Podcasts about his being

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (11/28/24), Hank encourages all who are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family and friends to the extent that they can. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet Thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all the splendor of His Being. “Open for me the gates of the righteous,” wrote the Psalmist, “and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that “the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water.” Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like ice—evaporate like worthless water—at the appearance of the first rays of sunshine.

Luke 9:28-36 The post #9 Who Is This Man? The Radiance of the Glory of God, the Exact Representation of His Being appeared first on Trinity Church Unley.

LESSON 197It Can Be But My Gratitude I Earn.Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill.How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized.The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts.It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them?God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again.Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then.And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are.Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in ACIM

LESSON 169By Grace I Live. By Grace I Am Released.Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you.Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done.For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son.There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while.The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us.Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?By grace I live. By grace I am released.By grace I give. By grace I will release.- Jesus Christ in ACIM

The Incomparableness of God by George Swinnock audiobook. The Incomparableness of God, in His Being, Attributes, Works, and Word 'For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord?' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can grab the free workbook at www.catholicmomcalm.com/lent2024 Full text of St. Faustina's Diary. Reflection question: How can you work on receiving more graces? Do you need to ask for them and be more open to inspiration. Do you need to work on accepting the graces through self-denial? Explore. Excerpt from St. Faustina's Diary for today (392): The Lord God grants His graces in two ways: by inspiration and by enlightenment. If we ask God for a grace, He will give it to us; but let us be willing to accept it. And in order to accept it, self-denial is needed. Love does not consist in words or feelings, but in deeds. It is an act of the will; it is a gift; that is to say, a giving. The reason, the will, the heart - these three faculties must be exercised during prayer.   I will rise from the dead in Jesus, but first I must live in Him. If I do not separate myself from the Cross, then the Gospel will be revealed in me. Jesus in me makes up for all my deficiencies. His grace operates without ceasing. The Holy Trinity grants me Its life abundantly, by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Three Divine Persons live in me. When God loves, He loves with all His Being, with all the power of His Being. If God has loved me in this way, how should I respond - I, His spouse?

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (11/23/23), Hank encourages all who are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family and friends to the extent that they can. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet Thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all the splendor of His Being. “Open for me the gates of the righteous,” wrote the Psalmist, “and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that “the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water.” Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like ice—evaporate like worthless water—at the appearance of the first rays of sunshine.

Today Cinthia discusses concepts from her book God Wants You Truly Living (Not Walking Dead).  God knows we cannot achieve happiness by chasing it.  The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible demonstrates this; Solomon chased happiness with gusto and resources but found the chase futile.  Jesus, however, said that He came that we might have abundant life – the kind of life He had.  Jesus was truly free despite living in an oppressed people group dominated by the Roman Empire.  He had a deep, meaningful relationship with the Father, and it was in this relationship that He got His value.  He had meaning and purpose, a clear conscience, and deep, meaningful relationships with others.  Perhaps most powerfully, though, Jesus was willing to die.  He died literally, physically, for others in obedience to His Father, God.  He died to Satan's temptation to pursue His destiny and rights outside of obedience to His Father God.  And He calls each of us to die to ourselves.  This does not necessarily mean physical death – at least not yet.  We are not to go looking for physical death.  But each of us has things to which we cling, things that feel like death to release.  Often these are things we think we need but that are actually choking the life out of us.  Sometimes they are good things that are in the way of the best things. Abundance is more than enough but never excessive.  Jesus went first in dying to Himself.  He is the Way.  We have to follow Him in “death” even while we are still alive by dying to whatever He calls us to let die.  See Philippians 3:10, Ephesians 3:20, and John 10:10.  Jesus trusted that His Father God knew Him to the core of His Being.  He entrusted His rights, His identity, His destiny, His authority, His life to the Father.  If we are to follow Him in this, we also have to learn to trust that our Creator knows us to the core of our beings.  God is not trying to make us happy as His primary goal because He knows that happiness is an overflow of an abundant life; He knows that for which we are truly made and also sees the good things that are getting in the way of the best things.  The enemy also knows that the pursuit of happiness only increases the emptiness inside of us. It's easy to dismiss Jesus's death as being something He could do because He was perfect.  But Jesus was also human, and He made it clear in Gethsemane that He did not want to have to go to the cross.  He asked not to have to do it, to have another way made if it could be made.  Still, He obeyed and went.  He died to Himself. Dying to myself means, in part, that all the things my body is screaming for me to do, I release to Him.  I have to determine as an adult whether or not those things are healthy, holy, of good repute, pleasing to Him, and His best for me at this time, or whether He wants me to deny myself some or all of those things.  We don't often like the death to ourselves that Jesus showed us.  But He was willing to do it, and He tells us that we need to be willing to do it.  When Jesus took on a created body, He was willing to live His life the Creator's way.  We fight the Creator.  We want a shorter, easier, faster, less-painful way to our destiny.  Satan tempted Jesus with this route in the desert, and He rejected it.  We think that we can discover, create, or defend our own identity.  But we do not know ourselves as well as our Father knows us.  He knows the identity He intended for us.  If you won't let go of the thing you are cherishing, it may kill you. Cinthia discussed the seed that dies in order to produce the fruit.  Don't protect or abandon the seed.  Water it, nourish it, but allow it to die.  It is in death that the seed will be able to reach beyond its packaging.  We are very used to bondage in a lot of ways, to the boxes in which we enclose ourselves.  We have to die to ourselves as the seed does, usually long before we face physical death.  Ephesians 3:20 (Message version) says, “God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in you wildest dreams!  He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.”  And John 10:10 (Amplified version) says, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].”  This is God's desire for His people.  Not only that, but He also promises in Psalm138:8 that He “will fulfill His purpose for me.”  Psalm 23:4 describes Him as with us as we walk through the shadow of death.  There are two types of death that have to occur in order to produce and sustain life:  The first is the death of a good thing in order to become the best thing.  The second is the death of “the thing that is killing me.”  How many of us fight to keep alive the thing that is killing us?  So ask yourself, “Am I refusing to move forward in ways that are age- and circumstance-appropriate?  Am I resisting age-appropriate tasks?  Am I holding onto previous life stages, to behaviors and clothing and self-care patterns that are no longer appropriate to my current life stage?  Do I refuse to move forward with technology?  What do I want to ignore or deny?  Am I unwilling to go through the grief and loss process?  Do I hold onto a person, decade, paradigm, or belief system?  Do I allow a system that isn't working to continue?  Am I willing to let expectations die?  Am I resisting a new season that is only going to happen anyway?  Am I willing to let go of my dream or my vision for myself or another person?  What are the birth pains that I may be ignoring or resisting?  What is trying to come out of me?  Am I resisting dying to self?”  Do not continue to resist what you know is natural for you to do – not those things that are natural in their decadence, but those that are natural to what God has created in you. Consider Philippians 1:6 and Isaiah 66:7-10.  We don't know the mind of God.  We cannot force to die what He wants to live or force to live what He knows must die.  The only way out is through.  You were born for a reason.  So what has to die in order for that reason to live?  God says to us, essentially, “Don't quit on Me now.  I'm not finished with the good work I've begun in you.  God wants to give us peace that passes understanding.  We need to stop trying to understand everything.  God has a way, His way, and we need to trust Him, whether or not we understand.    

