The Kingdom of Heaven

The Kingdom of Heaven is like having a good day. When you are having a good day nothing is any trouble but when you are having a bad day the slightest thing can set you off, the smallest challenge appears too much.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like falling in love. When you are falling in love you are energised and inspired. You would contemplate, and fearlessly undertake, spectacular plans to woo the beloved, to honour, save, inspire, to brighten their day, to make them smile, and you would think nothing of it.

The Righteousness of the Kingdom of Heaven is like falling in love, in that it is not possible to conceive, much less carry out, an act that could bring harm or unhappiness to the beloved. Thus, to live in the Kingdom, or of Kingdom vlaues, is to live the sincere, tender, passionate regard a lover has for the beloved. 

The Righteousness of the Kin-Dom flows from sincere love: from the love of the Father – the Source who made all things possible – to the love of one’s fellows, one’s family, the knowing of who make possible the almost endless multiplication of love, joy, and opportunity. Indeed, the only true expression of the sincerity and depth of your loving appreciation of the Father is to be found in the bestowal of your affection upon His children – your brethren – in the form of loving service, the Father requires nothing else from you.

When Jesus invited us to fellowship with him in the Kin-dom, when he called us to fulfil our destinies as children of God, he set one simple command: ‘Love one another as I have loved you, then will all men know that you are my disciples.’

Jesus said; ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I make these gifts not as the world gives - by measure - I give each of you all you will receive.’ We should remember that peace is the shadow of faith and if we wish to share in the peace of Jesus of Nazareth we must share in his faith. His faith in his Father’s loving overcare was invincible and it swept aside all anxiety about the future. He attended faithfully to his present duties and declared that, ‘sufficient unto the day are the troubles thereof,’ having thus attended to these we may rest knowing that our tomorrows are in the unerring hands of the Father.

The power of his love conquered every belligerent, self-seeking, vengeful tendency of the flesh, and crafted in its stead a peace-loving, service oriented, love inspired, life of consecrated devotion; a life worthy of the adoration and fit for the inspiration of all. It was through the very intense power of the faith and love of Jesus that the Father became so fully real to him and could therefore be so profoundly revealed through him. Thus could Jesus so fearlessly declare, ‘You that have seen me have seen the Father.’ God drew so very near and thereby effected such a profound transformation of His son that his very life became an instrument of the divine to effect the transformation and salvation of the world.

Jesus was not a deceiver, neither was he self-deceived, nor yet was he deluded, when he declared, ‘I am the Truth, the Way, and the Life,’ for in his life did the Father establish the way from sin to salvation, in his life could be found sustaining nourishment for the spiritually hungry because he was so filled with God, in his life can be found freedom from fear and liberty from moral enslavement.

He came that we might have life and have it in abundance; abundant love, abundant laughter, abundant service, abundant joy, abundant hope, abundant peace, and abundant thanks. If we would enter fully into his joy, we must enter fully into his love; if we would enter fully into his peace, we must enter fully into his faith.

Home - a Poem

Home

I am the least in my Father’s House;

but I am, at least,

in my Father’s House.

So many of my brothers and sisters

have locked themselves out,

through folly, ignorance, or selfishness,

In a moment, deluded by passion,

they fled His overcare,

and now wander,

lost and confused,

bewildered and befuddled;

wondering who they are,

where they came from,

where they are going.

Not realising,

that the Father himself

has prepared a place for them.

My joy can hardly be complete

without my brothers and sisters.

Thus have I pledged

to the Father

that I would

seek out our lost family

and help them find their way home.

Thus have I become an expert in maps,

covered all kinds of terrain,

and learned to speak in many tongues.

But it’s hard,

It’s real hard…

To see your own,

Minds muddled

By the delusions of the world,

Wander lost, dazed, and confused,

Unable to recognise you,

Unable to recognise the voice of their Father,

The voice of undying hope,

Unable to recognise their Father’s Castle,

The Stronghold of His Kingdom,

not realising that they are

a few short steps from safety and security,

from warmth and welcome,

from HOME.

