The Light in the Woods

 

#20 – THE LIGHT IN THE WOODS – MARCH 2007

 

© Aubri Dennison 2007

 

3/1/07 Presentations           An inspiration I got during morning prayers led me to write the topic on guidance from God, which covers how if the world would see God as the Father and all of us as His beloved children, we would be able to trust God’s good plan instead of our own fallible ways and there would be peace in the world. I was thinking about including Matthew 7:9-11 in the article but held it back for inclusion in suggested readings for Lectio Divina for the topic. After I was finished writing I went on to doing my devotional readings, and of course the first one I picked up used Matthew 7:9-11 as the lead-in.

 

3/2/07 Reflections            Whenever I hear of destructive weather lately, the thought comes to me that what we are seeing is the normal forces that shape the Earth the way they are when God isn’t holding them back for our benefit. If this is God’s version of tough love, is it too much to ask that we each stop to examine what we’re doing to see if we’re part of the problem? Maybe it’s not so much c-0-2 as it is s-i-n.

 

3/4/07 Insights from Study             Instead of the “convert or be killed” of the Quran, let’s all of us look to God to help us “accept and witness”. For God wants us to treat each other as His children no matter what path back to the Father He has chosen for each of them. Let’s accept the path each believer is on, and encourage each non-believer to get in touch with the Creator to discover the way home that’s been chosen for him in God’s divine plan. In this way lies peace of purpose.

 

3/5/07 Insights from Prayer            Once again, when I thought God didn’t want me to have a forum on my website I was planning on taking it off and using the space for something else when another member signed in. This morning I asked for guidance in this endeavor, then turned to Timothy for Lectio Divina, which often, but not always, provides me with the seeds for reflection I need to help me with my questions. In the passage I randomly turned to, Timothy bluntly said women were subordinate and should not teach. Surely if this was an answer to my question, the answer was “no” and that’s that. But during Meditatio I found I should look deeper into what God was saying to me. Maybe the lesson wasn’t that I should quit teaching but that Timothy is wrong. This is appropriate because last night I was online trying to figure out what “progressive Christians” were and if I was one. It mostly seems to boil down to how literally to take the Bible. This morning God seems to be leading me to the belief that the Bible, though inspired, is subject to man’s misuse – in the writing of it and in the reading of it. I know for a fact that God wants women to teach His love, because He’s led me this far with His guidance, and seems to want every one to learn and pass on what we’ve learned, in order to fulfill His plan. If Timothy is wrong, I’m not qualified to decide which other parts of the Bible are merely human opinion. So I have to look at the Bible as inspiration – seeds for my own reflection under God’s guidance — instead of perfect and infallible word of God. It’s kind of a catch-22; I’d like to look at how Jesus felt about the scriptures in order to get guidance, but I have to go to the suspect scriptures in order to get the information I need. More and more I’m convinced that I need to go right to God in order to avoid confusion. Maybe deceit is waiting for me in that direction too, but I have to trust in something, so why not something contemporary and interactive that I can test against my own conscience?

 

3/5/07 Inspirations        In the aftermath of Sabbath excess brought about by my day of rest from dieting, I normally use Mondays as total fast days to get back into the groove of willpower. But lately this has really caused a lot of stress on my system. I got afraid to fast and afraid not to. Today the thought came to me suddenly – on Mondays, stay with liquids only. Not a true revelation but a great idea – I can fast from food and still have enough in my stomach to feel somewhat satisfied and to take the medication I need. And milk is supposed to help me lose weight. I need more great ideas!

 

3/5/07 Reflections            As a child I was taught to offer up my pain to the souls in Purgatory. I no longer believe I can relieve suffering of deceased persons. But there’s something comforting about “offering up” to God in acknowledgment that whatever I suffer is a welcome part of the process of drawing close to Him. It may also, in His wisdom, be instrumental in helping someone else. I don’t have to understand God in order to serve Him through my humility and patience.

 

3/7/07 Inspirations           Nothing brings it home more graphically — this conviction that the words I’m writing are God’s and not mine – than having to look up a word I’ve already used, because I have no idea what it means.

 

3/15/07 Inspirations            Those who don’t understand the Creator are human; those who don’t believe there is one are delusional. But those who believe there is a God but don’t want Him in their life are playing with fire.

 

3/16/07 Presentations            The eagles on top of their nesting tree can’t fail to notice the same thing I’m looking at from across the bay from them – millions of floating fog crystals reflecting the sunlight as they float aimlessly in the atmosphere. Do the eagles, like I do, have a lift in spirit when such beauty shows itself? Maybe – I don’t know. Does this display make them, like me, think of God and how He gifts us in many small ways and big ways? No, but I can be sure God is thinking of them anyway. I’m glad I know God, but for those who don’t, a beautiful awakening is possible.

 

3/17/07 Presentations           I was standing on the ice watching the guys drill holes for ice fishing, when somebody said the ice was beginning to “candle”. The properties of ice; how it forms and how it goes away in the spring, is a subject that could fill a good-sized book. For the purpose of this entry I’ll just say that in my familiarity with lake ice, I know there’s no reason why it should “candle” at this point of time and given the dry, cold weather we’ve had this winter. Suddenly I looked around at everything through the magnifying glass of “this too belongs to God”. The sky and the clouds in it belong to God. The trees and the sun above them belong to God. The birds, the fish, the insects, the mammals – all are God’s and God has gifted us with them. We are to use them and take care of them, but in the long run, it’s God that determines things because God knows what’s best for us. God’s plan is good and the more actively we assimilate to it, the better off we are. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve been struck with this thought, but this evening I realized it’s a new opportunity to pray. When I look around at any of His works, I can say, for example: “Thank you for your gift of the ice. I will use it and accept that the ice is what you’ve made it, and all is going forward according to Your perfect plan.” A prayer like this makes me a different person, for once I recognize God’s presence in something, I experience the scope of His power and know my spirit is safe.