The fifth episode of our series explores another expression of hell—this time hell masquerading as paradise. The being called Lucifer, meaning light bearer, rebels against God and is cast out of heaven in a great battle with Michael and his angels. Now lord of the “hell forces” on earth, Lucifer tempts humanity with false images of paradise—half truths that fall short because they are without suffering, without compassion and without love. We are meant to grow in our ability to discern the true image and likeness of God, to hear the true shepherd calling our name, and to follow Him to and through crucifixion and resurrection. The new heaven offered by Christ Jesus is created when we die to ourselves, suffer with Him in the suffering of others, and unite with His Being.Support the showMany thanks to Camilla Lake for show notes and Podcast/Patreon production and communications. Thanks also to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together.” The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

The Son (v3), is the Radiance of God's Glory and the exact Representation of His Being. Jesus, as the Son, is in the SAME Image as God. Right back in Creation when God is speaking, He says, “Let US make man in Our Image!” That's you and me. But intriguingly, it says here of Jesus, He is not just the Son, the exact Image of God and Co-Creator – it is He who SUSTAINS ALL THINGS BY HIS POWERFUL WORD! We see something very significant: the Power behind Jesus is the Power of His Word. He is – GOD SPEAKING! “You are MY SON; today I have become Your Father!” (v5). Paul is quoting Psalm 2:7. And again, “I will be His Father and He will be MY SON.” 2 Sam 7:14; 1 Chron 17:13. When God brought His Firstborn into the world, when He allowed HIS SON to be born on earth as a man, He says, “Let all God's angels worship Him.” When Jesus became the visible, tangible Image of God on earth, the angels are instructed to worship Him!

It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 197

By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift. Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them? Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth? Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him? By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 169

My friend, may you be a move of God, as you live and move and have your being in Him, allowing Him to live and moves and have His Being in you, in Jesus' name. God bless you, my friend! And you have a great day!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/morningbymorningtommyhays/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/morningbymorningtommyhays/support

-1- His Being- -2- His Activity- -3- His Rest.

-1- His Being- -2- His Activity- -3- His Rest.

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (11/24/22), Hank encourages all that are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family and friends to the extent that they can. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet Thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all the splendor of His Being. “Open for me the gates of the righteous,” wrote the Psalmist, “and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that “the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water.” Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like ice—evaporate like worthless water—at the appearance of the first rays of sunshine.

“Passionate Living” Philippians 3:8-12 –08/27/21 Philippians 3: CHRIST OUR GOAL 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained,[b] or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me 8)Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  “Yet indeed” or “Yea Doubtless” (Kjv) In the construction of the Greek language Paul is making a passionate statement, a plea as it were to the Philippian Church about the force & passion with which he was pursuing Christ as an example for them to follow…it reads “yea, therefore, at least, EVEN” Paul wanted to Leave no doubt at as to His Pursuit in life. “Count” The same verb (counted) as used in vs. 7 …here it is in the present tense showing continuous action in present time. Paul had come to the steadfast CONVICTION that any supposed gain in the world he might attain was but total loss if He failed to GAIN CHRIST “loss”-- Paul continually held a tenacious& habitual focus & Mind-set against anything that might come between Him & the goal of Christ, so he counts EVERYTHING  personally to himself  as a Loss, except knowing Christ Acts 20:24 But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course[a] and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God's grace. Romans 8:18 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. “excellence,excellency”   of  a Higher, supreme , surpassing degree       8)Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, …speaks of the relationship that Paul developed with Jesus thru intimate communion & companionship with Him, He came to Know Jesus Heart & will; through  time spent in His (Jesus) presence I Cr. 2:2 2 For I didn't think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,[a] would give you a spirit[b] of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. II Peter 1:3 His[a] divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by[b] His own glory and goodness. I Jn. 5:20 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One.[a] We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 16:26 What shall it profit a man 13:44 Parable of treasure hidden in a field   for whom I have suffered the loss of all things  this speaks of ALL Paul gave up  at his Damascus conversion. Paul was brought up in what we would say was a ‘closed community'—TARSUS because he & his family were wealthy & only the wealthy could live there. Paul left a life of wealth & status to become the Gentile/Missionary Apostle who made tents to get by. This was NOT all , as his parents basically  disowned their son, because he left Jewry …He had been supported by his folks  studying under Gamaliel at the U. of TARSUS, as an up & coming Priest in the Jewish Synagogue. that I may gain Christ   Not Paul's salvation, BUT appropriating in His Life the graces & nature of Christ into his whole being…GAIN= (Kedaino) an acquisition made from shunning evil 9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; “Be found” more like ..'to turn out actually to be'( like grk. Expression here Gal. 2:17 we ourselves are found to be sinners). The idea here is that of a REVELATION of Character ,,that is, Paul LONGS to demonstrate in His Life that He is IN Christ…He wants others to observe this in his nature not having my own righteousness, ..The idea is not having a righteousness  ANY righteousness that could be called MY own…Paul wanted to completely divorce himself of any thought or effort that he was ‘A LAW Keeper' by his own efforts. He desired for men to see the Righteousness of a Life Hidden in Christ produced by Holy Spirit. 9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;   Romans 10:2-6 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end[a] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them.[b]6 But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?”[c] that is, to bring Christ down Romans 3:28 28 For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Romans 9:30 30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. Romans 4:1-16 Titus 3:5 He saved us— not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 8:3,10:4 faith in Christ, that Righteousness that is authored in Christ, which Paul now nourishes & maintains . This Faith is furnished to All believers & appropriates the Blessings which flow from Grace. I Cor. 1:30 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One.[a] We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. II Cor. 5:17 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things[a] have come. Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. “that I may know Him”  ..that  is to come to know by experience, an experiential knowing, or knowledge….Paul wants to come to a place of knowing Jesus in the FULNESS of EXPERIENCE that only comes by an intimate relationship With Him ..TO FULLY KNOW Him!    I Jn. 3:2 Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.   Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. “the power of His resurrection,” Paul wants to experience the SAME Power which Raised Christ from the dead surging through His whole being, overcoming all sin in his life & showing forth the very nature of Christ for all to see…POWER= DYNAMIS… power, ability, physical or moral, as residing in a person or thing;..power in action, force, a strength, violence, virtue, mighty power, miracle working power. In this context the meaning is a POWER that overcomes resistance. Romans 1:16 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel [a]of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Romans 6:4 4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way[a] of life. II Cr. 4:10 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. I Peter 1:3 3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1:18-20 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 3:20-21 20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 3:20-21 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.“fellowship of His sufferings,” = a joint participation…these refer to the sufferings of Christ for righteousness sake while here on earth….II Cor. 11:22-33 Paul's ‘resume of suffering' 1:24 24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, I Pe. 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. “being conformed to His death,” LITERALLY “ To Bring to the same form with some other person”…we already saw this Grk word Before in Phil. 2:5-8  in the great KENOSIS(an emptying out)passage…Phil 2:6(being in the form of God)= Form(morphe)…here 3:10 ‘made conformable, being conformed' (symmorphizo)…morfe/morphizo are of same root Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. When These  Four Essentials are evident In Our Lives then we will CONSTANTLY be Made CONFORMABLE To Christ's Death : To show evidence by the very life we live To BE IN CHRIST By Coming To KNOW HIM Better All the time, a consistent deepening of relationship with HIM By Experiencing the same Dynamis that raised Christ from the dead surging through our being By Becoming Joint-Participants in Christ's Sufferings for Righteousness sake   **BOTTOM  LINEJ!! Paul's desire was that he might come to KNOW His Lord Jesus so intimately & with such Resurrection DUNAMIS operating  through His Being, along with a joint-participation  in Christ's sufferings that he would become both as to his inner heart  life & & as to His outward expression of just the same, like Jesus in respect to Christ's death , not just physically, but as we already showed in Phil. 2:7a KENOSIS..a death to self & denial of all things selfish …for the Blessing of others…THIS is what Paul strove for!!Paul was laying his life down in conformity& submission to the spirit & temperament of Christ's life, in all manner of lowliness  & meekness…both in Life & eventually in physical death   Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead.  “If  By Any Means”  This is not an expression of doubt but rather AUTHENTIC humility…Paul shows a modest yet assured Hope. “May/might  attain” =Greek language means “to arrive at a GOAL” “resurrection” exanastasis….This is the only place in the NT where this word is used…Literally from ‘OUT OF' …translation “Out Resurrection from(among) the dead”. Paul may be referring to the future resurrection of the physical body of the saint (I Cr. 15,Jn. 5:29,Lk. 20:35).However, This  more likely refers to a spiritual Resurrection         10,11)that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead.   2:4-8  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, A resurrection…out from a state of sin where one is dead in trespasses, to a LIFE divinely Empowered motivating our every action Also refers to the Rapture   12 Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. “ Not that I have already attained” The conclusion, here is Paul has experienced to a measure a ‘Conformity To Christ's Death” (see points 1-4 above), yet he has yet to Appropriate= I may lay hold of  these to Their FULLEST MEASURE in His life….He is always looking to increase in these attributes…refers back to vs. 10 (To KNOW Him)   Am already perfected/either were already perfect…Perfect (teleioō) not perfect in the literal sense(sinless), But complete, meaning ‘Spiritually Mature' Paul is stating that he is STILL seeking Spiritual Growth & Maturity, He has not stopped or become stagnant or indifferent spiritually ‘But I press on/follow after' (dee-oko)  TO PURSUE…Paul has in mind. the metaphor of a Greek runner running in a race. He is pressing on to a FIXED Goal, keeping up the chase as it were with much Passion Rendering…Not that I have already (LAMBANO)or am already perfected but I press on that I may but I press on that I may lay hold(apprehend) of  (KATALAMBANO) that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of (Apprehended) (KATALAMBANOED) Me Forceful, passionate language…an INTENSE pursuit Lambano= accept, take, receive, obtain Katalambano = more forceful, to seize to “RUN DOWN”…see football highlight: Dk Metcalf runs down Budda BakerJ 12 Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Good translation” Grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasps me” –JB. Phillips   1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:--- This is what Paul was Apprehended/laid hold of FOR & In turn he wants to Apprehend Christ ( verses Phil. 3:10-11—ABSOLUTE CHRISTLIKENESS) I Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight for the faith; take hold of eternal life that you were called to and have made a good confession about in the presence of many witnesses. II Peter 1:5 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 63:1 God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You. I thirst for You; my body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. 84:2 my heart & flesh cry out for God, Ps. 42:1 as the deer panteth after water so my soul longs for thee Proverbs 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. HEART REFLECTIONS: THOUGHT: Could it be that much of the church today over the last 50 years has been so busy showing the world how much we can do for Christ and lost sight of how the N.T. Church of Paul's day was just content to demonstrate to the world how much He could do through them List out all your positive attributes & gifts today…then get alone with ABBA & examine your heart to see if you are trusting Your Gifts or HIS Power As a Christian today, you have Christ Living in your heart, Have you taken the next step to really GAIN CHRIST fully? THINK: Knowing ABOUT Christ has Value, But Knowing HIM brings Vitality As MINISTERS…..we want /need 3 Things POWER = The Power of the Resurrection that eradicates all worry & despair Compassion =will come through sharing HIS sufferings (I Cr. 13:4) Purity = through Conformity to His Death…to accept the judgment & refuse to let ‘dead things' live any longer in our lives  

