Joyce Kinzel
My Thoughts on Job and Ezekiel
JOB
The story of Job is a story of the soul. It is the soul’s journey. I can relate to it in my own journey of evolving consciousness. Job goes from why is this happening to me and living outside of him to having to come to terms with his inner journey. What Job feared most came upon him, like when we continue to live in fear and doubt.
Then his three friends come along to comfort and argue with him. They represented the accusations against the self, that we are less than. The friends attempt to justify the outer world of appearances, like our world does for us.
Elihu, the interpreter, opens Job’s eyes to his higher consciousness. The outside cannot bring about higher consciousness; it only comes from within as we open up our mind and hearts. So love and wisdom cannot reign supreme until it comes from the inside out. This can only be done through changing how we see and behave in our world. Our thoughts and actions must change in order to bring about transformation.
Job has to forgive himself in order to heal. When Job turned to God and prayed for his friends he was released by God and given more than he ever had before. When we let go the old stuff and are willing to forgive ourselves and others, we are open to the transformation of the soul. We receive more that we could ever have dreamed of. Like all of our journeys, Job’s was one of transformation.
EZEKIEL
Ezekiel was open and placed his full faith and trust in God. In Ezekiel I see the importance of totally being open and trusting God knowing all is taken care of. He showed us how to be strong.
Ezekiel had a vision in which God’s glory was revealed to him. God told him to be not afraid for he would be there to support him. As God is showing me the direction of my ministry, I must remain strong and full of trust and faith. I must remember to be steadfast and know that as Ezekiel’s name means, God strengthens me.
As Ezekiel learned in his spiritual growth, we must go forth and carry the message knowing that God is always there to support us. In ministry we must be open vessels in carrying the message of transformation forward. We must provide people with a safe space to expand their consciousness’’. Reminding them that God is open to all equally. God is not bound to a place, like the temple. God can be encountered anywhere, even from within. We must all stand and not be afraid to be our God selves.
For me in my ministry, I want be like an open vessel. To provide a safe and nurturing place for people to open and become vessels of expanding consciousness. I also want my ministry to be in integrity, to treat people with compassion and justice. To always remember that God strengthens me as I continue on my journey transformation.
Thanks Rev Guy for your willingness to share your genuine love of the Bible from the metaphysical perspective. I am now seeing the Bible from a more metaphysical place and less linearly.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Job and Ezekial and My Ministry
Job reveals to me I must never rest on my progress for long. My soul’s journey is a lifelong process and putting it off has its costs. I put off writing this paper until the price I pay in self-inflicted guilt and silent nagging is more costly that the writing of it. Reading Job I understand that who and what I think God is at any given moment is the smallest glimpse of only a miniscule part of God. Any claim to know God exclusively is a display of ignorance beyond measure. Promises given by organizations that their knowledge is complete and exclusive are a clear demonstration of my own desire to stop my own personal search and rest on the progress of another. From this class alone I find that one sentence or one passage in the Bible can reveal so much more than I ever thought about God and each time I read it my perception changes again. On my own soul’s journey I awaken to new truths nearly every day. I believe, today anyway, that my job is to stay awake as much as I possibly can. To stay awake I have to have reminders around to prod me or the lull of the race consciousness can have me snoring before I realize it. The Bible and its wondrous contents can help me do that. Like Job the voices in my head and the voices of the people that I draw into my life can pull me into confusion and doubt. When I participate in confusion or doubt and use intellectual arguments to detain me I drift away and initiate a fear that grows so fast and loud I can lose my way with little effort. Reading the news can send me on that roller coaster ride daily. I will know the strength of my faith when I can read the news and stay in peace. The more I engage in fear the more I become the victim. I give my power away to self pity. I get engrossed in defending my innocence at the expense of my peace of mind. I become self righteous and think I know so much and am so enlightened and undeserving of whatever the condition presenting in my experience. I separate myself from everything. Next I think I am subject to circumstance and have no say at all. After that I just want to give up and I begin to doubt everything I once thought to be true. My logic fails me. Suddenly I firmly believe there are two powers demonstrated in my life. I am persecuted. I lose the use of my intuition and I return to a level of survival. After some time spent in that dark place I finally do give up and turn in desperation to the Spirit within/ the Holy Spirit, and from sincere humility I ask for a new perception, a truer perception. I let go of ego and see that I have never left the union of all that is and I become more compassionate of my fellow man and experience a deep feeling of love. I am teachable again. I am renewed and back on my path which incidentally I never really left. I feel I am at a higher position on the spiral of my growth. This is not the end however as the questions reawaken and the ride begins again. Each time I take the ride it looks more and more familiar and some arguments never surface a second time. This is what growth looks like. It is not a linear path. I find the book of Job very useful in my ministry as I see its expression today. Today I still see it as a teaching ministry and Job’s story is so full of lessons for the soul that it could be taught on different levels forever. It is a story of joy for me now. Before this class it was for me a story of woe and one of anger and a cause for a belief in an unjust and vicious God.