The Glory of the Better Way - A Poem

The Glory of the Better Way

With feet of clay

and a head in the clouds

the soul of man

is burdened with doubts

For what can he know;

or what can he mean,

when the past is a memory

and the future a dream?

But fear not; believe only,

hold fast and stand firm,

and the glorious truth of God

you are sure to learn!

For God is our Father

and He is mighty in deed

in the palm of his hand

he holds infinity.

The humble heart is the Temple

wherein He does dwell

so follow His instruction

and all will be well

For the Father abounds

In priceless spiritual treasures

Upon his blessed children

He bestows these gifts

without measure:

Wisdom, love and laughter,

Selfless service to the Brotherhood

Now,

And in the hereafter.

For salvation alone

Is not an end in itself,

But the divine means

Whereby you can be of more help,

To man and to angel,

To friend and to foe,

Giving all you have

To gain more than you can know.

A Better Way

When it comes to economics, resource management, there are endless systemic possibilities. As economic systems are similar to eco-systems, balance is vital to their successful operation, imbalance cannot be long maintained. When we consider that we are one family and that the earth is our home and garden, we are bound by moral duty to administer the resources of our home and garden for the good and welfare of the whole family, anything else is theft.

One can imagine variously organised councils, mandated to manage the affairs of each community, region, or nation – an agreed collective – all of whom are answerable, at each level, to a recognised, fairly appointed, and properly constituted authority. All this would be pointless without a Grand Council of the Families of the Whole Earth, as our current models so abundantly, and tragically, evidence.

Eligibility for service should be dependent upon having first received adequate training for the role being undertaken, while successful service should be the passport toward advancing service in the higher councils; each member being nominated from within their various regional groups and elected by popular vote.

At present the ideologies that govern resource management are primitive, backward, ugly, violent, and selfish, reflective of the savagery from whence we have so recently emerged; but some day they will be forward looking, inspiring, creative, and service oriented. The social consciousness of that age will be permeated with the sense that this world has merely been loaned to us by our grandchildren, therefore will moral duty compel us to not diminish it while love compels us to enrich it.

The God of Abundance is more than comfortable with profit and prosperity, our problems lie not with abundance but with the harmful effects of yielding to selfish desire. Inequalities labour any system, giving rise to the wear and tear common to any inefficient system. When the selfish endeavour to dominate – a natural and instinctive urge – they put stress on the whole social ecology – political, economic, religious, military, education and health – and some one, some family, somebody’s son or mother, brother or sister, somebody is going to be ACTUALLY hurt, will be aggrieved through injustice – an inevitability of inequalities.

Western apathy toward the tragic injustices suffered by our brothers and sisters, our family, in the global south and east I term ‘Spiritual Leprosy’ – insensitivity toward how our actions and lifestyle choices works injustice and harms our family. Like the sufferers of leprosy, we do not ‘feel’ that what we are doing is damaging us but even though we don’t feel it, the damage is nevertheless real and, if not treated is fatal. It is for this reason that a global spiritual awakening is the only solution to the ills that currently beset our world.

Dreams

Just as parents have dreams for their children, so has our Divine Father dreams for us; and there exists only one power in the Universe that can prevent us from attaining the glory the Father has appointed for us - our own free will.

A Better World

My brothers and sisters, we live in a complex and challenging world, our culture is besmirched with greed, fear, and inequality but, no matter what the challenge, intelligent, wisely bestowed, love can provide the solution. The children of this world cannot be defeated using the ways of this world – the bio-logic of the flesh; intimidation, deception, and treachery, for these are not only demeaning of personal dignity they are utterly bankrupt when it comes to the task of Kin-Dom building; righteous and noble ends cannot be established using unrighteous and ignoble means, for we reap as we sow.

When the children of the Divine Ideal set themselves the task of subduing their material natures, that they might more effectively do the will of their Heavenly Father, they have overcome the world. For, having learned how to dominate every impulse using the power of love they thereby become immune to the things of this world. No more can the Snares of Beliar trip them up, henceforth they hunger only for spiritual things and not material and draw happiness from helping others and not themselves. Thus liberated from material concern they are free indeed and, oh!, how the world hates to see such freedom and very often determines to kill such before they free the world. But the children of darkness fail to see that error cannot destroy truth, darkness cannot dispel light, neither can the wiles of the wicked undo the plans of the Almighty.

