Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
oic
-
P&S Moderators: JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat
What Jesus Said
- Thread starter Ninae
- Start date
I'm getting tired of all the arguments in this thread. I only wanted to start it because I thought it could be an inspiration or bring some comfort to people since it helped me when I was going through withdrawal this time last year. I don't really want to argue about it.
Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
Cool, duly noted.
Ziiirp
Bluelighter
^That's actually ziiirp mocking me I think. I've such an enquiring mind, it intimidates him
Sure. Thanks for derailing Ninae's thread yet another time. You're talented. At the same time, it should be questioned, whether talent exists at all. The possible insights we gain out of that discussion would probably push us all to a whole nother realm of knowledge.
swilow
Bluelight Crew
What do you contribute besides giving people shit? You're a fucking bully and a shit one at that.
Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
Well you just derailed it again. And so did I. Let's just stop posting in here. Sounds like a decent idea for a thread if you want to start one.
Ziiirp
Bluelighter
Thanks man. Your opinion means everything to me. But what actually is everything ? Let's start another sciolistic discussion about that to bring us all even further.
Man I almost feel enlightened now discussing this with you. As I wrote before : Putting spiritual seekers and hobby-philosophers in one subforum is a overbold idea imho.
Sorry for killing the thread. This was my last off-topic post here.
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swilow
Bluelight Crew
Good riddance.
LandsUnknown
Bluelighter
Jesus was the son of God, so of course he said many wise and profound things. In fact, all of the things that he actually said were extremely wise. The problems with religion haven't been caused by anything Jesus said but the fact that some people have twisted his words into something else. Some people have used religion as a way to become judgmental of others, unforgiving, cold, and even brought it into politics. Some have even gone to war over it. However, Jesus would be saddened to see that this is what religion became. If you look at the things the bible said and interpret it as it was meant to be interpreted, the Bible is a source of immense wisdom. However, given the spin that certain people have put on religion, many misconceptions about what it actually says have evolved. Some commonly held religious notions, such as that religion condemns gays and sex before marriage simply is not what the Bible said at all. The homophobia is an outright myth, whereas the sex before marriage bit is somewhat up for interpretation though it was never actually said. Jesus spoke positively of marriage, but he didn't directly condemn people who have relationships but simply opt against marriage. The issue was adultery, which is forbidden for the obvious reason of that it is emotionally harmful to the person who is being cheated on. This was merely how people in western cultures came to interpret it. I have just started getting into reading and researching the Bible, but even with the little bit of knowledge that I have gained I realized that it is important to interpret it in YOUR OWN way and not to simply have it dictated to you by organized religion. The problems with religion come from being part of organized religion rather than anything that Jesus said. Also, not everything in the bible is meant literally. Some of it is metaphorical or allegorical rather than meant to be interpreted literally. It isn't meant to be read like a book of laws, it's a spiritual text.
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^ This is a really nice way to approach it.
I have reread the bible this spring from a skeptical perspective, it was a very informative as a spiritual text. I attempt to take each book from the perspective of the accredited author and view it as a separate work, the way it was written. Some books hold up very well and carry very clear messages that really do stand alone, specifically the words and stories of Jesus.
I have reread the bible this spring from a skeptical perspective, it was a very informative as a spiritual text. I attempt to take each book from the perspective of the accredited author and view it as a separate work, the way it was written. Some books hold up very well and carry very clear messages that really do stand alone, specifically the words and stories of Jesus.
A PHARISEE elated with himself stood forth among the multitudes and said to Jesus,
2) Sir, we would have you demonstrate. If you are truly Christ who was to come, then you can surely do what black magicians cannot do.
3) Lo, they can talk, and hold the multitudes with words of power; and they can heal the sick and drive the demons out of those obsessed;
4) They can control the storms; and fire and earth and air will hear and answer when they speak.
5) Now, if you will ascend and from that tower fly across the sea, we will believe that you are sent from God.
6) And Jesus said,
No black magician ever lived a holy life; you have a demonstration of the Christ-life every day.
7) But lo, you evil and adulterous scribes and Pharisees, you cannot see a spirit sign, because your spirit eyes are full of carnal self.
8 ) You seek a sign to please your curiosity. You walk the very lowest planes of carnal life and cry, Phenomena! show us a sign and then we will believe.
9) I was not sent to earth to buy up faith as men buy fish and fruit and rubbish in the streets.
10) Men seem to think it quite a favor done to me when they confess their faith in me and in the holy Christ.
11) What does it matter unto me as man if you believe or disbelieve?
12) Faith is not something you can buy with coin; it is not something you can sell for gold.
13) Once Mart, a beggar, followed me and cried, Give me a silver piece; then I will believe in you.
14) And you are like this beggar man; you offer to exchange your faith for signs.
15) But I will give to all the world one sign as surety that the Christ abides with me.