Ezekial still escapes me more than I would like. I understand more from my class notes than from the text. He demonstrates taking the knowledge into the world whereas Job showed us the path of the soul of the individual. My notes indicate he teaches us not to be afraid when trials come. We must demonstrate our Spiritual strength by monitoring our thoughts. We must know that our thoughts are powerful and that good exists and evil does not exist. If we turn to God we are strengthened. Our work is within. We find God within. We must be the message ourselves not just tell others what the message is. As Emerson tells us who we are speaks so loud no one can hear what we are saying. We must create from some other place than experience. We must create from our imagination. This is our job, to create. We create from our intentions, then we let the visions come. Deciphering Ezekial’s visions are still a real challenge for me. Ezekial coming from Babylon where no one understood each other is perfect. I still am in the dark on most of it. He does speak the truth without fear to power though which is courageous. I see that reflected in our country’s political climate. It seems to me that our leader needs to believe enough in his own guidence to speak truth to the lobbyists without fear or dread. Ezekial afflicts the comfortable with his truth. He prompts me to question whom I serve and how much attention I give to my own intuition. This is an important question to my ministry. It can't be wishy washy. I can serve only one path or neither is served at all. I learn from Ezekial that I must eat my sorrows and meditate upon them, address my spirit within with an intention to gain insight. I must do this on a daily basis in order to evolve my own ability to develop my own visions. I must engage in visions of peace and love and abundance clearly. This is how we can all shift the collective mind away from fear and separation. My visions of winning the lottery are ones of fantasy, of rescue and do not serve the collective. I see a need for my own visions to include a change of heart in business and leadership throughout the world. Billy Graham said at the turn of the century that the one most important thing the world needs is a change of heart. I think of that phrase he spoke often. If my ministry continues as one solely of teaching or even if it becomes something else I believe visioning is a very important part of whatever path it takes and will become a very useful and valuable tool to use and teach others to use. Ezekial gives me much to take into the world.
Ezekial still escapes me more than I would like. I understand more from my class notes than from the text. He demonstrates taking the knowledge into the world whereas Job showed us the path of the soul of the individual. My notes indicate he teaches us not to be afraid when trials come. We must demonstrate our Spiritual strength by monitoring our thoughts. We must know that our thoughts are powerful and that good exists and evil does not exist. If we turn to God we are strengthened. Our work is within. We find God within. We must be the message ourselves not just tell others what the message is. As Emerson tells us who we are speaks so loud no one can hear what we are saying. We must create from some other place than experience. We must create from our imagination. This is our job, to create. We create from our intentions, then we let the visions come. Deciphering Ezekial’s visions are still a real challenge for me. Ezekial coming from Babylon where no one understood each other is perfect. I still am in the dark on most of it. He does speak the truth without fear to power though which is courageous. I see that reflected in our country’s political climate. It seems to me that our leader needs to believe enough in his own guidence to speak truth to the lobbyists without fear or dread. Ezekial afflicts the comfortable with his truth. He prompts me to question whom I serve and how much attention I give to my own intuition. This is an important question to my ministry. It can't be wishy washy. I can serve only one path or neither is served at all. I learn from Ezekial that I must eat my sorrows and meditate upon them, address my spirit within with an intention to gain insight. I must do this on a daily basis in order to evolve my own ability to develop my own visions. I must engage in visions of peace and love and abundance clearly. This is how we can all shift the collective mind away from fear and separation. My visions of winning the lottery are ones of fantasy, of rescue and do not serve the collective. I see a need for my own visions to include a change of heart in business and leadership throughout the world. Billy Graham said at the turn of the century that the one most important thing the world needs is a change of heart. I think of that phrase he spoke often. If my ministry continues as one solely of teaching or even if it becomes something else I believe visioning is a very important part of whatever path it takes and will become a very useful and valuable tool to use and teach others to use. Ezekial gives me much to take into the world.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
sorry for the multiples
I kept getting an error message saying that the client have process a bad request so my post wasn't going through. I kept getting bumped out before I could save of preview, and then when I could preview and attempt to publish I got the error message again. I tried one last time after sending it to Rev. Guy via email and wouldn't you know it, it worked. I viewed the post and now all three are there! ARGH. Sorry about that! Love to all. Les
Job and Ezekiel
Lets just pretend for a moment that we are blindly ignorant, that we have no sense of reason and that there is no path to life for meaning. We are just robots functioning, moving from point A to point B, in a lifeless gesture of existence. We are fed, famous, financed and fondled. Everything that is necessary for a happy and successful life is already demonstrating in our lives and there is no cause for concern. This is the life of Job up until the question/doubt moment. But the plot thickens and Job, harkens to doubt, questioning his righteousness and forcing his awareness to rise up (or go deeper introspectively---which ever suits you). It is this moment that alters his experience.