It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 197

By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift. Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them? Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth? Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him? By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 169

Ramana Maharshi's words: "The Lord Himself has no resolve; no act or event touches even the fringe of His Being. This state of immaculate aloofness can be likened to that of the sun." Commentary by Richard Clarke. Dialog with Nome, " If the perceiver is formless..."

Episode 153 – Why Am I Here – Part 2: The Bible Speaks Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: When I look at your heavens, the creation of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place - what is a mortal that you remember him or the Son of Man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than yourself. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him rule what your hands created. You have put everything under his control … Psalm 8, verses 3 through 6, God’s Word Translation ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very grateful to be with you as today as we continue the series we began last week on Anchored by Truth. We’ve entitled this series “Why am I here?” To help us continue considering a question that has probably occurred to just about every person who has ever lived, we have RD Fierro back in the studio. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, you entitled this series “Why Am I here?” I think that’s a question many people have asked at one time or another – even to many Christians. And during this series we’re seeking to provide a comprehensive answer – or at least a strong foundation where people can meaningfully continue their own pursuit of an answer. But there is a temptation, I think, to just say that the reason we’re all here is because God made us. But I’m guessing you don’t think that answer is sufficient? RD: Well, I think the answer that we’re all here because God made us is accurate but perhaps incomplete. But before we get into our discussion I would like to say just a word of greeting and thanks to everyone who is joining us here today. Anchored by Truth is not the typical kind of program that’s heard on many radio stations. Our singular focus is to help people understand that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. We do so because we believe that many, if not all, of the issues and difficulties that are confronting us today have a spiritual origin. Certainly, those issues may manifest as social, political, economic, educational, etc. But so often the difficulty we’re confronting, regardless of how it’s labeled, is a symptom of the disease not the source. For instance, sexual promiscuity is widespread in our society and that creates all kinds of issues from those related to family stability to public health issues. But at its heart sexual promiscuity goes back to man’s foundational problem with sin. As it’s sometimes phrased “we’re not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.” VK: And sin is a spiritual issue though that has a very unpopular characterization today. But the Apostle Paul clearly pointed out the nature of the real problem in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 12. “This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world.” That’s from the God’s Word Translation. Paul tells us exactly what you’re saying. The struggles we’re going to face are going to trace their origins to “the spiritual forces that control evil in this world.” But how does this tie into the topic of this series – helping listeners find a meaningful answer to the question, “why am I here?” RD: Because we can’t understand why we are here or our purpose in life, in the world, if we don’t understand the nature of reality. There are two great competing ideas about the origin of the human race – in fact the origin of everything. On the one side is that notion that, as the Bible puts it, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” On the other side is the notion that the universe has always existed, although maybe not in its current form, and that all living creatures, including humans, came into existence as the result of the random, chaotic collision of inanimate particles. VK: Those two ideas couldn’t be farther apart. Christians believe that everything in existence was brought into existence by an Almighty, loving Creator who has a plan and a purpose for everyone and everything. On the other side is the idea that the universe is eternal but undirected, unguided, and ungoverned. Anything and everything that happens in the universe is the result of the undirected activity of chaotic forces – that matter and energy fling themselves around like ping pong balls in a tornado but somehow all the chaos produced life in all its amazing, organized complexity and ultimately a people that is purposeful, intelligent, and moral. RD: Absolutely. And when you state the competing ideas that way you can immediately see the reason that understanding the true nature of reality is so important to anyone knowing why they are here. If I have been created by a loving, purposeful, omniscient, and omnipotent God then I can begin a meaningful exploration of why that God gave me existence. But I am simply the product of a long sequence of blind, random chaos not only is there no one for me to turn to there is no reason for me to even ask the question. The question “why am I here” is at its most basic a question that pertains to meaning and purpose. But meaning and purpose do not exist, and indeed cannot exist, where all activity and action are undirected and purposeless. The random collision of inanimate particles cannot produce meaning or purpose. I cannot overstate this distinction between these two competing ideas too strongly. VK: Inanimate means “non-living” which is just a fancy way of saying “dead.” No one thinks atoms and molecules are alive by themselves – but we know that living creatures are made up of atoms and molecules. So, the question of how a living being can arise from non-living matter is a foundational dilemma for those who want to exclude God from an explanation of origins. As Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, the chief scientist for Creation Ministries International, reminded us when he helped us with our Truth in Genesis series, explaining the operation of a thing is quite different from explaining its origin. RD: Yes. So, as Dr. Sarfati put it it’s easy to provide a reasonable, logical explanation for our existence when we include God in the equation. When we exclude him we’re left with the idea that human beings are the result of a process that he calls “the goo to you via the zoo.” VK: I’ve always liked that way of putting it. “Goo to you via the zoo.” That’s a pretty powerful summary of the idea that some sort of undirected, evolutionary process resulted in the human race. But it also points out the problem for people who believe in evolution but also want to believe their life has meaning. RD: Exactly. This all goes back to saying that for us to truly find a meaningful explanation for why they are here we must start with a clear understanding of the nature of reality. So, in our first episode in this “why am I here” series we focused on two big points. The first point was that to know why we are here we must recognize that we exist in a universe that was created by an Almighty God. VK: Because if someone wants to believe that life arose from the random interaction of dead particles there’s not even a reason for them to ask the question in the first place. The random, chaotic collision of atoms isn’t going to produce a personal, purposeful being who seeks to understand their role in the created order. You and Dr. Sarfati coined what you call the Sarfati-Fierro Maxim: All denials that intelligence was necessary for the formation of life proceed from an unintelligent point of origin. Said slightly differently, to deny that an intelligent Being created all life, including us, automatically means pulling the rug out from under the notion that human beings can claim to be intelligent. RD: Yes. It’s not that people can’t deny that God exists yet still believe they are intelligent beings. They can and do. It’s just that when you unpack the intellectual foundation for the two beliefs you find an irreconcilable conflict. This is a conflict that doesn’t trouble the Christian worldview in the slightest. We believe a Supremely Intelligent Being created us so that Supremely Intelligent Being is certainly capable of imparting intelligence to His creation in any matter that is consistent with His Being and character. So, the first point to developing a meaningful answer as to why we are here is to recognize we have been created by almighty, purposeful God. And the second point is to recognize the role that Jesus played and plays in the now fallen creation. VK: So, just to be clear, you are noting that the created order in which we live is not in the same state as it was initially. When you say the now fallen creation you are pointing out something very important. If Adam and Eve had never sinned we don’t know what our lives would be like today. We might likely be in an enormous Garden of Eden where sin and death were unknown. Man wasn’t ejected from the Garden until after he sinned. The Bible is clear that before sin God was accustomed to walking through the garden and the implication is that Adam and Eve enjoyed face-to-face fellowship with God. Genesis, chapter 3, verse 8 says, “In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking around in the garden.” So, it seems like God appeared regularly in the garden and Adam and Eve knew that. So, if we were still in the garden God might very well still be walking within it regularly communing with the only creature He ever created in His image. So, none of us would ever need to wonder why we are here. If the question every occurred to any of us God would answer it. RD: But, of course, Adam and Eve did sin. They were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. And after they were the Bible no longer makes any reference to them enjoying the same level of fellowship with God they had previously enjoyed. Now the ground was cursed, their work was cursed, and their first son killed their second. Sin now had a firm foothold in creation so God began, and has carried forward, a grand plan of redemption. That plan culminated in the birth of Jesus who once and for all obviated the penalty of sin for those who would place their trust in Him. Jesus’ sacrificial and atoning death removed the penalty of sin but it did not remove the presence of sin even for believers. Sin’s presence will be with us until Jesus returns to earth the second time to bring an end to this phase of human history. VK: So, we live in a somewhat unique time during human history. We live in this interval between Jesus’ first and second comings. We no longer have to wonder when – or whether – a Messiah is coming. We know God has sent the Savior that we need. During the 4,500 years of the universe’s history before Jesus came the first time people wondered when God would fulfill His promise to send a Savior. But we don’t have that question. We know the Savior came. We also know that the Messiah’s first coming was not to take over the physical rule of the earth. Rather than coming to rule the nations of earth He came to save the people of the nations from eternal condemnation. He now rules over the affairs of the earth from heaven. But the Bible is clear that it will not always be that way. If nothing else, the book of Revelation is clear the time is coming when Jesus will be physically with His people in the New Jerusalem. New Jerusalem will come into being after Jesus creates a new heavens and new earth. RD: So, as you put it, during this unique time in the interval between Jesus’ first and second comings - a second very important question about why we are here is how those of us living now are related to Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth as God in the flesh. It should be obvious that we are not going to believe in the Son of God if we don’t believe in God. And we are not going to have much interest in wanting to establish a relationship with Jesus if we do not know who He is. And the whole reason this question is so important is because of the continuing presence of sin in this world. This poses a danger for anyone who does not accept Jesus as their Savior. And Jesus made it very