16) You all have read the parable of Jonah and the fish, wherein it is recorded that the prophet spent three days and nights within the stomach of the mighty fish, and then came forth.
17) The son of man will spend three days and nights within the heart of earth and then come forth again, and men will see and know.
18 ) Behold, the light may be so bright that men cannot see anything.
19) The Spirit light has shone so brightly over Galilee that you who hear me now are blind.
20) You may have read the words of prophet Azrael; he said, The light shall shine out brightly in the darkness of the night, and men shall comprehend it not.
21) That time has come; the light shines forth; you see it not.
22) The Queen of Sheba sat in darkest night and still she yearned for light.
23) She came to hear the words of wisdom from the lips of Solomon, and she believed;
24) And she became a living torch, and when she reached her home, lo, all Arabia was filled with light.
25) A greater far than Solomon is here; the Christ is here; the Day Star has risen, and you reject the light.
26) And you remember Nineveh, the wicked city of Assyria, which God had marked to be destroyed by shock and flame unless the people turned and walked in ways of right.
27) And Jonah raised his voice and said, In forty days shall Nineveh be razed, and her wealth shall be destroyed.
28 ) The people heard and they believed; and they reformed and turned to ways of right, and lo, their city was not razed; was not destroyed.
29) You men of Galilee, I tell you that Arabia and Nineveh will testify against you in the judgment day.
30) Behold, for every one to whom I speak has in him all the fires of God; but they are lying dead.
31) The will is bridled by the flesh desires, and it brings not the ethers of the fires to vibrate into light.
32) Look, therefore, to your soul and note, Is not the light within you dark as night?
33) There is no breath but Holy Breath that e'er can fan your fires of life into a living flame and make them light.
34) And Holy Breath can raise the ethers of the fires to light in none but hearts of purity and love.
35) Hear, then, you men of Galilee, Make pure the heart, admit the Holy Breath, and then your bodies will be full of light.
36) And like a city on a hill, your light will shine afar, and thus your light may light the way for other men.
2) Sir, we would have you demonstrate. If you are truly Christ who was to come, then you can surely do what black magicians cannot do.
3) Lo, they can talk, and hold the multitudes with words of power; and they can heal the sick and drive the demons out of those obsessed;
4) They can control the storms; and fire and earth and air will hear and answer when they speak.
5) Now, if you will ascend and from that tower fly across the sea, we will believe that you are sent from God.
6) And Jesus said,
No black magician ever lived a holy life; you have a demonstration of the Christ-life every day.
7) But lo, you evil and adulterous scribes and Pharisees, you cannot see a spirit sign, because your spirit eyes are full of carnal self.
8 ) You seek a sign to please your curiosity. You walk the very lowest planes of carnal life and cry, Phenomena! show us a sign and then we will believe.
9) I was not sent to earth to buy up faith as men buy fish and fruit and rubbish in the streets.
10) Men seem to think it quite a favor done to me when they confess their faith in me and in the holy Christ.
11) What does it matter unto me as man if you believe or disbelieve?
12) Faith is not something you can buy with coin; it is not something you can sell for gold.
13) Once Mart, a beggar, followed me and cried, Give me a silver piece; then I will believe in you.
14) And you are like this beggar man; you offer to exchange your faith for signs.
15) But I will give to all the world one sign as surety that the Christ abides with me.
16) You all have read the parable of Jonah and the fish, wherein it is recorded that the prophet spent three days and nights within the stomach of the mighty fish, and then came forth.
17) The son of man will spend three days and nights within the heart of earth and then come forth again, and men will see and know.
18 ) Behold, the light may be so bright that men cannot see anything.
19) The Spirit light has shone so brightly over Galilee that you who hear me now are blind.
20) You may have read the words of prophet Azrael; he said, The light shall shine out brightly in the darkness of the night, and men shall comprehend it not.
21) That time has come; the light shines forth; you see it not.
22) The Queen of Sheba sat in darkest night and still she yearned for light.
23) She came to hear the words of wisdom from the lips of Solomon, and she believed;
24) And she became a living torch, and when she reached her home, lo, all Arabia was filled with light.
25) A greater far than Solomon is here; the Christ is here; the Day Star has risen, and you reject the light.
26) And you remember Nineveh, the wicked city of Assyria, which God had marked to be destroyed by shock and flame unless the people turned and walked in ways of right.
27) And Jonah raised his voice and said, In forty days shall Nineveh be razed, and her wealth shall be destroyed.
28 ) The people heard and they believed; and they reformed and turned to ways of right, and lo, their city was not razed; was not destroyed.
29) You men of Galilee, I tell you that Arabia and Nineveh will testify against you in the judgment day.
30) Behold, for every one to whom I speak has in him all the fires of God; but they are lying dead.
31) The will is bridled by the flesh desires, and it brings not the ethers of the fires to vibrate into light.