As children, maybe up until the age of six, we really don’t have a sense of need. Our parents have supplied us with those things that have given us the ability to have a high sense of satisfaction and security (though we might now know this at this age). We go on about our days with our ritualistic performances, playing, bathing, eating, sleeping, and feeling secure in our family unit. (Can you see any resemblance to Job?) A young consciousness, obeying the ritual and sacramental laws just as the child obeys the order and directives of the parents (up to a certain age). Then all of a sudden, what is it in the child that pushes him/her into that stage of inquiry? Or that stage that appears to be rebellious? Is it anger? Not usually. Is it self-esteem? Not typically at the age. Is it hatred? Life has been good up to now. So what is it?
Well, Bildad offers us a key: “the great desire of the partially awakened intellect to contend and strive for that which appears right to it…” But hasn’t the child felt fulfilled, satisfied? Something shifted. “the judgments and decisions are being founded more in outer appearances than in Truth.” The child is starting to have more thoughts of its own, seeking desires that can no longer be satisfied with the status of the norm that the parents provide. There is a longing for deeper satisfaction, something internal is rising up to meet normality and questioning its relevance. So what happens?
Satan happens. The state of mind of the child has shifted away form the parents and has begun to believe in its own sufficiency independent of its creative source---the parents! This Satanic event is common place within each of us just as it was with Job. The desire to move beyond the status quo and to create or achieve greater, whether that be in consciousness or in effect (same thing right?) the puffed up sense of ego steps forward. But something typically happens at this stage…the temptation has a foe!
Zopar shows us where we have limited thoughts. Here we have our own doubts and how those doubts are propelled by imaginary reasoning. This opponent we face is enraged (just like our parents get at this point when we seek our independence) and hostile, quick to point our every flaw the error of the child’s ways, however, as reasonable as Zopar may be, the child cannot understand his faults while the parent is pointing to what is wrong.
Why does Job act this way? What course of reasoning does he take? He points to stars, and speaks of the heavens and of the power of God. Here is what is most important is that something has awoken with him. He cannot see the Truth as of yet, but he starts to get some awareness (which is why he begins to tell his friends how they cannot know his pain). He has “a faint awareness of the Truth that God is always brooding over the earth and bringing about the fulfilling of the natural processes” and this is what begins to bring him some satisfaction and his mind begins to move away from his condition.
But does he recant?
Only after he sees the light and believes that others may suffer if he comes into his enlightenment. His saving grace is that he loses his self-pity and calls for God to be graceful and merciful to his friends (those thoughts about himself that compelled him to doubt---his three friends).
The story is really about us having compassion and demanding that forgiveness be enforced within the individual consciousness. It is about growing into the right-full stage of seeing that no suffering should be imposed by us or by our thoughts toward any one thing. It is Keren-happuch! We are using the “elevating power of light” seeing “spiritual beauty”, and knowing the “Truth”, that all Life is “a beautiful soul expressing in a beautiful character.”
For me this is great in the intellect, but it is more difficult to practice. I find the ways of Job a continual process for me as I move towards greater revelation of what ministry holds for me and what I hold for it in my consciousness. Being a minister is a huge call, and is something that calls me to compassion and integrity, to being that center for Spirit to emanate and express through meunencumbered. I seek for Jobs daughters to have a larger expression in my consciousness so that I may be “refined and established in the true Christ righteousness.”