clear that He expected His followers to carry the message that salvation was available throughout the world. Jesus had completed the work necessary for people to be saved but there are a great many people who still need to hear that message. VK: The Apostle Paul reinforced this calling in the book of Romans, chapter 10. Verses 13 through 15 say, “So then, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can people call on him if they have not believed in him? How can they believe in him if they have not heard his message? How can they hear if no one tells [the Good News]? How can people tell the Good News if no one sends them? As Scripture says, ‘How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who announce the Good News.’” That’s the God’s Word Translation version. RD: So, a third point that is relevant to us finding a truly sustaining answer as to why we are here is that we must be prepared to study the Bible. To truly know why we are here it’s not enough for us to simply fall back on vague assurances that all of our lives have meaning. It’s not even enough to know that God loves us. Certainly those assurances are necessary but they are the starting point for knowing why we are here. Those kinds of assurances, as necessary as they are – and they are – will only provide temporary satisfaction. It’s sort of a variation on the old saying, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you’ve fed him for a life.” Same thing is true here. I can tell someone that God loves them and has a plan for their life. Those statements are absolutely true but they will only get them or me so far. VK: What you’re saying is that if we want to develop an answer to the question of why we are here that will carry us forward in our lives we have to have a firm grasp on the nature of reality – and only the Bible gives us important information about certain essential truths – like the fact that there is a spiritual war raging around us. Reality has an unpleasant tendency to intrude into our lives at inopportune moments and if I’m not prepared to deal with it it’s easy for me to lose my balance. Knowing that God loves me and is always with me is an absolutely essential prerequisite to making any more progress to a deeper grasp of the purpose for my life. But life is inevitably going to bring me challenges and I have to build on that foundational knowledge of God’s love for me. A strong foundation is necessary for the house to stand, but I’m going to be pretty exposed to the elements if the foundation is all I ever have. RD: Now we would hasten to repeat – as we noted last time - that we must always approach these subjects in an age and audience appropriate way. A distressed teenager doesn’t need to master the nuances of the Levitical code or probe the mysteries of Revelation to get some comfort about where they are in life and where they are going. The same thing is true for people are recent converts or struggling with their need for a Savior. People who are dealing with life crises or struggles may doubt that God loves them and has a plan for their lives. So, it is important to provide that immediate reassurance. But if that’s all they know they cannot prepare for the next dose of reality which always comes our way. People need to get a firm grasp on something you pointed out earlier. That we are all made in the image of God. VK: Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness.’” This points out why we need to know something, actually a lot, about the Bible, if we want to know why we are here. We are God’s image bearers. That fact is inescapable. Some commentators point that carrying God’s image is a bit like seeing our reflection in a mirror. When we see our reflection we are seeing an image of ourselves. The reflection in the mirror isn’t us but it looks like us. When we move it moves. If we change clothes it will change clothes. The reflection, the image, is more than just a representation of us. It indelibly possesses some of the qualities we possess. RD: So, the image in the mirror cannot divorce itself from the real person and somehow independently begin to contemplate why it is there. That sort of idea makes for a good fantasy story but that’s all it is – a fantasy. The image bearer is going to in certain respects and certain ways reflect the original. In the case of people we are going to some degree reflect our Father God. Ministers will sometimes note that the image of God we possess is a marred image – like a mirror with a curve or a crack. But the image is still a real image. This means two things. First, if we have no idea what God looks like – or said differently who God is – we cannot understand why we are here. It would be like trying to see our image in a mirror in a completely dark room. Second, the more exalted our view of God the higher esteem we would place upon our own role in the created order. VK: Those thoughts are both terrifying and thrilling. If we have no idea who God is we can have no real idea who we are. And if we don’t know who we are it will be impossible to know why we are here. But the thrilling part is that the greater our awareness of God’s majesty and sovereignty the greater we may truly believe in our own worth and dignity. And quite often that’s the basic reason people are asking the question about why they are here. They not only want to be assured that their life had meaning but also that their life is worthy of dignity and respect. RD: Right. This goes back to the need for people to become very familiar with the Bible. It is only from the Bible that we can develop a full-orbed understanding of who and what God is. The Bible gives us as comprehensive a picture of God as the human mind is able to form. From the Bible we learn about God’s unrivaled power, unblemished righteousness, immaculate character, and amazing love and grace. This enables us to have a full appreciation of His glory and majesty and then contemplate our own lives and meanings knowing that the sovereign, royal and perfectly holy God has chosen us to bear His image. That thought alone ought to banish any doubts about our worth as human beings. God cares so much for us that He chose to place His image on our flesh. VK: That thought takes us straight to our opening scripture from Psalm 8. In the that Psalm David is clearly staggered by the thought that the same God who framed the heavens, made the sun and moon, and put the stars in their place actually takes notice of, and cares for, men and women. It is a staggering thought. RD: And it goes straight to the heart of our question: why am I here? At least part of the answer to the question is that I am here to bear God’s image. Or said differently to ensure that the people I encounter can see God’s goodness and righteousness through me. This is truly a good example of what else people looking for meaning in their life need to know is something about the God that loves them. If they think God is a sort of super-sized human character – powerful but not necessarily royal, majestic, or good. Well, there is not a particularly good reason for them to be unduly concerned about providing a good image of that kind of God. Moreover, it would be hard for them to place a lot of confidence in what that God can do for them. But if, like David, we fully appreciate God’s omnipotent power to create and govern not just the earth, but the 50 billion galaxies in the visible universe, then our appreciation of that God and ourselves begins to change. VK: That’s why it’s so important for a familiarity with the Bible to be a significant part of any meditation we do on why we are here. From the Bible we learn about God. And from our better understanding about God we can develop a better understanding of ourselves. But that’s not the only reason we need to know the Bible to know why we are here is it? RD: No. It is not. And we are going to get more into these subjects in upcoming episodes. But just as an introduction for now the Bible itself gives us a direct revelation of why we are here. For instance, there is a very important verse about our purpose on planet earth in one of the least read and loved books of the Bible: the book of Leviticus. VK: You’re thinking of Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 2 aren’t you? That verse says, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” That’s also from the God’s Word Translation. RD: Yes. A lot of times when we ask the question why am I here we first want to be sure our lives have meaning, but second we are concerned about life choices like careers, education, relationships, and goals. VK: And the Bible has a lot to say about those things. RD: Yes. It does and that’s one of the beautiful things about the Bible. But above and beyond those concerns the Bible is concerned about our characters. That is essentially what that verse from Leviticus is telling us. We must develop holy characters. It’s often said that “you can’t take it with you.” But the one part of this life that we will take into eternity is our character. So, part of the answer to the question about why we are here is that this life gives us the chance to demonstrate that we value God by seeking to obey him. The more highly we value God the greater will be our desire to be obedient – and that includes seeking to become holy as He defines holiness. Now, certainly none of us start out holy and we are going to have plenty of stumbles along the way. God knows that. But one of the great things about God is that He does not throw us out just because we stumble and struggle. God is a God of redemption, restoration, and reclamation. VK: And there would be no need for redemption unless we were fallen. In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, verse 17, Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” That’s the New International Version. RD: But God doesn’t want us to remain in our sin. And he wants us to learn and overcome our struggles. He wants to give us victory. So, when he gives us that admonition in Leviticus He isn’t trying to discourage us. He is simply reinforcing His call for us to come to Him. And this also points out the need to ensure we are studying the whole Word of God. Leviticus is the 3rd book of the Bible- the middle of Pentateuch which is often thought to be irrelevant to the church today. It’s not – as we’ve just pointed out. We were created by a loving God to bring honor to His kingdom and to enjoy an eternal, personal relationship with him. This life is preparation for the life to come – preparation for an eternity with God. VK: The Westminster catechism answers the question “what is the chief purpose of man” with the answer “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” RD: Yes. So, as we dive more deeply into finding out why we are here we have to be sure that we master the basics about God, man, and purpose. If we don’t gain a firm grasp on those basics we may ask the question “why am I here” until we are blue in the face but we will never gain an answer that will satisfy us or please God. VK: Amen. So, those basics include knowing that God created the universe. We need to know this so we can understand the nature of reality. Next, we need to know that the created order fell when man sinned. But that God began a plan of redemption and the key step in that plan was the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So, to know why we are here we must know how we are related to Jesus. And to get a firm grasp on those first two point we must study the Bible because if we don’t our knowledge of God, Jesus, reality and redemption is going to be incomplete. We’ll be like the man who saw a sign in English that said, “quicksand” but only spoke French. The sign was there but it didn’t do him any good. This sounds like a time to go to God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for our government officials. We may or may not always agree with the decisions they make and that’s fine. In a democracy we have the right to make our voices heard and our concerns known. But in 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 1 we are commanded to pray for those who are in authority. And it is interesting that in that verse is the only time Paul puts a specific priority on the prayer when he says, “first of all.” So, we may or may not endorse decisions that are made by those in authority but we must pray for them – and a good prayer is that God will open their eyes to His truth and will. ---- PRAYER FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Bible Quote from the God’s Word Translation) Psalm 8, verses 3 through 6, God’s Word Translation

