The Simplest Answer is Always LOVE!

Lately, it seems to be quite a struggle to hold onto hope for real world peace, to feel safe and secure in life, and to trust in the best intentions of humanity. News headlines lines literally wreak with purifying stories of hatred and malice, murder and deceit, heartache and suffering. I suppose the most baffling aspect of it all is why would things be worse, when there are churches and religions massively covering the earth claiming to teach unity and love? In fact, I don’t think there is hardly a religious person out there that would not agree that LOVE is the key that unlocks happiness, peace, joy, liberation, forgiveness…

Then why, why is the world in such a mess?
Why is religion not impacting the world as it could be?

The reason religion is failing to unify is because of a little conjunction that most religion adds to the simple message to love.

That conjunction is “and”.

What comes after that conjunction is as vast and as varied as personalities are.

Love and go to church
Love and give money
Love and dress the way we dictate
Love and submit to authority
Love and be baptized
Love and call yourself a_____________
Love and join our affiliation
Love and see things the way we see them
Love and agree with everything the pastor preaches
Love and don’t listen to rock music
Love and wear a covering on your head
Love and don’t ask questions
Love and be compliant
Love and serve our church
Love and stay away from______________

On and on and on it goes. Where it stops nobody knows.

Its not what follows the “and” that is the problem. It’s the “and” being there in the first place.
The “and” is what breaks the fellowship. The “and” is what divides. The “and” is what turns love into hypocrisy. The “and” is what removes the unconditional. Its the “and” that provides the excuse to commit atrocities. Its the “and” that inflates the ego. It’s that little conjuntion “and” that is added to the simple message of LOVE that dilutes it and robs it of its potency.

LOVE!

That is the key to world peace. That is the key to happiness. That is the key to Spirit.

God is love. Love is God.

The message of the sages is simple:

LOVE!

Written by Elizabeth A. Van Cleve
10/09/2016

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New Years Reflection

New Years Reflection

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In Search of God

 

We search for God in the beautiful things, in the quiet places, in the little acts of kindness; and there we breath a sigh of relief. Yet, Spirit is always present, in the good, in the bad and in the ugly. Spirit never leaves us; we simply disengage our self from source. We forget… to remember… that Christ will never leave us, nor forsake us.

In the busyness of life, we scramble from one project to another, staring up at the stack of responsibilities, wondering how we will ever accomplish it all; striving, reaching, falling and getting back up, ever pressed onward, whether we like it or not; and we forget… to remember… we move and live and always have our being in Spirit. (Act 17:28) We are an eternal, unique expression of God; no other has your personal perception of life.  He abides within, always and forever.

We seek Spirit and beauty and we are beautiful; We seek God in the quiet places, yet the noise only masks spirits voice within; we seek spirits presence in acts of kindness, yet the meanness we behold all around, are but shadows. The great light continues to shine in all its glory. In search of God we forget… to remember… Source is ever with us, ever abiding…

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Beautiful Savior! Beautiful Friend!

 

 

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty,
the courage to take risks,
the discipline to tell the truth,
the capacity for sacrifice.
Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable:
they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

Was this not true of our Savior? He felt the beauty in a poor widows few mites, and in drops of liquid love smearing dirt about his feet with long golden strands of silk; He bent his knees to receive the little children, declaring them to be the door to God’s own presence. He felt the thief’s pitiful cry for remembrance, and removed from him the bitter cup of death. He had the audacity to read from the Torah in the temple, “The spirit of God is upon me…”  the courage to weather forty weary, hot, parched days and nights in the wilderness, defying the powers of darkness. He walked across a stormy sea, tore apart the money hovels on the temple’s porch, and declared himself the Son of God in the face of Crucifixion. He ate from the fig trees and corn fields  and fed the people with manna from heaven. The crumbled dirt beneath was his bed and the stones were his pillow so he could bring rest to our souls. His closest friends wounded His heart, and his own people sought to destroy him. Yet, with his own pure blood he purchased their pardon. He was destroyed by a cruel and brutal death, and he he took away with him the sins of the world. Yet he lives! In the bright heavenly places of the humbled soul he abides. He lives that we might have more abundant life. Beautiful Savior! Beautiful friend is my Jesus!!!