32) Look, therefore, to your soul and note, Is not the light within you dark as night?
33) There is no breath but Holy Breath that e'er can fan your fires of life into a living flame and make them light.
34) And Holy Breath can raise the ethers of the fires to light in none but hearts of purity and love.
35) Hear, then, you men of Galilee, Make pure the heart, admit the Holy Breath, and then your bodies will be full of light.
36) And like a city on a hill, your light will shine afar, and thus your light may light the way for other men.
Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
The Old Testament does say a lot of specific things about those topics and others (such as when it's okay to kill a slave or your wife). But Jesus was trying to push against the world of the Old Testament, and he was preaching a completely different message. That's why I think it's really weird when Christians use the OT as evidence of anything. Yeah, if you follow the OT ways, you can justify pretty much any atrocity because that god was a psychopath. But if you claim to be Christian you should follow the New Testament exclusively, and use the OT simply as an understanding of the world and ethos in which Jesus was coming from.
THE multitudes were wild with selfish thought; none recognized the rights and needs of any other one.
2) The stronger pushed the weak aside, and trampled on them in their haste to be the first to get a blessing for himself.
3) And Jesus said,
Behold the cage of beasts untamed; a den of stinging vipers, maddened by their fiendish greed of selfish gain!
4) I tell you, men, the benefits that come to men who see no further than themselves are baubles in the morning light;
5) They are unreal; they pass away. The selfish soul is fed today; the food does not assimilate; the soul grows not, and then it must be fed again, and then again.
6) Behold, a selfish man obsessed by just one spirit of the air; by the Omnific Word the spirit is cast out;
7) It wanders through dry places, seeking rest and finding none.
8 ) And then it comes again; the selfish man has failed to close and lock the door;
9) The unclean spirit finds the house all swept and cleaned; it enters in and takes with it full seven other spirits more unclean than is itself; and there they dwell.
10) The last state of the man is more than sevenfold more wretched than the first.
11) And so it is with you who snatch the blessings that belong to other men.
12) While Jesus spoke a certain woman who stood near exclaimed,
Most blessed is the mother of this man of God!
13) And Jesus said,
Yes, blest is she; but doubly blest are they who hear, receive and live the word of God.
14) A Pharisee of wealth prepared a feast, and Jesus and the twelve, together with the masters from afar, were guests.
15) And Jesus did not wash his hands according to the strictest Pharisaic rules, before he ate; when this the Pharisee observed he marvelled much.
16) And Jesus said,
My host, why do you marvel that I did not wash my hands?
17) The Pharisees wash well their hands and feet; they cleanse the body every day when, lo, within is every form of filth.
18 ) Their hearts are full of wickedness, extortions and deceit.
19) Did not the God who made the outside of the body make the inside, too?
20) And then he said,
Woe unto you, you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue, and every herb, and pass by judgment and the love of God.
21) Woe unto you, you Pharisees! you love the highest seats in synagogues and courts, and bid for salutations in the market place.
22) Woe unto you, you tinseled gentry of the land! no man would ever think you servants of the Lord of hosts by what you do.
23) A lawyer sitting near remarked,
Rabboni, your words are harsh, and then in what you say you censure us; and why?
24) And Jesus said,
Woe unto you, you masters of the law! you heap great burdens on the sons of men, yea, loads by far too great for them to bear, and you will never help to bear a feather's weight yourselves.
25) Woe unto you! you build the tombs of prophets and of seers; they whom your fathers killed; and you are parties to the crimes.
26) And now behold, for God has sent again to you his holy men - apostles, prophets, seers; and you are persecuting them.
27) The time is near when you will plead against them in the courts; will spurn them on the streets; will cast them into prison cells, and kill them with a fiend's delight.
28 ) I tell you, men, the blood of all the holy men of God that has been shed from righteous Abel down to that of Zacharias, father of holy John,
29) Who was struck down beside the altar in the Holy Place;
30) The blood of all these holy men has made more red the hands of this ungodly generation.
31) Woe unto you, you masters of the law! you snatch the keys of knowledge from the hands of men;
32) You close the doors; you enter not yourselves, and suffer not the willing ones to enter in.
33) His words provoked the Pharisees, the lawyers and the scribes, and they, resenting, poured upon him torrents of abuse.
34) The truths he spoke came like a thunderbolt from heaven; the rulers counseled how they might ensnare him by his words; they sought a legal way to shed his blood.
2) The stronger pushed the weak aside, and trampled on them in their haste to be the first to get a blessing for himself.
3) And Jesus said,
Behold the cage of beasts untamed; a den of stinging vipers, maddened by their fiendish greed of selfish gain!
4) I tell you, men, the benefits that come to men who see no further than themselves are baubles in the morning light;
5) They are unreal; they pass away. The selfish soul is fed today; the food does not assimilate; the soul grows not, and then it must be fed again, and then again.
