“You have heard it said…but I say unto you!”
Dear Friends
Change is required in life today – big change – in understanding, responding, and particularly in the way we live life from out of the realization of our true identities.
In Truth, gender falls by the wayside, the skin we are in does not apply, whichever continent is our current or originating home is no longer that important.
The most important change is that we drop the “old” for the “new” – or perhaps a better way of putting it, would be: we have come to a point in life – all of life – when we realize that the chaos in communities, in the weather even, is a stirring up and these are what might be called the “birth pains” as part of a new world experience. It is the discomfort as the old makes way for the new.
The message Jesus gave as a Hebrew rabbi, was not Christianity – there were no Christians; there was no Christianity. He was a Hebrew rabbi speaking to Hebrews. In fact, his message was for all people. His teaching called for an understanding beyond a moral or ethical sense. He indicated that His kingdom was not of this world; and that the peace he promoted was not the peace of the world.
In John 16:12, we read: I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. According to George Lamsa, whose home language was Aramaic, the better translation would be: “but you cannot grasp them now.”
Well, if we look at the world around us in disarray in so many ways, it would seem that we have not yet grasped the teaching given over two thousand years ago. If anything perhaps in our modern living, it may even seem that we hardly apply it at all. This could be seen to be a radical way of stating it; yet Jesus was deemed radical in his day.
Jesus’ teachings went beyond the moral and ethical sense – as necessary as they are – as a step towards spiritual consciousness. And this means rising above both negative and positive aspects into the spiritual. Negative and positive keep us following duality; yet when we gain spiritual understanding we are following absolute law.
“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” This we read in Romans 12:19 The disciples were told: “What is that to thee, follow thou me.” Not follow me the man, but follow my consciousness.
In other words do not seek vengeance but follow the Christ Consciousness.
Richard Rohr, in his writings states: “We worshipped Jesus instead of following him on his same path. We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else. This shift made us into a religion of ‘belonging and believing’ instead of a religion of transformation.”
And we really need to realize that now more than ever before, transformation is required; transformation in consciousness.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…..Matt.5:43-48
Do we live our days vacillating between: “you have heard it said of old,” and the “I say unto you,” way of life?. We hear of an atrocity committed, and immediately a reaction may come up seeking revenge. And the teachings of the Christ Consciousness get swept away. We see this happening in the world around us today – let us respond in the best way possible. Let us know there is only one power, God, and let us turn to that Omnipresent One – and align with IT.
In Closing…..
Through the teachings of Jesus, we have been given a glimpse of the spiritual life which can be attained and which is the most practical way of life there is because it is a life lived by a spiritual principle, and that spiritual Principle is God – infinite, eternal, universal, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.
Let us remember that as children of God, we are sustained by the Father within. And when we have risen above hate and love to the point where (as instructed by Jesus, in his I SAY UNTO YOU teaching) we can pray for the just and the unjust, equally and sincerely, then we have risen above the pairs of opposites (duality) and are ready in consciousness for the kingdom that is not of this world.
Bountiful blessings,
Mallory