God reveals Himself by the various covenant Names: Jehovah-Jireh (“The Lord will see” or “…will provide”), Jehovah-Rapha (“The Lord heals”), Jehovah-Nissi (“The Lord my banner,” The Lord gives victory”), and others. These Names tell us more about God than what is obvious. They not only tell us what God does: they are names. A name also tells us who a person is. God does not merely give provision: He IS provision. He does not just give healing: He IS healing and health. He doesn't only give victory: He IS victory. In other words, God's DOING is the fruit of His BEING. His “Is-ness” is His Business. Even so, the professional's DO-ING is the fruit of his or her BE-ING. The doings (the professional behaviors and achievements) attest to the being. Therefore, we must always present with excellence, because the excellence of our doing reveals the excellence of our being. And we need not fear that excellence in presentation is not appropriate in a context where there is no excellence in compensation. In other words, “They don't pay me enough for that level of excellence!” is an unacceptable excuse for ineptitude among professionals. Two things: first, a lack of quality in my performance does not speak of my employer, aka “they;” it is a commentary on me. Secondly, excellence in presentation can make any vocation lucrative. If “I” (the professional) effectively manage my excellent product/presentation/commodity, no one external to me can limit my profitability. Again, doing is the FRUIT of being, and Jesus said, “By their fruit ye shall know them.” The performance is how you will know THEM – not their boss, not their company, not their salary --- THEM. In this case, THEM is ME. If my doing reflects my being, I must strive to ensure that my work will always convey Kingdom excellence. Like God and for God, “My ‘is-ness,' and HIS, is revealed in my business.”  New podcast episodes are available on Fridays everywhere you listen to podcasts. The Fellowship of Kingdom Professionals meets every Monday live with Michael A. Blue at  11:30 AM via Facebook and Youtube. Stay connected to all things Fellowship of Kingdom Professionals and connect to other Kingdom Professionals by joining our Facebook Group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/MABlueFKP To bring FKP to your locale, ministry, school, business, etc., or to learn more, contact us by email,  FKProfessionals@gmail.com

Building on the idea from last episode that human beings are, by their very nature, worshipping beings, this episode turns to how our 'enemies' use this against us, tempting us with 'false gods' that seem worthy of our attention and life energies. The Book of Revelation offers us powerful pictures that contrast the beasts of earth and water, and the city of Babylon, with the Lamb who suffers with us and for us and the New Jerusalem in which he will be its very light. How do we awaken and direct our hearts more and more freely towards the One who holds our true selves in His Being, and through the cross, offers us true Life?Many thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed the theme music, “Seeking Together.” You can find more of his music here.Thanks also to Camilla Lake for the show notes and Patreon/Podcast communications and production.The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of the Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts)

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (11/25/21), Hank encourages all that are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family and friends to the extent that they can. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet Thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all the splendor of His Being. “Open for me the gates of the righteous,” wrote the Psalmist, “and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that “the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water.” Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like ice—evaporate like worthless water—at the appearance of the first rays of sunshine.