6) Behold, a selfish man obsessed by just one spirit of the air; by the Omnific Word the spirit is cast out;
7) It wanders through dry places, seeking rest and finding none.
8 ) And then it comes again; the selfish man has failed to close and lock the door;
9) The unclean spirit finds the house all swept and cleaned; it enters in and takes with it full seven other spirits more unclean than is itself; and there they dwell.
10) The last state of the man is more than sevenfold more wretched than the first.
11) And so it is with you who snatch the blessings that belong to other men.
12) While Jesus spoke a certain woman who stood near exclaimed,
Most blessed is the mother of this man of God!
13) And Jesus said,
Yes, blest is she; but doubly blest are they who hear, receive and live the word of God.
14) A Pharisee of wealth prepared a feast, and Jesus and the twelve, together with the masters from afar, were guests.
15) And Jesus did not wash his hands according to the strictest Pharisaic rules, before he ate; when this the Pharisee observed he marvelled much.
16) And Jesus said,
My host, why do you marvel that I did not wash my hands?
17) The Pharisees wash well their hands and feet; they cleanse the body every day when, lo, within is every form of filth.
18 ) Their hearts are full of wickedness, extortions and deceit.
19) Did not the God who made the outside of the body make the inside, too?
20) And then he said,
Woe unto you, you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue, and every herb, and pass by judgment and the love of God.
21) Woe unto you, you Pharisees! you love the highest seats in synagogues and courts, and bid for salutations in the market place.
22) Woe unto you, you tinseled gentry of the land! no man would ever think you servants of the Lord of hosts by what you do.
23) A lawyer sitting near remarked,
Rabboni, your words are harsh, and then in what you say you censure us; and why?
24) And Jesus said,
Woe unto you, you masters of the law! you heap great burdens on the sons of men, yea, loads by far too great for them to bear, and you will never help to bear a feather's weight yourselves.
25) Woe unto you! you build the tombs of prophets and of seers; they whom your fathers killed; and you are parties to the crimes.
26) And now behold, for God has sent again to you his holy men - apostles, prophets, seers; and you are persecuting them.
27) The time is near when you will plead against them in the courts; will spurn them on the streets; will cast them into prison cells, and kill them with a fiend's delight.
28 ) I tell you, men, the blood of all the holy men of God that has been shed from righteous Abel down to that of Zacharias, father of holy John,
29) Who was struck down beside the altar in the Holy Place;
30) The blood of all these holy men has made more red the hands of this ungodly generation.
31) Woe unto you, you masters of the law! you snatch the keys of knowledge from the hands of men;
32) You close the doors; you enter not yourselves, and suffer not the willing ones to enter in.
33) His words provoked the Pharisees, the lawyers and the scribes, and they, resenting, poured upon him torrents of abuse.
34) The truths he spoke came like a thunderbolt from heaven; the rulers counseled how they might ensnare him by his words; they sought a legal way to shed his blood.
I didn't realise how outspoken he was against the establishemnt. No wonder he enraged the rulers. And in the end the common people turned on him, too, because his standards were to high for them to live upto.
And that is still the case today. His standards are too high for nearly everyone to live upto. But I think that was kind of the point. He didn't come to give us a comfortable religion to practice or anything he knew would come naturally to human nature. It was meant to be a counter-weight against everything else.
And that is still the case today. His standards are too high for nearly everyone to live upto. But I think that was kind of the point. He didn't come to give us a comfortable religion to practice or anything he knew would come naturally to human nature. It was meant to be a counter-weight against everything else.
Ziiirp
Bluelighter
That's also the difference to Siddharta and Lao Tze. They've been peaceful prophets, who teached and preached the pacifistic self-related path instead of a revolution (that could not be televised back then), that can only be a short term solution.
NOW, when the feast was finished, Jesus, with the foreign masters and the twelve, with Mary, Miriam and a band of loyal women who believed in Christ, went to a place apart to pray.
2) And when their silence ended Jesus said,
Be on your guard; the leaven of the Pharisees is being thrown in every measure of the meal of life.
3) It is a poison that will taint whatever it may touch; and it will blight the soul as sure as the fumes of Diabolos; it is hypocrisy.
4) The Pharisees seem fair in speech, but they are diabolical in heart.
5) And then they seem to think that thought is something they can lock within themselves.
6) They do not seem to know that every thought and wish is photographed and then preserved within the Book of Life to be revealed at any time the masters will.
7) That which is thought, or wished, or done in darkest night shall be proclaimed in brightest day;
8 ) That which is whispered in the ear within the secret place shall be made known upon the streets.
9) And in the judgment day when all the books are opened up, these men, and every other man, shall be a-judged, not by what they've said or done,
10) But by the ways in which they used the thoughts of God, and how the ethers of eternal love were made to serve;
11) For men may make these ethers serve the carnal self, or serve the holy self within.