 

3/28/07 Inspirations            God is telling me something I’m not able to get my mind around yet – I believe it because He presented it to me, but I don’t understand it because it’s beyond human experience, which is the only experience I have to compare it with. God says that the physical world is the same as it was before sin; when it was still paradise. All is as designed, for glory, of God and for us as His divine children, never changes. With sin, it was our perception of the world that changed, so that it was no longer paradise but purgatory. What was once good became something bad in our new perception. Comfort now carries with it fear of loss of comfort. The natural order began to look like something to be overcome. The natural forces that shape the good earth now threaten us with the power that, before there was sin, protected us. Nerve endings put there to feel pleasure now feel pain, not because they’ve changed, but because our perception of pleasure now includes pain. Sin has made every good thing that touches us into something that harbors potential for evil; all because we put ourselves above God. There’s much more to this, but as I write I’m losing the drift. The ramifications are so severe I’m putting my own fears into the insight. What does this mean for us? How does this change how we appeal to God to make it all better? It will have to have something to do with God’s help to change our perceptions back to the way they were before sin. This would not be accomplished in our earthly lives because it would not be accomplished as long as there’s still sin, but once you realize it’s purely a matter of perception, that’s a clue as to how we can begin healing in a world that only seems evil. But then I think of the mother who has her baby ripped out of her arms during a tornado. As she watches him roll away from her in the terror and the storm, this horror is real and she will not be comforted knowing it’s only because of her perception of such atrocity. This is why I can’t get my mind around it.

 

 

3/29/07 Reflections             I’ll believe what I believe, and you believe what you believe, but when our beliefs start to hurt one another, they are not pleasing to God. If we can’t point out each others’ sin and offer to help each other overcome it without resorting to condemnation and destruction, then we need to review our own righteousness. Let’s set our scriptures down, check our dogmas at the door, and go into our inner sanctuary together to ask for guidance from God. Let’s not allow anyone to substitute their laws for God’s. Even if it means going against powerful forces to which we hold earthly alliances, let us depend on God’s help to examine what seems right to be sure we’re learning from the master and not His servants. And after we’ve done this, let the good people of the world who are at one will with God first and foremost forever rise up together and declare it so. That there are certain dignities that we must insist on – the first being the freedom to worship our Creator safely in the way He’s chosen for us and put into our hearts. The only thing more powerful than the unity of those who love God is God’s love for us itself.

 

3/30/07 Insights from Study            How can two things that seem so right be so opposite one another? I read the Bible and find there is reward for the righteous and wrath of God for the wicked. Then I read William Law who says this is sacrilege because God is unchanging and His nature is pure love for us. There is no wrath of God and never has been; the appearance that there are conflicting concepts in God is a made-up condition useful in providing understanding to creatures not designed to fully comprehend the divine. I understand the concept of God’s inspiration as a tool to impart some small iota of understanding in us, but where are two insights that are poles apart. I should ask myself: “Who are you going to believe, the Bible or William Law, who nobody has ever heard of?” But if I ask this, my answer would have to be that I believe William Law – what he said struck a chord that resonates perfectly with what’s written on my heart. The bloodshed of the Bible perpetrated by God upon all living things in this town or that town has never rung true for me, and yet it’s a theme repeated over and over in the Bible. More and more I’m convinced that my reverence for the Bible springs from having been taught that the majority must always be right. But that’s not how it feels. Is there more than one avenue to teach us that God’s will be done? This I’ve found to be true. Can these two methods contradict one another completely? If it is possible, then it’s only possible in the realm of divine knowledge — in human experience, one method or the other must be in error. I must go with the one that rings true for me. If the other version rings true for someone else, that too must be the will of God. In conclusion, this makes me look again at how we evangelize. We should concentrate less on method and dogma; we should simplify wherever possible to weed out what matters little in our recognition of God in us and in others. We should concentrate instead on just getting people to recognize God’s presence and ask for His guidance. This is the purest form of faith – knowing that if someone comes to God in honesty and humility, God will take over and the teaching will be accomplished without error.

 

 

3/31/07 Reflections            When it comes to sin, I’m conservative in that I brook no sin in myself. I love my neighbor as myself; I hold him to the same commitment to virtue to which I hold myself, because I know the joy obedience to God will bring, and I want that joy for my neighbor. There are laws of God which I know quite well, and the expansion of the spirit of the law which Jesus provided in His ministry. But if I carry this over into what I demand in others, I’m tramping on grounds that belong to God. It’s why self-abandonment to God’s will can only be an individual path. We can lead others to the path and show by example the benefits of walking it, but we can never demand a person follow it. That is between God and the other person. I must do what God wants of me, and not worry about what God wants of the next person. Even if good and evil are clear to me, only the grace of God can bring that distinction to others. This is all well and good, but the problem is that others don’t have such restrictions. If I’m going to put aside worldly considerations in order to place God as first in my life, does that mean I shouldn’t care that the world is “going to hell in a hand basket”? Am I committed to letting evil take its course? Should I intervene when people make acceptance of sin mandatory? Should I allow the government to use my tax money to encourage sin in others and then pay to fix the consequences? Do I not protest when people change immorality into social norm? They are, after all, changing the society which I and my offspring must function. Shouldn’t I have a stake in that? It’s like insisting on peace at any price – as long as not every side feels that way, evil will prevail. I can handle it for myself because God is my protector, but I can’t function as someone who will better the world if I’m not willing to prevail against those who would stand in my way of helping others. How do we tell whether hold back, or be a sword of the Lord when God is working through us to correct an evil?