Ezekiel is a crazy discourse of constant “on this day the Lord said that to me.”
This Lord that I sense here is really the same battle that Job was having. Job had all the despair and nothing changes here except for the receiver. Who is God mad at? Why all this judgment and destruction? What is the purpose of the foretelling of doom?
I find myself unable to understand much of what is in Ezekiel because it is scattered and is not timelined in a reasonable fashion. But I can look up the words, the names. What do I find?
It all deals with the errors of thought! Darkened consciousness not yet brought to the light. Desires! Woah! I always thought God is in favor of our desires…that it brought pleasure to the soul of man to express God through our desires. These people were destroyed for their desires. They weren’t worshiping correctly. But if God is an unconditionally loving God, would it really need our recognition? No it must be some petty egotistical, miniscule proto-power incapable of knowing anything other than itself. (just a play on words there but maybe you can find the simile).
We serve our thoughts about a thing. The message is the petty desires of the flesh, and those of the argumentative mind (the mind that wants to argue for its limitation), is what leads us astray (out of our sense of wholeness and completeness). It really doesn’t matter what we think, or what we desire, it only matters what we think about those things and those thoughts that really determine if we are serving God or serving man’s image of himself/herself. I know we talked about this in class, “whom will you serve today?” I believe the follow up to that would be, “Man cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other…” and I believe that Ezekiel is really trying to tell us to get with the program.
So to move away from the metaphysics of it and to move toward the relevance for me is, “Am I all the way in or all the way out?” There is no half-stepping to ministry! The power of God within me is that capable success, that wisdom to provide, that energy to ensure, and that love to always deliver the light where there appears to be darkness.
I get that our bodies must be well maintained and that our minds must be filled with the Spirit of the Divine, and the ongoing practice of meditation and prayer, mixed with a vision for a world that works for everyone, is mandatory. I see the importance of always testing the word that I hear against some sacred text to find its validity, and that all there really needs to be is imagination to create the new.
I can’t say as yet that I can imagine what ministry I may proceed with, but what I can say is that I am quite certain God has some genius within us all, and that we all possess some gift that the world has been waiting for, and when we give it, we shall rebuild the temple and re-establish the Holy City.
As children, maybe up until the age of six, we really don’t have a sense of need. Our parents have supplied us with those things that have given us the ability to have a high sense of satisfaction and security (though we might now know this at this age). We go on about our days with our ritualistic performances, playing, bathing, eating, sleeping, and feeling secure in our family unit. (Can you see any resemblance to Job?) A young consciousness, obeying the ritual and sacramental laws just as the child obeys the order and directives of the parents (up to a certain age). Then all of a sudden, what is it in the child that pushes him/her into that stage of inquiry? Or that stage that appears to be rebellious? Is it anger? Not usually. Is it self-esteem? Not typically at the age. Is it hatred? Life has been good up to now. So what is it?
Well, Bildad offers us a key: “the great desire of the partially awakened intellect to contend and strive for that which appears right to it…” But hasn’t the child felt fulfilled, satisfied? Something shifted. “the judgments and decisions are being founded more in outer appearances than in Truth.” The child is starting to have more thoughts of its own, seeking desires that can no longer be satisfied with the status of the norm that the parents provide. There is a longing for deeper satisfaction, something internal is rising up to meet normality and questioning its relevance. So what happens?
Satan happens. The state of mind of the child has shifted away form the parents and has begun to believe in its own sufficiency independent of its creative source---the parents! This Satanic event is common place within each of us just as it was with Job. The desire to move beyond the status quo and to create or achieve greater, whether that be in consciousness or in effect (same thing right?) the puffed up sense of ego steps forward. But something typically happens at this stage…the temptation has a foe!
Zopar shows us where we have limited thoughts. Here we have our own doubts and how those doubts are propelled by imaginary reasoning. This opponent we face is enraged (just like our parents get at this point when we seek our independence) and hostile, quick to point our every flaw the error of the child’s ways, however, as reasonable as Zopar may be, the child cannot understand his faults while the parent is pointing to what is wrong.