12) Behold, these men may kill the body of this flesh; but what of that? the flesh is but a transitory thing, and soon, by natural law, will pass;
13) Their slaughter only hastens nature's work a little time.
14) And when they kill the flesh, they reach their bounds of power; they cannot kill the soul.
15) But nature is the keeper of the soul as of the flesh, and in the harvest time of soul, the trees of life are all inspected by the judge;
16) And every tree that bears no fruit of good is plucked up by the roots and cast into the flames.
17) Who then shall you regard? Not him who has the power to kill the flesh, and nothing more.
18 ) Regard the mighty one who has the power to dissolve both soul and body in the flames of nature's fire.
19) But man is king; he may direct his thoughts, his loves, his life, and gain the prize of everlasting life.
20) And you are not abandoned in your struggle for the crown of life. Your Father lives, and you shall live.
21) God has a care for every living thing. He numbers stars, and suns, and moons;
22) He numbers angels, men and every thing below; the birds, the flowers, the trees;
23) The very petals of the rose he knows by name, and every one is numbered in his Book of Life;
24) And every hair upon your head, and every drop of blood within your veins, he knows by number and by rhythm.
25) He hears the birdling's call, the cricket's chirp, the glow worm's song; and not a sparrow falls to earth without his knowledge and consent.
26) A sparrow seems a thing of little worth; yea, five of them are worth two farthings in the market place, and yet God cares for every one of them.
27) Will he not care much more for you who bear his image in your soul?
28 ) Fear not to make confession of the Christ before the sons of men, and God will own you as his sons and daughters in the presence of the host of heaven.
29) If you deny the Christ before the sons of men, then God will not receive you as his own before the hosts of heaven.
30) And more I say, Fear not when men shall bring you up before the rulers of the land to answer for your faith.
31) Behold, the Holy Breath shall teach you in your hour of need what you should say, and what is best to leave unsaid.
32) And then the Christines went again to teach the multitudes.
2) And when their silence ended Jesus said,
Be on your guard; the leaven of the Pharisees is being thrown in every measure of the meal of life.
3) It is a poison that will taint whatever it may touch; and it will blight the soul as sure as the fumes of Diabolos; it is hypocrisy.
4) The Pharisees seem fair in speech, but they are diabolical in heart.
5) And then they seem to think that thought is something they can lock within themselves.
6) They do not seem to know that every thought and wish is photographed and then preserved within the Book of Life to be revealed at any time the masters will.
7) That which is thought, or wished, or done in darkest night shall be proclaimed in brightest day;
8 ) That which is whispered in the ear within the secret place shall be made known upon the streets.
9) And in the judgment day when all the books are opened up, these men, and every other man, shall be a-judged, not by what they've said or done,
10) But by the ways in which they used the thoughts of God, and how the ethers of eternal love were made to serve;
11) For men may make these ethers serve the carnal self, or serve the holy self within.
12) Behold, these men may kill the body of this flesh; but what of that? the flesh is but a transitory thing, and soon, by natural law, will pass;
13) Their slaughter only hastens nature's work a little time.
14) And when they kill the flesh, they reach their bounds of power; they cannot kill the soul.
15) But nature is the keeper of the soul as of the flesh, and in the harvest time of soul, the trees of life are all inspected by the judge;
16) And every tree that bears no fruit of good is plucked up by the roots and cast into the flames.
17) Who then shall you regard? Not him who has the power to kill the flesh, and nothing more.
18 ) Regard the mighty one who has the power to dissolve both soul and body in the flames of nature's fire.
19) But man is king; he may direct his thoughts, his loves, his life, and gain the prize of everlasting life.
20) And you are not abandoned in your struggle for the crown of life. Your Father lives, and you shall live.
21) God has a care for every living thing. He numbers stars, and suns, and moons;
22) He numbers angels, men and every thing below; the birds, the flowers, the trees;
23) The very petals of the rose he knows by name, and every one is numbered in his Book of Life;
24) And every hair upon your head, and every drop of blood within your veins, he knows by number and by rhythm.
25) He hears the birdling's call, the cricket's chirp, the glow worm's song; and not a sparrow falls to earth without his knowledge and consent.
26) A sparrow seems a thing of little worth; yea, five of them are worth two farthings in the market place, and yet God cares for every one of them.
27) Will he not care much more for you who bear his image in your soul?
28 ) Fear not to make confession of the Christ before the sons of men, and God will own you as his sons and daughters in the presence of the host of heaven.
29) If you deny the Christ before the sons of men, then God will not receive you as his own before the hosts of heaven.
30) And more I say, Fear not when men shall bring you up before the rulers of the land to answer for your faith.
31) Behold, the Holy Breath shall teach you in your hour of need what you should say, and what is best to leave unsaid.
32) And then the Christines went again to teach the multitudes.
