May 13, 2018

12 Steps to Joy (4)
Trust in God (4)
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
And the Word was God.
The Word existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through the Word,
And nothing was created except through the Word.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
And the life of the Word brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
And the darkness can never extinguish it.”
John 1:1-5.

The Word was with God,
And the Word was God.
The Word existed in the beginning with God.

The challenge we have is seeing all of humanity, including oneself, our family, our neighbor, our fellow citizens of our country, and all of humanity, as one, despite the evidence of our senses, just as we have to see God as one having three persons, despite how crazy that sounds. To see in this manner requires a change in perspective of the universe. We have been taught by society and by “common sense” that I am I, and you are you, and never the twain shall meet. But Jesus said otherwise: “so that they may be one as We are one —” (John 17:21). We are one, and one in Jesus (the Word): “May they also be in us”. The Word is one with the Father and the Spirit, and we are one in the Word, and thus one with both the Word and the Father and the Spirit. That is absolutely mind-blowing to me. This statement forces us to think differently, to move away from the duality thinking that is our natural approach to life and to approach life in either/and way: I am me and you are you, but at the same time in some manner I am you and you are me, either/and. We call this non-dual thinking.
To think in a non-dual manner permits us to hold apparent contradictory ideas in our mind and to feel, in our heart, that both are right, or ‘either/or’ is correct. That is, I am me and you are you, but together we are united in a singular form that St. Paul called the “body of Christ”. St. Paul rarely talked of Jesus, and when he did he almost always used the term Jesus Christ, or Jesus the Christ. Jesus was a human being, a singular person with his own flesh and blood, but the Christ is more rightly understood as the physical and spiritual universe that we live in. When Paul talked of the “body of Christ” he was not speaking only of the human Jesus but of the universal Being we call the Christ. Jesus was one of the few (if not the only) humans that have been fully aware of that mixture of force while here in his body, that is, fully aware of the relationship of the universal Christ to what we call God, in the Person Jesus called Father, and we have termed the Trinity.
Here is where it gets crazy: or very strange. We are ourselves that we see in the mirror, and yet somehow, that person in the mirror, as well every person we see every day, form a unity in the reality of the Body of the Christ, that living entity that is the entire universe. We understand, or at least most of us have come to accept, that the material form that we carry around and call our body is made up of tiny bits that came from the earth, and is constantly being refreshed and replaced by other tiny bits from what we call the earth. The constant renewal of the physical body does not affect the “who” that I believe I am. Nor does it affect any of the beliefs and thought patters that are a part of my consciousness. We believe ourselves to be one, but we know from our studies of the body that we are all parts of the creature we know as the earth, which is part of the solar system, which is part of our very own galaxy — etc.
Yes, we are individual thought patterns and perceptions that may or may correlate with the physical reality, but form the being we call ‘myself’, or ‘me’. We are part of the Word, as Jesus said, and form the ‘Body of Christ’ as Paul said.

Meditation

My Beloved, I rest in Your Being. I am tired of trying to do everything myself, even though I understand that I exist on this earth only through joining with humanity for most of my existence. I have noticed that depending only on the physical patterns around me builds fear and grasping for more and more, but when I rest in Your Being I relax and know, just know, that all will be good as You promised. As I age, I find that I can do less and less, even though I work and spend my time as I have always done. It is in Your Love and gentle Breath that I can flow naturally and be one with all that is. I bow in gratitude to the vast pool of Love that I am immersed in, that we call the universe.

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MY BOOK, THE 12 STEPS TO JOY AND HAPPINESS, IS NOW AVAILABLE FROM HAY HOUSE, BALBOA PRESS, AMAZON, AND BARNES AND NOBLE, AS WELL AS OTHER SOURCES, IN HARD COVER, SOFT COVER, AND EBOOK FORMATS.
We are bound in the music of life where we dance and weave within that glorious melody, or what some call God. Now, God has said that we are the very image of God (Genesis 1:27), and as images of God, we have the inborn ability to have Joy and Happiness forever present in our life. The author, David L. Peters, is an octogenarian whose life has always been filled with joy, regardless of outward appearances. The wonders of the Kingdom of Heaven is everyone’s birthright, if you know how to let your Creator and the Universe enter your spirit. Jesus put it succinctly: “The Kingdom of God lies within” (Luke 17:21). The Kingdom of God, Paradise, Heaven: these lie within you, right now, waiting for you to only turn and see, and join in the dance. Paradise is right within us, but how do we unlock the door to this wonder of joy? This book lays a path open that the author has followed for almost 80 years, starting as a young boy in rural Ohio, and it operates as advertised. No matter how things look in life, how bad it seems, all one need do is look deeper within and find the joy that can fill life: life is good! The life of abundant joy and happiness is yours for the asking. Dip your toe in the living waters, and taste the Beauty of God that is awaiting.