Tag Archives: Jesus

* The poop on the stoop

OUR BEST POSTS, Qabala, Squalor, , , , , , ,

The shelter boots us out at 5:45 a.m. daily.  You must take all your belongings with you and cannot come back until 2:30.

Until February 2013, my custom on non-work days was to go to Dunkin’ Donuts to pray, drink coffee and use the bathroom, until the library would open at 10:00 and I could go online.  Then the temp agency closed down, and I could no longer afford Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and so began going to McDonald’s instead.

Some days I would arrive at Dunkin’ Donuts before opening.  One such morning, I arrived to find a large, neat pile of human feces on the doorstep.  It was clearly no accident.  Who had left it there, and why, had no bearing on the fact that it was there now.

When staff arrived we opened the door and stepped inside very carefully to avoid any contact between the door and the stool, or our feet and the stool.  However, I knew that if nothing were done about it, eventually, inevitably, customers who could not take the time to be as observant and careful would step in it and begin tracking it through the store.
Continue reading * The poop on the stoop →

o The Parable of the Great Dinner

Bible, , , ,

Luke 14:

15One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. 17At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ 19Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ 20Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” 23Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

This is based on the story of the great Passover of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 30.

* Chaos overwhelms the poor

Bible, Dependency, Justice, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Squalor, , , , , , , ,

Some weeks ago, I stood in line awaiting check-in at the shelter. This place charges $3 a night. I was holding my money in my hand, and someone playfully tugged at it. I snapped. I said, “You don’t value your life much, do you?”

Minutes later, I explained this to someone else. I said, “Don’t take a man’s last dollar.” “Why not?” he asked. I said, ” ‘Cause that’s the one he’ll die for. That’s the one he’ll kill for.”

Don’t take my last dollar. That’s the one I’ll kill for.

I’ve been on hard times since 2004. If I lose, or am robbed or cheated, of $20 or $50, that’s a pretty significant amount. But it doesn’t hurt all that much if I have more, and know more is coming. However, if I lose, or someone robs or cheats me of my last $1 — that’s the one that really hurts. That’s the one I’ll kill for.

These memories came to me as I reflected on Maggie Fox’s 08/29/2013 article, “Poor people aren’t stupid; bad decisions are from being overwhelmed, study finds.”
Continue reading * Chaos overwhelms the poor →

x Prayer primer

Bible, OUR BEST POSTS, Science, , , , , , , , ,

nanocrystals2 edited
All my life, I’ve been fascinated with things that glow in the dark.  Where does the light come from?  This is now fundamental to my understanding of prayer, and of my vocation.

The picture shows what I take for the latest advance in the world of fluorescent materials.  Here are germanium nanoparticles in a colorless colloidal (gelatinous) suspension, being irradiated by ultraviolet light.  By virtue merely of where they are and what they are, the invisible light that shines on these particles is changed into visible light.

The nanoparticles catalyze that process:  they do no work of their own, expend no energies of their own, and take no active part in the process; but it won’t occur without them.
Continue reading x Prayer primer →

* Was there a Jesus? If so, what was he like?

Bible, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of Peace, Yahoo! Voices, , , , , , , ,

In many cases, you can strip away the fictions surrounding a legendary figure, and discover the historical original.

For example, there probably was a King Arthur.

Troy was a real place, and the Trojan War a real event. Achilles, Odysseus and Agamemnon were probably real people.

What about the Jesus of the Bible?

Circumstantial evidence exists to suggest there probably was such a person. Textual evidences are available to suggest what he may have been like. He may or may not have been as Christianity presents.
Continue reading * Was there a Jesus? If so, what was he like? →

* Un[b]locking the spirit

Bible, Science, The Way of Peace, , , , , , , , , ,

Pray for yourself first.

When you pray for someone, you become a channel through which the Holy Spirit (or “Life Force”) flows to address that person’s needs.  (See Mark 5:30.)  You may or may not perceive this flow as it happens.

The Spirit must first address any deficiencies in the channel itself, before it can optimally address the other person.  In particular, the Spirit must address any emotional imbalances that may exist in the person who intends to pray.  Without this adjustment, at best the Spirit’s flow will be constricted; at worst, the channel may project his or her own needs (e.g. anxieties, aches and pains) onto the patient.
Continue reading * Un[b]locking the spirit →

* The wandering will

Get on your feet, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Science, The Way of Peace, , , , , , , ,

Cartesian space
A vector in a three-dimensional space.

I envision the emotional or spiritual world as a ten-dimensional space, in which a vector (arrow) beginning at the origin (the center of the space) depicts a person’s emotional state at any point in time.  The vector’s length indicates the intensity of one’s emotions at a given moment, while its direction indicates what kinds of feelings those are — equal parts joy and sadness, for example, or some anger and much love.

These are the energies one is emanating at that moment, the kinds of light or darkness one creates.
Continue reading * The wandering will →

* Co-creators with God

Bible, Get on your feet, Poverty, Squalor, The Way of Peace, , , , , , , ,

From “Learning to pray:”  “[T]he most common mistake I observe in other folks’ prayers [is] an assumption that God is distant and apart from human beings.”

My belief is at the opposite extreme.

On the one hand, God’s omnipresence means that God is fully present to every cubic centimeter of empty space, to every atom and electron of your being.

If, as I believe, God is All — which must be so, if God is infinite, since if God is truly infinite there cannot be any thing that is not part of God — then every speck of matter that exists is actually part of God.
Continue reading * Co-creators with God →

Homelessness, ,

“How I became homeless” is a long post that may be difficult to read at one sitting. The links here below can help. Clicking on any link here will take you to that part of the post; you can ALT-LEFT and ALT-RIGHT to return here, or back.

———— ♦ ————

[Introduction]
THE MUNDANE STORY …
THE SPIRITUAL STORY …
Virtues
Vices
Astrological influences
Bad theology
(1) God’s plan
(2) God’s will
(3) Self-denial and self-sacrifice
[Conclusion]

* When prayer backfires

Bible, Homelessness, , , , , , , , , ,

One is unlikely to understand this without first reading “From my diary: Learning to pray.”

Bookmarks:
1. Don’t come uninvited.
2. You don’t need an invitation to love people.
3. Name names.
4. Word for word.
5. What you “see” is what you’ll get.
[Conclusion]

I consulted several Wikipedia articles in preparation for this post.  All turned out to have been written by people who are hostile toward reports of anything that might involve a spiritual world.

As much as I try to give credit to all points of view, I cannot adopt the same position. My earliest memories are of the conviction that there is more to the world than we perceive with the five senses.  Since I began practicing silence, I have seen auras.  I have had precognitive visions and telepathic dreams.  I was compelled on one occasion to pray for my worst enemy, only to learn later she’d just been through an event I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.  In the fall of 1990 I was compelled to pray day after day for a woman I’d not met and had never heard of; only to find, when I moved to another state in January ’91 to attend grad school, she was one of my classmates and had an intense interest in healing prayer, as I also did.  To deny these facts, I’d have to lie to myself more than I’m willing to.

There’s still the puzzle of unanswered prayer.
Continue reading * When prayer backfires →