AND Miriam stood before the surging crowd, and casting up her eyes to heaven she sung anew the song of victory:
2) Bring forth the harp, the vina and the lyre; bring forth the highest sounding cymbal, all ye choirs of heaven. Join in the song, the new, new song.
3) The Lord of hosts has stooped to hear the cries of men, and lo, the citadel of Beelzebub is shaking as a leaf before the wind.
4) The sword of Gideon is again unsheathed.
5) The Lord, with his own hand has pulled far back the curtains of the night; the sun of truth is flooding heaven and earth;
6) The demons of the dark, of ignorance and death, are fleeing fast; are disappearing as the dew beneath the morning sun.
7) God is our strength and song; is our salvation and our hope, and we will build anew a house for him;
8 ) Will cleanse our hearts, and purify their chambers, every one. We are the temple of the Holy Breath.
9) We need no more a tent within the wilderness; no more a temple built with hands.
10) We do not seek the Holy Land, nor yet Jerusalem.
11) We are the tent of God; we are his temple built without the sound of edged tools.
12) We are the Holy Land; we are the New Jerusalem; Allelujah, praise the Lord!
13) And when the song was done the multitudes exclaimed,
Praise God.
14) And Jesus said,
Behold the way!
15) The sons of men have groped for ages in the darkness of Egyptian night.
16) The Pharaohs of sense have bound them with their chains.
17) But God has whispered through the mists of time and told them of a land of liberty and love.
18 ) And he has sent his Logos forth to light the way.
19) The Red Sea rolls between the promised land and Egypt's sands.
20) The Red Sea is the carnal mind.
21) Behold, the Logos reaches out his hand; the sea divides; the carnal mind is reft in twain; the sons of men walk through dry shod.
22) The Pharaohs of sense would stay them in their flight; the waters of the sea return; the Pharaohs of sense are lost and men are free.
23) For just a little while men tread the wilderness of Sin; the Logos leads the way;
24) And when at last men stand upon the Jordan's brink, these waters stay, and men step forth into their own.
2) Bring forth the harp, the vina and the lyre; bring forth the highest sounding cymbal, all ye choirs of heaven. Join in the song, the new, new song.
3) The Lord of hosts has stooped to hear the cries of men, and lo, the citadel of Beelzebub is shaking as a leaf before the wind.
4) The sword of Gideon is again unsheathed.
5) The Lord, with his own hand has pulled far back the curtains of the night; the sun of truth is flooding heaven and earth;
6) The demons of the dark, of ignorance and death, are fleeing fast; are disappearing as the dew beneath the morning sun.
7) God is our strength and song; is our salvation and our hope, and we will build anew a house for him;
8 ) Will cleanse our hearts, and purify their chambers, every one. We are the temple of the Holy Breath.
9) We need no more a tent within the wilderness; no more a temple built with hands.
10) We do not seek the Holy Land, nor yet Jerusalem.
11) We are the tent of God; we are his temple built without the sound of edged tools.
12) We are the Holy Land; we are the New Jerusalem; Allelujah, praise the Lord!
13) And when the song was done the multitudes exclaimed,
Praise God.
14) And Jesus said,
Behold the way!
15) The sons of men have groped for ages in the darkness of Egyptian night.
16) The Pharaohs of sense have bound them with their chains.
17) But God has whispered through the mists of time and told them of a land of liberty and love.
18 ) And he has sent his Logos forth to light the way.
19) The Red Sea rolls between the promised land and Egypt's sands.
20) The Red Sea is the carnal mind.
21) Behold, the Logos reaches out his hand; the sea divides; the carnal mind is reft in twain; the sons of men walk through dry shod.
22) The Pharaohs of sense would stay them in their flight; the waters of the sea return; the Pharaohs of sense are lost and men are free.
23) For just a little while men tread the wilderness of Sin; the Logos leads the way;
24) And when at last men stand upon the Jordan's brink, these waters stay, and men step forth into their own.
AND Jesus taught the multitudes; and while he spoke a man stood forth and said,
2) Rabboni, hear my plea: My father died and left a large estate; my brother seized it all, and now refuses me my share.
3) I pray that you will bid him do the right, and give me what is mine.
4) And Jesus said,
I am not come to be a judge in such affairs; I am no henchman of the court.
5) God sent me not to force a man to do the right.
6) In every man there is a sense of right; but many men regard it not.
7) The fumes that rise from selfishness have formed a crust about their sense of right that veils their inner light, so that they cannot comprehend nor recognize the rights of other men.
8 ) This veil you cannot tear away by force of arms, and there is naught that can dissolve this crust but knowledge and love of God.
9) While men are in the mire, the skies seem far away; when men are on the mountain top, the skies are near, and they can almost touch the stars.
10) Then Jesus turned and to the twelve he said,
Behold the many in the mire of carnal life!
11) The leaven of truth will change the miry clay to solid rock, and men can walk and find the path that leads up to the mountain top.