Come journey with me to the Cosmos of His Being in Christ Jesus

Love Never Fails. God IS Love. He doesn't just feel it, or distribute it, it is a part of His Being! If we all came from God, then that means a piece of that same love, that Godly Love, resides in every single one of us. Tune in to this episode to listen to us grapple what it means to love, God's way. Remember, We were all created on purpose for a purpose, and when you find that purpose, you'll find your answer! So start digging, And that's On Purpose! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/onpurpose-podcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/onpurpose-podcast/support

Come journey With me into the Cosmos of the Fullness of His Being

1 John 1:5-10 (Paraphase by Lee Sommitz)5 Thus inspired by God, we write this letter. God is perfectly pure Light. There is no darkness in His Being. 6 If anyone tells you that they have fellowship with God but refuse to walk next to Him in His light, they are liars who speak about, but don't practice truth. 7 Everyone who walks hand in hand with Him in His light is not only in genuine fellowship with Him, but is getting cleansed from all manner f sin by His blood. 8 If anyone tells you that they don't have any sin to be cleansed from, they have deceived themselves and lost touch with truth. 9 Everyone who is in agreement with what God says about sin will benefit from His absolute pardon and continue being cleansed from sin as long as they continue agreeing with Him. God is just in conferring that benefit and will never fail to do so. 10 If a person tells you that they have not sinned, they are calling God a liar. These are people whodo not take Him or His word seriously.

It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 197

It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 197

What makes you tick? What's at the core of who you are? What drives you to do the things you do? What is your heart? These are great questions to ask ourselves to help us rightly calibrate our lives. Socrates said: To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom! If you've ever seen a counselor, you know that it can be difficult to describe yourself to someone else. At times, knowing the truth about ourselves can be challenging. Though HE has many attributes, GOD has no difficulty knowing and describing who HE is at the core of HIS Being. HE has no difficulty knowing HIS own Heart. HIS self-description is the most often quoted passage by the writers of the Old Testament and had the greatest influence on the writers of the New Testament. Knowing the Heart of GOD can give you a strength, and a hope, and a peace, like nothing else in this life. Praying for you, Pastor Joe Still ____________________________ Thanks for joining Riverbluff Church in our Worship Celebration! Connect with us: http://www.riverbluff.org Riverbluff Church on Facebook @riverbluffchs on Instagram How can we pray for you? http://www.riverbluff.org/help/prayer-request Give: http://www.riverbluff.org/give

Come journey with me into the Cosmos of His Being

In this episode I discuss how as Catholics, our faith centers around the belief in the existence of ONLY ONE GOD. We will address some of His characteristics. We could know some of these characteristics through reason alone, but they were also positively revealed by Him: for example, that he IS, that He is Infinite, all-powerful and creator of all things. We will also look at the consequences of this belief, particularly, how we owe him WORSHIP and obedience, and we should depend completely on His Divine Providence. “Since creatures have received everything they are and have from God, only God in himself is the fullness of being and of every perfection. God is “He who is” without origin and without end.” [CCCC #39] God is the creator of every reality outside of Himself, both material and spiritual. He has created by a free choice of his will, neither out of necessity, nor out of a kind of “natural” overflowing of His Being. Finally, this world did not come to be by a blind “chance”. When God created everything, He used neither any “pre-existing matter” nor “anything at all” from which He made everything—not even a part of Himself. On the contrary, He created everything out of nothing (“ex nihilo”). “We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance. God creates freely “out of nothing”.” (Catechism 296) See 2 Macabees 7:21-28. Moreover, God continues to maintain the world in its being, He is holding us in the palm of his hand (see Isaiah 49:16). We speak about the consequences of these truths for our lives: (1) We should recognize his infinite GREATNESS and our “nothingness”. (2) We should learn to ADORE God and obey Him. (3) We should live with an attitude of THANKSGIVING for everything we have and for everything He does for us. (4) We should also learn to value and defend the intrinsic DIGNITY OF ALL MEN, created in the image and likeness of God. (5) We should make good use of all created things, using them for the glory of God and our Salvation. (6) We should depend entirely on his DIVINE PROVIDENCE, entrusting ourselves to Him like a child in the arms of his mother, even in adversity. Spanish version of St. Teresa's Poem: “Nada te turbe, nada te espante todo se pasa, Dios no se muda, la paciencia todo lo alcanza, quien a Dios tiene nada le falta solo Dios basta.” (Poemas, 30) Toward the end, I quote Psalm 91:1-5. - - - - - - - - - - Miles Christi Religious Order website: https://www.mileschristi.org - This Podcast's Website: https://www.forcollegecatholics.org - To learn about the Spiritual Exercises (silent weekend retreat), visit: https://www.mileschristi.org/spiritual-exercises/ Recorded at our Family Center in South Lyon, Michigan.

By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift. Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them? Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth? Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him? By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 169

DECEMBER 6, 2020 “Those who have sat in darkness …. Have seen a GREAT LIGHT”! Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16; Ephesians 5:8 è “Arise, shine, for your LIGHT is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1) è Light – Essential for Life • First created (Genesis1:3) – “Let there be Light” • The essence of His Being! (1 John 1:5) • The Hope of His Coming (Isaiah 9:2) è Walking in the Light 1. Starts in our inner man (Proverbs 20:27; John 1:4-9) • The Spirit is His Life/Light for us • Where is our inner focus? • Shift our focus: the Light is in the TRUTH: (1 John 1:8, 9; John 8:31, 32 Remind and Reinforce! 2. Discipline our soul • See Psalm 42, 43  Speak truth to mental/emotional darkness; Our identity/ability (Ephesians 1:3-7; Romans 8:37-39) 3. Address the natural, physical issues • Natural light? • Fatigue: Rest; change the atmosphere; diversion from ordinary • Professional counsel, treatment?

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (11/26/20), Hank encourages all that are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family members and friends to the extent that they can, given current social distancing guidelines. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all of His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all of the splendor of His Being. “Open for me the gates of the righteous,” wrote the Psalmist, “and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that “the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water.” Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like ice—evaporate like worthless water—at the appearing of the first rays of sunshine.

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/207/29 On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank encourages all that are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family members and friends to the extent that they can, given current social distancing guidelines. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all of His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all of the splendor of His Being. Open for me the gates of the righteous, wrote the Psalmist, and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water. Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like iceevaporate like worthless waterat the appearing of the first rays of sunshine.

“Before There was a was there was a God that was nowhere in the midst of nothing, Dreaming about you”!   Before there was a Heaven to rule, a throne to sit upon or angel’s to dispatch God was all by Himself, secure in Himself, but wanting to share the core of His Being... Love, with somebody, that somebody was you!”   Hopefully this episodes awakens you to the majesty of His Divinely Designed Dream!

It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 197

By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift. Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them? Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth? Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him? By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 169

Hebrews 4:16 ESV Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. THE THRONE OF GRACE. A throne is a special seat reserved for a monarch. When the Bible speaks of God's “throne,” the emphasis is on God's transcendence, dignity, and sovereign rule. The fact that His throne is in heaven further underscores the transcendent nature of God's existence. Isaiah had seen the Lord “high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). At that time, the prophet was having an inspired vision. God's throne (and His robe) should not be taken as literal, physical objects. Rather, God was revealing to Isaiah the magnificence, splendor, and exaltation of His Being. The prophet Ezekiel and apostle John have had their visions of the throne, too. In the bible, it is a symbol of power and authority, majesty and honor, perfect justice, sovereignty and holiness, praise, purity, place of eternal life. But what connects this throne to sinful man is it's a place of abundant grace and mercy. Inside the Jewish temple was the Ark of the Covenant, which was a “copy of the true” (Hebrews 9:24), and it had a “mercy seat” where God's presence would appear (Leviticus 16:2, ESV). The transcendence of God may cast an awe and fear before God. And, we must fear Him, we should. Yet, as a loving Father, He extends His hands for us to run from our brokenness into His embrace. His amiability as the source of grace and mercy is too strong a pull to Himself. As the psalmist had expressed; “ How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” [Psa 84:1,2] Living our Christian life is like driving a car. We need to fill our tanks with the fuel of grace and mercy. Otherwise, we are stuck. We need to plead before God for His mercy because we fail and sin against Him. Mercy is God withholding His punishment upon us. Thank God that He is plenteous of mercy. [Psa 103:7] Moreover, we need His grace to obey and fulfill His will. Can we do His will by our strength? He should be our sufficiency always. [2 Cor 3:5] Should you feel spiritually down and depleted today, you may draw near to the throne of grace. By faith, you “ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” [Matt 7:7,8] “Let's draw to the throne of grace; Thereby, we may feel the King's embrace.” ------------------------- Visit our website and FOLLOW Gospel Light Christian Church Filipino on YouTube and Facebook.