Why does Job act this way? What course of reasoning does he take? He points to stars, and speaks of the heavens and of the power of God. Here is what is most important is that something has awoken with him. He cannot see the Truth as of yet, but he starts to get some awareness (which is why he begins to tell his friends how they cannot know his pain). He has “a faint awareness of the Truth that God is always brooding over the earth and bringing about the fulfilling of the natural processes” and this is what begins to bring him some satisfaction and his mind begins to move away from his condition.
But does he recant?
Only after he sees the light and believes that others may suffer if he comes into his enlightenment. His saving grace is that he loses his self-pity and calls for God to be graceful and merciful to his friends (those thoughts about himself that compelled him to doubt---his three friends).
The story is really about us having compassion and demanding that forgiveness be enforced within the individual consciousness. It is about growing into the right-full stage of seeing that no suffering should be imposed by us or by our thoughts toward any one thing. It is Keren-happuch! We are using the “elevating power of light” seeing “spiritual beauty”, and knowing the “Truth”, that all Life is “a beautiful soul expressing in a beautiful character.”
For me this is great in the intellect, but it is more difficult to practice. I find the ways of Job a continual process for me as I move towards greater revelation of what ministry holds for me and what I hold for it in my consciousness. Being a minister is a huge call, and is something that calls me to compassion and integrity, to being that center for Spirit to emanate and express through meunencumbered. I seek for Jobs daughters to have a larger expression in my consciousness so that I may be “refined and established in the true Christ righteousness.”
Ezekiel is a crazy discourse of constant “on this day the Lord said that to me.”
This Lord that I sense here is really the same battle that Job was having. Job had all the despair and nothing changes here except for the receiver. Who is God mad at? Why all this judgment and destruction? What is the purpose of the foretelling of doom?
I find myself unable to understand much of what is in Ezekiel because it is scattered and is not timelined in a reasonable fashion. But I can look up the words, the names. What do I find?
It all deals with the errors of thought! Darkened consciousness not yet brought to the light. Desires! Woah! I always thought God is in favor of our desires…that it brought pleasure to the soul of man to express God through our desires. These people were destroyed for their desires. They weren’t worshiping correctly. But if God is an unconditionally loving God, would it really need our recognition? No it must be some petty egotistical, miniscule proto-power incapable of knowing anything other than itself. (just a play on words there but maybe you can find the simile).
We serve our thoughts about a thing. The message is the petty desires of the flesh, and those of the argumentative mind (the mind that wants to argue for its limitation), is what leads us astray (out of our sense of wholeness and completeness). It really doesn’t matter what we think, or what we desire, it only matters what we think about those things and those thoughts that really determine if we are serving God or serving man’s image of himself/herself. I know we talked about this in class, “whom will you serve today?” I believe the follow up to that would be, “Man cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other…” and I believe that Ezekiel is really trying to tell us to get with the program.
So to move away from the metaphysics of it and to move toward the relevance for me is, “Am I all the way in or all the way out?” There is no half-stepping to ministry! The power of God within me is that capable success, that wisdom to provide, that energy to ensure, and that love to always deliver the light where there appears to be darkness.
I get that our bodies must be well maintained and that our minds must be filled with the Spirit of the Divine, and the ongoing practice of meditation and prayer, mixed with a vision for a world that works for everyone, is mandatory. I see the importance of always testing the word that I hear against some sacred text to find its validity, and that all there really needs to be is imagination to create the new.
I can’t say as yet that I can imagine what ministry I may proceed with, but what I can say is that I am quite certain God has some genius within us all, and that we all possess some gift that the world has been waiting for, and when we give it, we shall rebuild the temple and re-establish the Holy City.
Job and Ezekiel
Okay try number four.
this is really buggy!
Here is the paper on Job and Ezekiel. I took a different approach and really enjoyed working on this. I really have enjoyed the class and wanted to let everyone know that commenting has not worked from this end but I have read all the papers. I wanted to submit the final paper while it was closest in my brain. I will submit the missing paper for kings and solomon next week. Again, Rev. Guy (and classmates) thank you so much for this class. What a delight!
Here's Job and Ezekiel...
Lets just pretend for a moment that we are blindly ignorant, that we have no sense of reason and that there is no path to life for meaning. We are just robots functioning, moving from point A to point B, in a lifeless gesture of existence. We are fed, famous, financed and fondled. Everything that is necessary for a happy and successful life is already demonstrating in our lives and there is no cause for concern. This is the life of Job up until the question/doubt moment. But the plot thickens and Job, harkens to doubt, questioning his righteousness and forcing his awareness to rise up (or go deeper introspectively---which ever suits you). It is this moment that alters his experience.