12) You cannot haste; but you can scatter forth this leaven with a generous hand.
13) When men have learned the truth that bears upon its face the law of right, then they will haste to give every man his dues.
14) Then to the people Jesus said,
Take heed, and covet not. The wealth of men does not consist in what they seem to have - in lands, in silver and in gold.
15) These things are only borrowed wealth. No man can corner up the gifts of God.
16) The things of nature are the things of God, and what is God's belongs to every man alike.
17) The wealth of soul lies in the purity of life, and in the wisdom that descends from heaven.
18 ) Behold, a rich man's ground brought forth abundantly; his barns were far too small to hold his grain, and to himself he said,
19) What shall I do? I must not give my grain away; I must not let it go to waste; and then he said,
20) This will I do; I will tear down these little barns and build up larger ones; there I will store away my grain and I will say,
21) My soul take now your ease; you have enough for many years; eat, drink and fill yourself and be content.
22) But God looked down and saw the man; he saw his selfish heart and said,
23) You foolish man, this night your soul will quit its house of flesh; then who will have your garnered wealth?
24) You men of Galilee, lay not up treasures in the vaults of earth; accumulated wealth will blight your soul.
25) God does not give men wealth to hoard away in secret vaults. Men are but stewards of God's wealth, and they must use it for the common good.
26) To every steward who is true to self, to other men, to every thing that is, the Lord will say, Well done.
2) Rabboni, hear my plea: My father died and left a large estate; my brother seized it all, and now refuses me my share.
3) I pray that you will bid him do the right, and give me what is mine.
4) And Jesus said,
I am not come to be a judge in such affairs; I am no henchman of the court.
5) God sent me not to force a man to do the right.
6) In every man there is a sense of right; but many men regard it not.
7) The fumes that rise from selfishness have formed a crust about their sense of right that veils their inner light, so that they cannot comprehend nor recognize the rights of other men.
8 ) This veil you cannot tear away by force of arms, and there is naught that can dissolve this crust but knowledge and love of God.
9) While men are in the mire, the skies seem far away; when men are on the mountain top, the skies are near, and they can almost touch the stars.
10) Then Jesus turned and to the twelve he said,
Behold the many in the mire of carnal life!
11) The leaven of truth will change the miry clay to solid rock, and men can walk and find the path that leads up to the mountain top.
12) You cannot haste; but you can scatter forth this leaven with a generous hand.
13) When men have learned the truth that bears upon its face the law of right, then they will haste to give every man his dues.
14) Then to the people Jesus said,
Take heed, and covet not. The wealth of men does not consist in what they seem to have - in lands, in silver and in gold.
15) These things are only borrowed wealth. No man can corner up the gifts of God.
16) The things of nature are the things of God, and what is God's belongs to every man alike.
17) The wealth of soul lies in the purity of life, and in the wisdom that descends from heaven.
18 ) Behold, a rich man's ground brought forth abundantly; his barns were far too small to hold his grain, and to himself he said,
19) What shall I do? I must not give my grain away; I must not let it go to waste; and then he said,
20) This will I do; I will tear down these little barns and build up larger ones; there I will store away my grain and I will say,
21) My soul take now your ease; you have enough for many years; eat, drink and fill yourself and be content.
22) But God looked down and saw the man; he saw his selfish heart and said,
23) You foolish man, this night your soul will quit its house of flesh; then who will have your garnered wealth?
24) You men of Galilee, lay not up treasures in the vaults of earth; accumulated wealth will blight your soul.
25) God does not give men wealth to hoard away in secret vaults. Men are but stewards of God's wealth, and they must use it for the common good.
26) To every steward who is true to self, to other men, to every thing that is, the Lord will say, Well done.
AND Jesus left the multitudes and went with his disciples up to Mary's home; and as they sat about the board to dine he said,
2) My little flock, fear not; it is your Father's will that you shall rule the kingdom of the soul.
3) A ruler in the house of God is servant of the Lord of Hosts, and man cannot serve God except by serving men.
4) A servant in the house of God cannot be servant in the house of wealth; nor in the synagogue of sense.
5) If you are tied to lands, or bonds, or wealth of earth, your hearts are knit to things of earth; for where your treasures are there are your hearts.
6) Dispose of all your wealth, distribute it among the poor, and put your trust in God, and you nor yours will ever come to want.
7) This is a test of faith, and God will not accept the service of the faithless one.
8 ) The time is ripe; your Master comes upon the clouds; the eastern sky is glowing with his presence now.
9) Put on reception robes; gird up your loins; trim up your lamps and fill them well with oil, and be prepared to meet your Lord; when you are ready, he will come.
10) Thrice blessed are the servants who are ready to receive their Lord.
11) Behold, for he will gird himself, and will prepare a sumptuous feast for every one, and he himself will serve.