Name The Surah derived its name from the word an-Naba in the second verse. This is not only a name but also a title of its subject matter, for Naba implies the news of Resurrection and Hereafter and the whole Surah is devoted to the same theme. Period of Revelation As we have explained in the introduction to Surah Al-Mursalat, the theme of all the Surahs, from Al-Qiyamah to An-Naziat, closely resembles one another's, and all these seem to have been revealed in the earliest period at Makkah. Theme and Subject Matter Its theme also is the same as of Surah Al-Mursalat, i. e. to affirm the Resurrection and Hereafter, and to warn the people of the consequences of acknowledging or disacknowledging it. When the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) first started to preach Islam in Makkah, his message consisted of three elements: (1) That none be held as an associate with Allah in Godhead; (2) that Allah had appointed him as His Messenger; (3) that this world will come to an end one day and then another world will be established when all the former and the latter generations will be resurrected with the same bodies in which they lived and worked in the world; then they will be called to account for their beliefs and deeds and those who emerge as believing and righteous in this accountability will go to Paradise and those who are proved to be disbelieving and wicked will live in Hell for ever. Of these although the first thing was highly unpleasant for the people of Makkah, yet in any case they were not disbelievers in the existence of Allah. They believed in His Being the Supreme Sustainer, Creator and Providence and also admitted that all those beings whom they regarded as their deities, were themselves Allah's creatures. Therefore, in this regard the only thing they disputed was whether they had any share in the attributes and powers of Divinity and in the Divine Being itself or not. As for the second thing, the people of Makkah were not prepared to accept it. However, what they could not possibly deny was that during the 40 years life that the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) had lived among them before his claim to Prophethood, they had never found him a lying deceitful person or the one who would adopt unlawful methods for selfish ends. They themselves admitted that he was a man possessed of wisdom, righteousness and moral superiority. Therefore, in spite of charging him with a thousand false accusations, nothing to say of making others believe, they were finding it difficult even for themselves to believe that although he was an honest and upright man in every other affair and dealing of life, yet, God forbid, a liar only in his claim to be a Prophet. Thus, the first two things were not in fact so perplexing for the people of Makkah as the third thing. When this was presented before them, they mocked it most of all, expressed unusual wonder at it, and regarding it as remote from reason and impossible, started talking against it as incredible, even inconceivable, in their assemblies. But in order to bring them to the way of Islam it was absolutely essential that the doctrine of the Hereafter should be instilled into their minds, for without belief in this doctrine, it was not at all possible that they could adopt a serious attitude with regard to the truth and falsehood, could change their standard of values in respect of good and evil, and giving up worship of the world, could be inclined to follow the way that Islam urged them to follow. That is why in the earliest Surahs revealed at Makkah the doctrine of the Hereafter has been impressed and stressed more than anything else. However, the arguments for it have been given in such a way that the doctrine of the Oneness of God (Tauhid) also is impressed on the minds automatically. This also contains brief arguments, here and there, to confirm the truth of the Holy Messenger of Allah and the Qur'an. After understanding well why the theme of the Hereafter has bee...

It's been said that God created man in his own image and man kindly returned the favor. While the Scripture tells us that God saves with his strong arm, most of us understand that this is metaphorical language. God has no arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, or ears. We know God by analogy because God in His Being is beyond our comprehension. He remains a mystery. The mystic wants to know God not merely by analogy, but to experience Him in His Being and thus in the darkness of mystery. In this lecture, “Dionysius the Areopagite and The Darkness of God,” Dr. Baxter explores the mystical tradition of the via negativa.

It can be but my gratitude I earn. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.- Jesus Christ in a Course in Miracles, Lesson 197

By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift. Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them? Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth? Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him? By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release.

There has never been a time when Jesus expressed a desire to be popular, nor did He try to disprove the naysayers by manufacturing an outward expression of God’s goodness. His only aim was to reveal the Father and to carry out His will. He simply functioned as I AM and His BEing was marked by results. In this training, Pastor Jeremiah reminds us that we can only produce results when we align our spirits, souls and bodies, giving the Spirit free will to function through us.

Many people want to find God.   There are many books on the subject which promise to put you on the path to find Him.  Most of religions of the world make the claim to make you one of His own.1  However, there are some people who want to find God without religion. They might say (and many do), “I’m spiritual, not religious.” They might not want to follow anyone’s guidance or rules.  Or, as happens frequently, they have been hurt by a faith community in the past and want to now avoid it entirely. So is it possible?  Can you find God without religion?  In order to answer this question, let’s first look at who God is as well as the definition of religion. Who Is God? We have always believed in something other: a Creator God, a pantheon, even the desired end of “nothingness” in Buddhism is logically something beyond what we know.  We have a sense of right, a belief that there is an absolute truth and order . . . a law . . . and by extension a Lawgiver.  In order for there to be an absolute rightness and absolute justice, there must be One who is absolutely righteous, absolutely just, a perfect Being. Those Thomas Aquinas referred to as “virtuous pagans,” such as Plato’s Socrates and Aristotle, explored this concept long before the Christian church.  Plato’s perfect forms were beyond matter and beyond space, the ultimate reality, and Aristotle believed in a perfect self-consciousness with a separate essence from the created world.  But it was Anselm in the Middle Ages who set about to clarify and distinguish the God Christians worshiped from the pantheons surrounding them through the nature and quality of His Being. Anslem’s reasoning, which became known as the “ontological argument,” is that God is the maximally great being.  He is the greatest thing that we can conceive of, beyond all other things.  The second part of his argument for God is that as actual things are greater than our ideas of the thing, that if we can conceive of a maximally great being then there must be such a being because if He was not actual . . . then we would be able to conceive of something greater. This is a simplified form of his argument, and as an argument for the existence of God, I know this sounds a little circular . . . Philosophers love to debate it. However, for the purpose of this discussion, I just want to point out what we mean by God: He is the Greatest Thing, being absolutely perfect, all knowing, all powerful, absolutely just, and outside of space and time.  That is God. If the thing you are searching for is something other than that . . . that isn’t God. How Should We Respond to God?

His Being (40:12-20): (1) Immensity in relation to Creation; (2)Innate wisdom; (3) Immensity regarding nations; (4) In contrast to idols. His might (40:21-26): (1) Over earth / inhabitants; (2) Over heavenly hosts. His grace

This is a story is about God accessing our hearts and minds with his good purpose and subduing our resistance because of our ideas of who we are and what we should be doing. God does the approaching. God wants to guide us in the true manner of responding to him in faith, and to safeguard us from the two following extremes of misunderstanding – under estimating or over estimating our part in his will and purpose in our lives. 1. GIDEON - I'm not worthy so God would not bother with me. Judges 6:15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” God had to do a lot of convincing with Gideon that it was all about God's grace and power (Grace is a gift [charis] that works in a multitude of expressions – loving spiritual empowerment Ephesians 2:8) 2. SAUL - I'll make the decisions about what I believe God should endorse (3rd commandment). 1Chronicles 10:14 and Saul did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse. Judges 6:11 Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours (just previously proclaimed), and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” Judges 6:15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” And THEN the Lord said to Gideon - after shrinking his army from 32,000 to 300; Judges 7:3 “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me. And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. (The 10,000 was then reduced to 300) 3. DAVID understood the middle path of grace between the two deceptive extremes. David learned total trust that God knew what was right and best, and found rest and peace in his soul. Jesus is called ‘the son of David' – the perfect example of that middle path. Acts 13:2 He will do everything I say… David did TWO BIG things – He trusted and he praised/worshipped God. God has to be anchored somewhere in HIS BEING in the earth and it is in people who turn up as a Gideon willing to be God's partner – Or as a Saul who is willing to become a David. 2Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us… 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  

In this first program of 2018, our hosts explored the Law of his being and the Law of His Being. Later, they focused on burnt offerings and cellular consciousness from Rev. Bil Unplugged and Unedited, by Rev. Dr. Bil Holton. The Absolute Word, "Spiritual Community," was from January 7, 2017. You can find it at paulhasselbeck.com. There is lots of other useful information at bit.ly/metaromp. 