As children, maybe up until the age of six, we really don’t have a sense of need. Our parents have supplied us with those things that have given us the ability to have a high sense of satisfaction and security (though we might now know this at this age). We go on about our days with our ritualistic performances, playing, bathing, eating, sleeping, and feeling secure in our family unit. (Can you see any resemblance to Job?) A young consciousness, obeying the ritual and sacramental laws just as the child obeys the order and directives of the parents (up to a certain age). Then all of a sudden, what is it in the child that pushes him/her into that stage of inquiry? Or that stage that appears to be rebellious? Is it anger? Not usually. Is it self-esteem? Not typically at the age. Is it hatred? Life has been good up to now. So what is it?
Well, Bildad offers us a key: “the great desire of the partially awakened intellect to contend and strive for that which appears right to it…” But hasn’t the child felt fulfilled, satisfied? Something shifted. “the judgments and decisions are being founded more in outer appearances than in Truth.” The child is starting to have more thoughts of its own, seeking desires that can no longer be satisfied with the status of the norm that the parents provide. There is a longing for deeper satisfaction, something internal is rising up to meet normality and questioning its relevance. So what happens?
Satan happens. The state of mind of the child has shifted away form the parents and has begun to believe in its own sufficiency independent of its creative source---the parents! This Satanic event is common place within each of us just as it was with Job. The desire to move beyond the status quo and to create or achieve greater, whether that be in consciousness or in effect (same thing right?) the puffed up sense of ego steps forward. But something typically happens at this stage…the temptation has a foe!
Zopar shows us where we have limited thoughts. Here we have our own doubts and how those doubts are propelled by imaginary reasoning. This opponent we face is enraged (just like our parents get at this point when we seek our independence) and hostile, quick to point our every flaw the error of the child’s ways, however, as reasonable as Zopar may be, the child cannot understand his faults while the parent is pointing to what is wrong.
Why does Job act this way? What course of reasoning does he take? He points to stars, and speaks of the heavens and of the power of God. Here is what is most important is that something has awoken with him. He cannot see the Truth as of yet, but he starts to get some awareness (which is why he begins to tell his friends how they cannot know his pain). He has “a faint awareness of the Truth that God is always brooding over the earth and bringing about the fulfilling of the natural processes” and this is what begins to bring him some satisfaction and his mind begins to move away from his condition.
But does he recant?
Only after he sees the light and believes that others may suffer if he comes into his enlightenment. His saving grace is that he loses his self-pity and calls for God to be graceful and merciful to his friends (those thoughts about himself that compelled him to doubt---his three friends).
The story is really about us having compassion and demanding that forgiveness be enforced within the individual consciousness. It is about growing into the right-full stage of seeing that no suffering should be imposed by us or by our thoughts toward any one thing. It is Keren-happuch! We are using the “elevating power of light” seeing “spiritual beauty”, and knowing the “Truth”, that all Life is “a beautiful soul expressing in a beautiful character.”
For me this is great in the intellect, but it is more difficult to practice. I find the ways of Job a continual process for me as I move towards greater revelation of what ministry holds for me and what I hold for it in my consciousness. Being a minister is a huge call, and is something that calls me to compassion and integrity, to being that center for Spirit to emanate and express through meunencumbered. I seek for Jobs daughters to have a larger expression in my consciousness so that I may be “refined and established in the true Christ righteousness.”
Ezekiel is a crazy discourse of constant “on this day the Lord said that to me.”
This Lord that I sense here is really the same battle that Job was having. Job had all the despair and nothing changes here except for the receiver. Who is God mad at? Why all this judgment and destruction? What is the purpose of the foretelling of doom?
I find myself unable to understand much of what is in Ezekiel because it is scattered and is not timelined in a reasonable fashion. But I can look up the words, the names. What do I find?
It all deals with the errors of thought! Darkened consciousness not yet brought to the light. Desires! Woah! I always thought God is in favor of our desires…that it brought pleasure to the soul of man to express God through our desires. These people were destroyed for their desires. They weren’t worshiping correctly. But if God is an unconditionally loving God, would it really need our recognition? No it must be some petty egotistical, miniscule proto-power incapable of knowing anything other than itself. (just a play on words there but maybe you can find the simile).