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“Your most meaningful work in the Kingdom of God may not be the big things that you do —
but the one little person you love. “

~Ann Voskamp

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.” (1John 4:7)

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Fear’s Mortal Enemy

FEAR has but one mortal enemy…

LOVE!

 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.” ~1John 4:18

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. “ 2 Timothy 1:7

“Greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

“God is love” 1 John 4:8

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Jealousy is a Waste of Energy

 

13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:  wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,

14 or wealth lost through some misfortune,
   so that when they have children
   there is nothing left for them to inherit.
15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,
    and as everyone comes, so they depart.
They take nothing from their toil
    that they can carry in their hands. (Ecclesiastes 5)

It is an interesting phenomena that so many people work to help those that are “less fortunate” and yet, many times this same humanity is jealous of someone else’s position in life. On one hand we do not want anyone to suffer misfortune such as poverty, abuse, or a physical disfiguration; yet, on the other hand, we feel envious towards those who have something we wish we could have, or we treat ones with disdain and snub people for minor infractions or prejudices in our heart; or we secretly envy the physical beautiful aspects of another person.

Jealousy is a waste of energy. Nothing, not one single thing, will you take from this world, except your experience of it. LOVE is the only treasure you take away with you.

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Danger in Centering Your Devotion on Fear and/or Anger

 

One must be careful that their religious devotions does not come from a place of anger and/or fear. When that happens- wood, hay and stubble will be built into ones life. There is also a danger when one’s devotions to a certain creed or doctrine is centered wrong and out of balance. Many times it manifests itself in the way they are raising their own children. That fear and anger will be mirrored onto those precious little souls and will damage their perceptions of God and the world he has placed them in. They often times will be expected to be the “saved and sanctified” little examples of the family, not having matured nor developed enough to gain a true witness and relationship of their own with Christ. They often are beaten for small infractions and many harsh rules are laid on them that makes them feel different and unaccepted in general society. The one that holds their belief system from a center of fear and/or anger will preach the message to them from this center and therefore the children will grow to fear an angry God and will, in most cases, either subject themselves to all kinds of harsh religious forms to avoid his wrath or become discouraged and completely rebel. A belief in God and a true relationship with him and service to him should be centered on, in saturated in, LOVE! Just as Christ loved us, willing even to lay down his very life, that we might understand the true love of the Father.

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Just One Proselyte

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (NIV)
(Matthew 23:15)

Proselyte:

1. A new convert to a doctrine or religion
2. A person who switches from one belief or religion, to another
3. the name given by the Jews to foreigners who adopted the Jewish religion

Be wary of the one who travels across land and sea to make a proselyte out of you! To turn from sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ should be sufficient. A true prophet’s heart is to turn the hearts of the children back to the Father. It is to reconcile souls to God, not to convert them to a religious philosophy or way of living. When a heart has been truly converted back to God, their way of living will naturally change. Sin will no longer have dominion over them. They will have a new spirit.

If one has traveled across land and sea to proselyte you to their own way of thinking and living, be careful that you do not become two fold more a child of hell than they are- a religious, prejudice, hypocrite, ready to sacrifice even your closest loved ones all in the name of your new religion. That’s the mess we have in this world today.

To be saved is to be in Christ, and to be in Christ is to bear His fruit toward all people- love, gentleness, goodness, faith, peace, joy, contentment, …

To be a proselyte is be in religion and to bear the mark of Babylon- hatred, heresies, strife, debate, disharmony, …

Jesus Christ said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

Men can tell you about God, but only Christ can take you to Him. Trust in him alone. Don’t allow men to proselyte you to them selves and their own personal agendas. Find a secret closet and go, get alone and call out to Christ. He will meet you there. Ask him to show you the Father. Ask him to save you and change you and make you a new person. Ask him to help you be a proper representative of him.

BEWARE OF MEN- who travel across land and sea… claiming to be the mouth piece of God, and asking you to become like them.

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The Ultimate Lesson

I believe that the ultimate lesson in life is what we were born knowing, something that is innate, but that we lose sight of along the way; And that is-

We are not the teachers, but the students; We are not the masters but the rather, the subjects. Life is our teacher and God is our master- he gave us life, and ultimately, he will take it back. He is the only true master. 

Very simplistic, yet profound. How many fights would end, wars would cease, religions would fold if people would just take a real hold of this one basic truth.

The Bible says, “And now abides faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is LOVE.”

“God is love.”

Think about it!

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