It is said that ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ - whatever about the merits of such an assertion, of one thing we can be certain ‘Nature abhors imbalance’. Nature prefers balance, harmony, proportion and will unhesitatingly precipitate the collapse of a whole system in order to re-establish equilibrium, regardless of the consequences to the parts. This phenomenon is a temporal reflection of the indivisible unity of the Eternal Source from whence all life springs.

The sublime unity that underpins the almost limitless diversity of an eco-system takes its origin in Undivided Deity. However, harmony with the divine order or pattern is a choice with free-will beings, thus do error, sin, and iniquity exercise a distorting effect on the harmony and balance of a system. As harmony and symmetry are the foundations of Life it becomes inevitable that the higher a civilisation ascends the more it recognises that its stability and integrity is a co-efficient of harmony. Inequalities are, therefore, dangerous [sign posts] to an evolving civilisation.

The horrific distortions precipitated by the acts of the cruel, wicked, selfish, and corrupt are – in the last analysis – surface scars that will, in time, heal; they are not truly real, they are temporal bumps that will be smoothed out on the face of eternity. But, I guess, we live in the ‘here and now’ and not the ‘ever after’, the damage today is real and painful – as real and terrifying as a nightmare – and the healing and correction has not yet occurred for us; justice is yet to be established. Wilful sinfulness distorts, unbalances, and, if not corrected, damages [can - if uncorrected - even destroy] a system but wilful righteousness – the doing of the Father’s Will – restores order, heals, strengthens, nurtures, nourishes, and balances a system, establishes it in greater harmony, integrity, and stability. Upon His Will was the Universe founded and it shall be victorious over the small and self-serving plans of the wicked.

The Wicked may act to unbalance a system but such efforts run counter to the trend of the Universe and while they may appear successful in the short term, the fact is that they are merely fighting against the tide of Nature - the Great Mother will correct all imbalances and the little structures of the wicked will be crushed to dust in the Correcting Time.

We must awaken to the fact that our world is desperately out of balance, a reflection of the unbalanced human heart; even our weather testifies to this truth and unless we turn about, abandon the path we are on, we will topple head first into calamity; and, alas, such is the tremendous momentum of our age, we will drag many generations down with us, thus will the woeful cost of our selfishness be made plain and our age will become a byword and a curse.

Part of the great challenge of our age is bound up in our conformity with custom and tradition. Conformity with custom and tradition is all well and good provided that such customs and traditions are so designed to enrich and nurture life but when they diminish and debilitate it to live according to them is the equivalent is of following the herd over the cliff. The great change we must undergo will not be primarily for our benefit but for the enrichment or, more accurately, to lessen the damage – the burden faced – by future generations as a result of our blind and self serving ways.

It is important to remember that children are born into the world with a clean slate. Wherever they grow up, whether that environment is ennobling or corrupting, that is what is normal for them and unless their circumstances are particularly unpleasant they will have little motivation to change them. They will be content to follow along in the groves of custom and tradition, to maintain the status quo, if for no other reason than the fact that ‘it didn’t do them any harm.’ Unless you question life you don’t know anything about it. Unquestioning conformity with the customs, conventions, and values of the dominant group is not to live but to sleep. You will hardly be motivated to make the world a better place if you think that it is perfectly adequate as it is. One must be fearless when questioning life, one must be determined to uncover truth, for without truth there is no liberty, no progress. Once you can honestly face and accept the inadequacies of a system only then can you discover viable alternatives and no generation will ever be exempt from the duty of finding new ways to achieve perfection.

When the generations look back upon us they we be impelled to ask, ‘How did they not know? The tragedies, injustice, and villains were so obvious, how could they not care?’ Are you content with the status quo? Do you know the Better Way? Can you lead people to it? Have you the personal fortitude to go against the herd and make your way to green pastures?