Name The Surah derived its name from the word an-Naba in the second verse. This is not only a name but also a title of its subject matter, for Naba implies the news of Resurrection and Hereafter and the whole Surah is devoted to the same theme. Period of Revelation As we have explained in the introduction to Surah Al-Mursalat, the theme of all the Surahs, from Al-Qiyamah to An-Naziat, closely resembles one another's, and all these seem to have been revealed in the earliest period at Makkah. Theme and Subject Matter Its theme also is the same as of Surah Al-Mursalat, i. e. to affirm the Resurrection and Hereafter, and to warn the people of the consequences of acknowledging or disacknowledging it. When the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) first started to preach Islam in Makkah, his message consisted of three elements: (1) That none be held as an associate with Allah in Godhead; (2) that Allah had appointed him as His Messenger; (3) that this world will come to an end one day and then another world will be established when all the former and the latter generations will be resurrected with the same bodies in which they lived and worked in the world; then they will be called to account for their beliefs and deeds and those who emerge as believing and righteous in this accountability will go to Paradise and those who are proved to be disbelieving and wicked will live in Hell for ever. Of these although the first thing was highly unpleasant for the people of Makkah, yet in any case they were not disbelievers in the existence of Allah. They believed in His Being the Supreme Sustainer, Creator and Providence and also admitted that all those beings whom they regarded as their deities, were themselves Allah's creatures. Therefore, in this regard the only thing they disputed was whether they had any share in the attributes and powers of Divinity and in the Divine Being itself or not. As for the second thing, the people of Makkah were not prepared to accept it. However, what they could not possibly deny was that during the 40 years life that the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) had lived among them before his claim to Prophethood, they had never found him a lying deceitful person or the one who would adopt unlawful methods for selfish ends. They themselves admitted that he was a man possessed of wisdom, righteousness and moral superiority. Therefore, in spite of charging him with a thousand false accusations, nothing to say of making others believe, they were finding it difficult even for themselves to believe that although he was an honest and upright man in every other affair and dealing of life, yet, God forbid, a liar only in his claim to be a Prophet. Thus, the first two things were not in fact so perplexing for the people of Makkah as the third thing. When this was presented before them, they mocked it most of all, expressed unusual wonder at it, and regarding it as remote from reason and impossible, started talking against it as incredible, even inconceivable, in their assemblies. But in order to bring them to the way of Islam it was absolutely essential that the doctrine of the Hereafter should be instilled into their minds, for without belief in this doctrine, it was not at all possible that they could adopt a serious attitude with regard to the truth and falsehood, could change their standard of values in respect of good and evil, and giving up worship of the world, could be inclined to follow the way that Islam urged them to follow. That is why in the earliest Surahs revealed at Makkah the doctrine of the Hereafter has been impressed and stressed more than anything else. However, the arguments for it have been given in such a way that the doctrine of the Oneness of God (Tauhid) also is impressed on the minds automatically. This also contains brief arguments, here and there, to confirm the truth of the Holy Messenger of Allah and the Qur'an. After understanding well why the theme of the Hereafter has been so frequently repeated in the Surahs of this period, let us now have a look at the subject matter of this Surah. In it first of all, allusion has been made to the common talk and the doubts that were being expressed in every street of Makkah and in every assembly of the people of Makkah on hearing the news about Resurrection. Then, the deniers have been asked: "Don't you see this earth which We have spread as a carpet for you? Don't you see the high mountains which we have so firmly placed in the earth?Don't you consider your own selves how We have created you as pairs of men and women?Don't you consider your sleep by which We make you seek a few hours rest after every few hours labour and toil so as to keep you fit for work in the world? Don't you see the alternation of the night and day which We are so regularly perpetuating precisely according to your needs and requirements?Don't you see the strongly fortified system of the heavens above you? Don't you see the sun by means of which you are receiving your light and heat? Don't you see the rains which fall from the clouds and help produce corns and vegetables and luxuriant gardens? Do these things only tell you that the power of the Almighty Being Who has created them, will be unable to bring about Resurrection and establish the Next World? Then, from the supreme wisdom which is clearly working in this world around you, do you only understand this that although each part of it and each function of it is purposive, yet life is meaningless? Nothing could be more absurd and meaningless that after appointing man to the office of foreman and granting him vast powers of appropriation, in this workhouse, when he leaves the world after fulfilling his role, he should be let off without any accountability. He should neither be rewarded and granted pension on satisfactory work, nor subjected to any accountability and punishment on unsatisfactory performance of duty. After giving these arguments it has been emphatically stated that the Day of Judgment shall certainly come to pass on its appointed time. No sooner is the Trumpet sounded than whatever is being foretold shall appear before the eyes, and whether you believe in it today, or not, at that time you will come out in your multitudes from wherever you would be lying dead and buried to render your account. Your denial cannot in any way avert this inevitable event. Then, in vv. 21-30; it has been stated that every single misdeed of those who do not expect any accountability to take place and have thus belied Our Revelations, lies reckoned and recorded with Us, and Hell is ever lying an ambush to punish them and punish them fully for all their doings. Then, in vv. 31-36, the best rewards of those who lived as responsible people in the world and have provided for their Hereafter beforehand have been mentioned. They have been reassured that they will not only be rewarded richly for their services but in addition they will also be given sufficient gifts. In conclusion, the Divine Court in the Hereafter has been depicted, making it plain that there will be no question of somebody's being adamant in the matter of getting his followers and associates forgiven, none will speak without leave, and leave will be granted on the condition that intercession be made only for the one to whom leave of intercession will have been given, and the intercessor will say only what is right. Moreover, leave for intercession will be given only for those who had acknowledged the Truth in the world but were sinners; rebels of God and rejectors of the Truth will deserve no intercession at all. The discourse has been concluded with this warning: The Day the coming of which is being foretold, shall certainly come to pass. Do not think it is yet far off, it is close at hand. Now, whoever wills, let him believe in it and take the way towards his Lord. But he who disbelieves, in spite of the warning, "will have all his deeds placed before him: and he will exclaim regretfully: "Oh, would that I were not born in the world!" At that time, his regrets will be about the same world of which he is so enamored today! Source: Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Quran

Theme: The justice of God Point 1: God is just in His requiring, Point 2: God is just in His punishing, Point 3: God is just in His Being

Part eight of the "On the road" series at Hope Community Church with Lead/Teaching Pastor Mike Lee on May 30, 2015. What could your life be if you let go of your plans and trusted God for His? Being comfortable in the passenger seat is essential to living a God-centered life.

A new MP3 sermon from Still Waters Revival Books is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Attributes of God #10 The Faithfulness of God, Glorious Perfection of His Being Subtitle: A.W. Pink on Attributes of God Speaker: A. W. Pink Broadcaster: Still Waters Revival Books Event: Audio Book Date: 10/25/2011 Bible: Deuteronomy 7:9; 2 Timothy 2:13 Length: 16 min.

The Fundamental Problem - Sin, The Universality of It, The Pervasive Nature of It Getting Clear In My Head-What Does God Think of Me Chilling words - The Wrath of God Is Revealed....The Backdrop is the Good News - The Good News Becomes Intensely Good News When Applied To Ourselves The Wrath of God - What is it, Where is it revealed, How is it revealed, Why is it revealed God's wrath is not a temper tantrum, it is not unpredictable. It is God's Holy revulsion of His Being to all that is wrong

The Fundamental Problem - Sin, The Universality of It, The Pervasive Nature of It Getting Clear In My Head-What Does God Think of Me Chilling words - The Wrath of God Is Revealed....The Backdrop is the Good News - The Good News Becomes Intensely Good News When Applied To Ourselves The Wrath of God - What is it, Where is it revealed, How is it revealed, Why is it revealed God's wrath is not a temper tantrum, it is not unpredictable. It is God's Holy revulsion of His Being to all that is wrong