12) It matters not when he shall come; it may be at the second watch; it may be at the third; but blessed are the servants who are ready to receive.
13) You cannot leave your door ajar and go to sleep, and wait in blissful ignorance of the fleeting time;
14) For thieves will surely come and take away your goods and bind and carry you away to robbers' dens.
15) And if you are not carried forth, the Master when he comes will not regard a sleeping guard as friend, but as a foe.
16) Beloved, these are times when every man must be awake and at his post, for none can tell the hour nor the day when man shall be revealed.
17) And Peter said,
Lord is this parable for us, or for the multitudes?
18 ) And Jesus said,
Why need you ask? God is not a man that he should show respect for one and cast another off.
19) Whoever will may come and gird himself, and trim his lamp, and find a turret in the tower of life where he may watch, and be prepared to meet the Lord.
20) But you, as children of the light, have come, and you have learned the language of the court, and may stand forth and lead the way.
21) But you may wait, and think that you are ready to receive the Lord, and still he does not come.
22) And you may grow impatient and begin to long for carnal ways again, and may begin to exercise your rule;
23) To beat, and otherwise maltreat the servants of the house, and fill yourselves with wine and meat.
24) And what will say the Lord when he shall come?
25) Behold, for he will cast the faithless servant from his house; and many years will come and go before he can be cleansed, and be thought worthy to receive his Lord.
26) The servant who has come into the light, who knows the Master's will and does it not; the trusted guard who goes to sleep within the turret of the tower of life,
27) Shall feel the lash of justice many times, while he who does not know his Master's will and does it not, will not receive the graver punishment.
28 ) The man who comes and stands before the open door of opportunity and does not enter in, but goes his way,
29) Will come again and find the door made fast, and when he calls, the door will open not,
30) The guard will say, you had the pass-word once, but you threw it away and now the Master knows you not; depart.
31) And verily I say to you, To whom much has been given, much is required; to whom a little has been given, a little only is required.
2) My little flock, fear not; it is your Father's will that you shall rule the kingdom of the soul.
3) A ruler in the house of God is servant of the Lord of Hosts, and man cannot serve God except by serving men.
4) A servant in the house of God cannot be servant in the house of wealth; nor in the synagogue of sense.
5) If you are tied to lands, or bonds, or wealth of earth, your hearts are knit to things of earth; for where your treasures are there are your hearts.
6) Dispose of all your wealth, distribute it among the poor, and put your trust in God, and you nor yours will ever come to want.
7) This is a test of faith, and God will not accept the service of the faithless one.
8 ) The time is ripe; your Master comes upon the clouds; the eastern sky is glowing with his presence now.
9) Put on reception robes; gird up your loins; trim up your lamps and fill them well with oil, and be prepared to meet your Lord; when you are ready, he will come.
10) Thrice blessed are the servants who are ready to receive their Lord.
11) Behold, for he will gird himself, and will prepare a sumptuous feast for every one, and he himself will serve.
12) It matters not when he shall come; it may be at the second watch; it may be at the third; but blessed are the servants who are ready to receive.
13) You cannot leave your door ajar and go to sleep, and wait in blissful ignorance of the fleeting time;
14) For thieves will surely come and take away your goods and bind and carry you away to robbers' dens.
15) And if you are not carried forth, the Master when he comes will not regard a sleeping guard as friend, but as a foe.
16) Beloved, these are times when every man must be awake and at his post, for none can tell the hour nor the day when man shall be revealed.
17) And Peter said,
Lord is this parable for us, or for the multitudes?
18 ) And Jesus said,
Why need you ask? God is not a man that he should show respect for one and cast another off.
19) Whoever will may come and gird himself, and trim his lamp, and find a turret in the tower of life where he may watch, and be prepared to meet the Lord.
20) But you, as children of the light, have come, and you have learned the language of the court, and may stand forth and lead the way.
21) But you may wait, and think that you are ready to receive the Lord, and still he does not come.
22) And you may grow impatient and begin to long for carnal ways again, and may begin to exercise your rule;
23) To beat, and otherwise maltreat the servants of the house, and fill yourselves with wine and meat.
24) And what will say the Lord when he shall come?
25) Behold, for he will cast the faithless servant from his house; and many years will come and go before he can be cleansed, and be thought worthy to receive his Lord.
26) The servant who has come into the light, who knows the Master's will and does it not; the trusted guard who goes to sleep within the turret of the tower of life,
27) Shall feel the lash of justice many times, while he who does not know his Master's will and does it not, will not receive the graver punishment.
28 ) The man who comes and stands before the open door of opportunity and does not enter in, but goes his way,
29) Will come again and find the door made fast, and when he calls, the door will open not,
30) The guard will say, you had the pass-word once, but you threw it away and now the Master knows you not; depart.
31) And verily I say to you, To whom much has been given, much is required; to whom a little has been given, a little only is required.