A few months ago, I heard Dave Gieselman (on a Facebook Live) speaking about “faith in or access to” God/Source/Creator. It impacted me enough to make a note to myself – what do I believe? Do I have faith in? Or do I have “access to”?
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Category: Faith
What does it mean?
I recently discovered some of the works and thoughts of the Russian writer, novelist and philosopher Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He was an Orthodox Christian with a deep faith, a faith which had “a strong emphasis on giving Christian love a social application”. But what I really have treasured have been two quotes that I have found in his writings.
Why does the Spirit feel so far away?
A couple of days ago, I read this by Madisyn Taylor
We all experience periods where we feel separated from the loving ebb and flow of the universe. These times of feeling disconnected from the source may occur for many reasons, but self-sabotage is the most common cause for us choosing to cut ourselves off from the flow of the universe. We purposefully, though often unconsciously, cut ourselves off from this flow and from the embrace of humanity so we can avoid dealing with painful issues, shun the necessary steps for growth, or prevent the success that we are afraid of achieving from ever happening.
When you choose to disconnect from the source, you block the flow of the universe’s energy from passing through you. You become like a sleepwalker who is not fully awake to life, and your hopes, plans, and dreams begin to appear as distant blurs on a faraway horizon.
Universal support has never left you, but if you can remember that you became disconnected from source by choice, you can choose to reconnect.
And I couldn’t agree more – how often do we distance ourselves from God & our Source?
The forest
Proverbs 18: 21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue…
(this verse I have memorised, although I can never remember the citation!)
then… here’s what I read today (my verse for today was 2 Samuel 18:8, but obviously I read most of the chapter… and you have to get an idea of the context)
2 Samuel 18: 5 (David´s instruction to his army and generals before going into battle): “Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom”… (obviously, he still loved him as his son, even though his son had defied him and wanted him dead so he could be king)
2 Samuel 18: 7-8
7-There the army of Israel was defeated by David’s men, and the casualties that day were great–twenty thousand men.
8-The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest claimed more lives that day than the sword.
now… just my suggestion… read that again! (the forest did what? what kind of forest was it? did I just get transported into an enchanted forest in Lord of the Rings?)
And now… read verse 9:
9-Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.
Now… I don’t want you to believe that I’m into paganism of ANY sort, but to me it’s VERY clear that God is not only the God of my heart, my spirit & my soul, but God is the God of the world (in every sense of it). Of the riviers (dividing the River Jordan); the seas (drying the Red Sea); and the forests (He uses them as weapons at His will). In Joshua 10, Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stand still… “and there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man…” Taking the time to actually READ the Bible slowly, not hurrying through it as an obligation but looking for the “best kept” secrets and what people aren’t talking about is fascinating!
How many times have I read this story of Absalom and failed to notice verses 8 & 9, and make the connection?
And even the oak tree obeyed David’s request to “deal gently with … Absalom”. (If you carry on reading, you see it was a rogue general that killed Absalom contrary to David’s order, not the forest.)
And that’s the God that I’m starting to believe in… the one that I’m getting to know.
So, when the Bible says (Genesis) that we have “dominion” over every living thing, what does this mean? And when Jesus commands us “have faith in God”, and then “… if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.”; how little has my faith been?
Where have I been all these years?
Have I been so caught up in semantics and religion that I’ve tried to put God in a little box?
I’ve been asking for peanuts, when He’s willing to let us move mountains?
Right now I feel like I’ve just been knocked down to the ground, and I’m sitting there shaking my head, trying to stand up and wondering where on earth that punch came from…
Like I said – shouldn’t I have already “known” this? Haven’t I read these verses more than 5 times?
Divine Presence: Letting the Infinite flow in my life 