Tag Archives: God

August 16, 2015 · 10:29 am

Celebrity-ism Leads to Cultures of Religious and Secular Hierarchy

2015-08-09_small_rippleAs members of society, we are part of both spiritual and secular cultures and hopefully our desire is for every person to reach their maximum human potential. If that statement is true then you are doing your part to help human evolution. However, I sense  a negative reverberation flowing contrary to the progressive evolutionary process taking place in human society today. I could be wrong, but  I am perceiving in my global connections that there is an ever-increasing part of our human population that are feeling marginalized, losing hope, having low expectation of evolving forward and worse they have an even lower expectation for their children and the generations that will follow. I believe this reverberation is a direct reflection of the value systems with in our various cultures.

We have reached a point in America’s history where its secular and spiritual cultures are beginning to recite a mantra of thought that says to 99% of its citizens that only 1% of it people have a chance to live out the American dream. But the crazy thing is how this 1% is worshiped by the 99% and thus cultural hierarchy is formed.  In other words, 1% of our human brothers and sisters have achieved celebrity status. Our cultural systems have become so perverted  that it only values, the best actor, best musician, largest net worth, the prettiest looks, the fastest runner, the team with the most wins, the pastor with the most followers, the guy with the best job, or the coolest car, or the family with medical benefits.

Phil 2:7-8 (NLT)  Instead he gave up his privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

The original purpose of competition was to bring out the best in everyone. However the effects of over honoring the success of winners creates what I call celebrity-ism and results in hierarchical structures in our secular and spiritual cultures. Examples of this can be seen in reality TV and in the Mega Churches.

If the goal is to convince every human that they are in fact a Child of God then an evaluation of the outcomes needs another review. Well-meaning television shows that try to help people lose weight, dress better or fix their business, in the end only help a few and quickly move their focus to the star of the show for ratings. The same is true for ministries. Likewise, the goal of helping everyone walking through the door of the church quickly becomes all about the tithe to keep the ministry afloat.

Jesus had a way of empowering everyone He met. He was always trying to get each person to look at their life situations from the spiritual perspective as opposed to the material perspective. In Luke 15 Jesus tells three parables about the rejoicing that takes place when something that is lost becomes found. This is the true celebrating that is needed today.

The truth that every person is loved by God, is the heart of what Jesus came to reveal. Humanity perceives itself to be separated from God and so it lavishes affection on the so-called best and brightest among us. We create our celebrity’s or demigods among ourselves so we can create a feeling that we are winners.  Even our electoral process causes us to reveal our feelings openly to the point we feel we must destroy the opponents of our choice. Fixing the competition with the focus on winning and losing is missing the point. Regardless of the last victory or lost we need to recreate our cultures so that everyone enjoys trying to overcome tougher and tougher challenges as a way of life.

Celebrity-ism has become the default perspective of the materialist. Even worst the spiritual perspective that elevates the totality of humanity to a place of equality is lost to many of our spiritual cultures. In the end these hierarchical and celebrity oriented cultures can only motivate out a sense of  jealously.  Today the children of America and the world are spiraling in their need to feel love (like winners) within their own cultures. For most cultures the only way to create this feeling of love is to impart shame and ridicule on others not in their sub-culture. If ever, any love was showed to another by one’s own culture, it would be treated as an act of betrayal.

Therefore competition has become a tool for choosing of winners and losers by many secular and spiritual sub-cultures to express love on its membership.  Our spiritual and secular cultures today desperately need a renewed vision if we are to make winners of all in humanity. Our definition of winning must not remain defaulted to “not losing”, but instead the fulfillment of overcoming the obstacles set before us. Jesus rightly brings out this point in the last part of the parable of the lost son.

Luke 15:31-32  “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found’”

So let us go forth and celebrate everyone equally.

 

 

 

 

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May 31, 2015 · 1:35 pm

Love or Fear, which is our motivation?

2012_04-15_900410_65609984The parable told by Jesus of the seed and the sower is a favorite of mine. Today I will keep this post short with the hope of planting a single seed into each heart that reads this post. The seed is in the question. I do so, because I believe this seed has the power to change the direction concerning the spiritual path that all humans travel. This seed is all about our awareness and it can awaken us to the true reality of our spiritual walk. This seed in its infancy, it is about the awareness and use of two words. The first is “love” and the second is “sin”.

Once this seed is s sown and takes root, it allows us to listen especially when we are engaged in a spiritual conversation. It provides the awaken conscience with a tool that allows one to make a mental tally of these two words.  At that point, any human is able to discern if the words going out from them or the words coming towards them are encoded with a motivation of love or fear.

The purpose of this seed is to help us continually evaluate our spiritual transformation process as we travel on our individual journeys. All humans are involved in long-term relationships and we daily meet new people.  This seed will mature into a useful internal spiritual tool that will provide great clarity. This seed starts out as a simple counter of two words and then over time it will grow and blossom internally with a robust capability that can nuance any thought.

While we continue on our spiritual journey, we need a tool to help us discern if the people around us are helping us to reach our goal of becoming aware that we are already one with God. It is my experience that most people are well-meaning however sometimes encouragement can be motivated by fear instead love. Fearful motivation may bring temporary benefits but it cannot sustain us on the journey of a lifetime.

You might be saying to yourself, why not use both words, encourage love, and remove sin? If the use of the both words were equal, I will agree with you. My only goal is to plant this seed so that it creates a capacity of internal awareness of our spiritual motivation. These two words and the motivational thoughts that accompany them are important if we are to reach our spiritual goal in this lifetime.

