaning of these words, they would turn his everyday conduct inside out, and so change him that, in a comparatively short space of time, his closest friends would hardly know him.
The plain fact is that it is the law of life that, as we think, and speak, and, act toward others, so will others think, and speak, and act toward us. Everything that we do to others will sooner or later be done to us by someone, somewhere. Perhaps by someone who knows nothing of our previous action, but for every unkind word that we speak to or about another person, an unkind word will be spoken to or about us. For every time that we cheat, we will be cheated. Every time we neglect a duty, or evade a responsibility, or misuse authority over other people, we are doing something for which we will inevitably have to pay by suffering a like injury our self.
However, it is a poor law that does not work both ways, and so it is equally true that for every good deed that you do, for every kind word that you speak, you will in the same way, at some time or other, get back an equivalent.
The Golden Rule in Christianity and all major faiths is: Think about others as you would wish them to think about you. In the light of the knowledge that we now possess, the observance of this rule becomes a very solemn duty, but, more than that indeed, it is a debt of honor.
The good news is, we determine how we will experience our lives! The bad news is, we determine how we will experience our lives. Whew!
    This writer disagrees with only one conclusion of the writer above. We receive back many multiples of that which we give. Although they are alike in kind, every act ripples out and creates many more effects than the original act. The Bible refers often to a seed bearing fruit and with it, many more seeds. There are, in fact exponential returns from, and effects of our acts.
So, brothers and sisters, plant good seeds in each garden and enjoy bountiful harvests of good fruit in a healthy Eden. Or not, and live within a barren garden or worse, one that bears bad fruit that ultimately overwhelms the gardener and the garden. See you in the Eden we were meant to inhabit.
Planting good,
Z gardener

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Which Art in Heaven

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on August 28, 2012| 1 Comment »

            Having clearly established the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, Jesus next goes on to describe the fundamental facts of existence. It is the nature of God to be in heaven, and of man to be on earth because God is Cause, and man is manifestation. Here heaven stands for God or Cause, because in religious phraseology heaven is the term for the Presence of God. The word earth signifies manifestation, and man’s function is to manifest or express God as Cause. In other words, God is the Infinite and Perfect Cause of all things; but Cause has to be expressed, and God expresses Himself by means of man. Man’s destiny is to express God in all sorts of glorious ways. To express means to press outward, or bring into sight. Every feature of your life is really a manifestation or expression of something in your soul.
Since it is misunderstandings about the relationship of God and man that lead to all our difficulties, it is worth any amount of trouble to correctly understand that relationship. Trying to have manifestation without Cause is atheism and materialism, and we know where they lead. “Our Father which art in heaven.”
…as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them…(2 Corinthians 6:16).
          Astounding! We are the manifestations of God’s consciousness in the physical plane. We demonstrate that consciousness when we rise above the self and express God’s will in our lives. When we do this, we can then live in the Eden God created for us.
And when our life here is over, then we are sure to be in heaven with God. There, God is not seen and experienced through a veil as he is here below. There, we will be unified with God and in communion with God and all the saints. Until then, let us bring heaven into sight here below by being God’s children in all ways.
Walking and dwelling with God,
Z gardener

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