I bring no judgment. My only hope is that as this spiritual capability matures each of us will be able to discern the motivation behind the messages are coming at us and going from um us.  Even now that the seed has already been sown, we are more equipped to answer the question as we read it again.

Love or fear, which is our motivation?

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January 10, 2015 · 2:02 pm

Equality of Presence

2015-01-10_1288835_84823660An organizational hierarchy can be a valuable asset. An increase in efficiency of the labor output as well as being a vehicle for quick and thorough communication, are just two of the benefits of hierarchy. However, as a member of institutions, we have all experience what happens when the overhead functions of any organizational structure begin to consume more of the energy and resources that were originally identified for the individual members of the organization.

Psalm 24:9-10 (NKJV) Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory

John 15:1, 9-15 (NLT) “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. … 9I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

God, as Trinity and God as Kingdom, values above all else, the maximization of each person in His human family. At the beginning of scripture, we see in the creation story the Trinity of God, each part, being one with the whole, in unity and manifesting the fullness of all existence. It is my belief that every human is invited to participate as a joint heir in the ongoing operation of creation by becoming a member partner with each member of the Trinity in this dance of unity with the Holy. Scripture acknowledges humans as ancient gates and everlasting doors through which the spirit and life of God are communicated to all of creation.

As a Christian, I interpret love to mean, to prefer others before myself. As a fan of Star Trek we find Spock’s quote that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” a good piece of philosophy. However, I know that only the Kingdom of God is set up to maximize the potential of every individual person. Therefore, only in that type of hierarchical relationship is the sacrifice of the individual a benefit for the whole. When the reverse is true of hierarchy, individual sacrifice is merely a pawn for the good of the collective hierarchy, not for all of ones friends.

In my opinion, no other organization has the maximization of every individual human as its goal. It is also my experience that the sub-institutions of religion; like marriage, family, and spiritual community, are very often corrupted by one member of the relationship for their personal gain above the greater gain of every individual in the relationship. Non-religious organizations operating on a local, state and federal level, as well as the capitalistic and socialistic business models, very rarely state the maximization of every individual as their primary goal.

Therefore, the function of organizational hierarchy is mostly about the maintenance of the organization and the pursuit of its stated goals. In John chapter 15 where scripture talks about the interconnectivity of a branch and vine, it is referring to means by which life, love, and truth are transferred to each individual. In other words, the presence of God’s Spirit is experienced within the Trinity and Kingdom of God. More to the point is that this experience is instantaneously realized in the life of every human that is consciously connected as members of God’s Family and Kingdom.

The Spirit of Christ arises to remove the veil of ignorance that says the Presence of God’s Spirit is separate from the individual. Under Old Testament law and tradition, God’s Presence was organizationally revealed to only be embodied in the office holders of the Prophet, Priest and King of Israel. Many of today’s religious traditions reaffirm that only positions of hierarchy indicate God’s invisible Presence in someone’s life. Heaven on earth is simply that place where we understand and recognize God’s life, love, authority and truth as it freely manifests and operates.

 Galatians 3:27-28 (NLT) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:15-19 (NLT) So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

Galatians 4:1-3 (NLT) Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles[a] of this world.

Today there is dawning within the consciousness of humanity that is recognizing the equality of God Presence in all humans. Traditionally, we humans made judgments based on the use of our eyes, ears and other material senses as detectors for the spiritual Presence of God. However, through a more enlightened interpretation of scripture our faith is beginning to understand what science is confirming. That we are more interconnected and the world is less hard-wired by materialistic objects that we traditionally understood.

Quantum Science and Faith practices have a lot in common. They both understand that any attempt to observe the truth and make sense of the expressions in this material world is directly affected by the consciousness of the observer. Also true, is that judgments, concerning things that can’t be observed with the human senses is not something that can be done by using tools and techniques constructed with our material senses.

However, the revealing of God’s possibilities as depicted and interpreted through scripture can enlighten consciousness of the human observer to these invisible relationships. Also, bringing to light, material evidence of the invisible relationships that affect this material world can be consciously understood by everyone in humanity.

Luke 20:1-8 (NKJV)  Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him 2 and spoke to Him, saying, “Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?” 3 But He answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me: 4 The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men?” 5 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it was from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Hebrews 11:3 (NLT) By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

My encouragement is that each human finds the freedom and confidence to see and hear the spiritual realities that govern all things in this material realm. Especially, if we consider ourself a Disciple of Jesus, I encourage us to focus on how Jesus is able to demonstrate the reality of God’s realm or God’s Kingdom. My hope is that people will rely less on tradition and become open to perceive the very nature of God’s invisible Presence. It is available to all humans, despite what we currently consider as common sense or believe to be traditional religious or scientific truths.

To start, I suggest we learn to recognize life and the beauty of it in every piece of creation. Assume that everything, that exist, is alive and has a purpose. Embrace life in all its multiplicity of forms and prefer relationships of love over relationships of fear. Finally seek a deeper understanding of our personal relationship with all that exist. With that, let’s begin to see if we can recognize an equality of God Presence in the existence of everything.

The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers  Luke 20:9-15 (NLT)  Now Jesus turned to the people again and told them this story: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and moved to another country to live for several years. 10 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers attacked the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. 11 So the owner sent another servant, but they also insulted him, beat him up, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 A third man was sent, and they wounded him and chased him away. 13 “‘What will I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will respect him.’14 “But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they said to each other, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ 15 So they dragged him out of the vineyard and murdered him.

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