We serve our thoughts about a thing. The message is the petty desires of the flesh, and those of the argumentative mind (the mind that wants to argue for its limitation), is what leads us astray (out of our sense of wholeness and completeness). It really doesn’t matter what we think, or what we desire, it only matters what we think about those things and those thoughts that really determine if we are serving God or serving man’s image of himself/herself. I know we talked about this in class, “whom will you serve today?” I believe the follow up to that would be, “Man cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other…” and I believe that Ezekiel is really trying to tell us to get with the program.
So to move away from the metaphysics of it and to move toward the relevance for me is, “Am I all the way in or all the way out?” There is no half-stepping to ministry! The power of God within me is that capable success, that wisdom to provide, that energy to ensure, and that love to always deliver the light where there appears to be darkness.
I get that our bodies must be well maintained and that our minds must be filled with the Spirit of the Divine, and the ongoing practice of meditation and prayer, mixed with a vision for a world that works for everyone, is mandatory. I see the importance of always testing the word that I hear against some sacred text to find its validity, and that all there really needs to be is imagination to create the new.
I can’t say as yet that I can imagine what ministry I may proceed with, but what I can say is that I am quite certain God has some genius within us all, and that we all possess some gift that the world has been waiting for, and when we give it, we shall rebuild the temple and re-establish the Holy City.
this is really buggy!
Here is the paper on Job and Ezekiel. I took a different approach and really enjoyed working on this. I really have enjoyed the class and wanted to let everyone know that commenting has not worked from this end but I have read all the papers. I wanted to submit the final paper while it was closest in my brain. I will submit the missing paper for kings and solomon next week. Again, Rev. Guy (and classmates) thank you so much for this class. What a delight!
Here's Job and Ezekiel...
Lets just pretend for a moment that we are blindly ignorant, that we have no sense of reason and that there is no path to life for meaning. We are just robots functioning, moving from point A to point B, in a lifeless gesture of existence. We are fed, famous, financed and fondled. Everything that is necessary for a happy and successful life is already demonstrating in our lives and there is no cause for concern. This is the life of Job up until the question/doubt moment. But the plot thickens and Job, harkens to doubt, questioning his righteousness and forcing his awareness to rise up (or go deeper introspectively---which ever suits you). It is this moment that alters his experience.
As children, maybe up until the age of six, we really don’t have a sense of need. Our parents have supplied us with those things that have given us the ability to have a high sense of satisfaction and security (though we might now know this at this age). We go on about our days with our ritualistic performances, playing, bathing, eating, sleeping, and feeling secure in our family unit. (Can you see any resemblance to Job?) A young consciousness, obeying the ritual and sacramental laws just as the child obeys the order and directives of the parents (up to a certain age). Then all of a sudden, what is it in the child that pushes him/her into that stage of inquiry? Or that stage that appears to be rebellious? Is it anger? Not usually. Is it self-esteem? Not typically at the age. Is it hatred? Life has been good up to now. So what is it?
Well, Bildad offers us a key: “the great desire of the partially awakened intellect to contend and strive for that which appears right to it…” But hasn’t the child felt fulfilled, satisfied? Something shifted. “the judgments and decisions are being founded more in outer appearances than in Truth.” The child is starting to have more thoughts of its own, seeking desires that can no longer be satisfied with the status of the norm that the parents provide. There is a longing for deeper satisfaction, something internal is rising up to meet normality and questioning its relevance. So what happens?
Satan happens. The state of mind of the child has shifted away form the parents and has begun to believe in its own sufficiency independent of its creative source---the parents! This Satanic event is common place within each of us just as it was with Job. The desire to move beyond the status quo and to create or achieve greater, whether that be in consciousness or in effect (same thing right?) the puffed up sense of ego steps forward. But something typically happens at this stage…the temptation has a foe!
Zopar shows us where we have limited thoughts. Here we have our own doubts and how those doubts are propelled by imaginary reasoning. This opponent we face is enraged (just like our parents get at this point when we seek our independence) and hostile, quick to point our every flaw the error of the child’s ways, however, as reasonable as Zopar may be, the child cannot understand his faults while the parent is pointing to what is wrong.
Why does Job act this way? What course of reasoning does he take? He points to stars, and speaks of the heavens and of the power of God. Here is what is most important is that something has awoken with him. He cannot see the Truth as of yet, but he starts to get some awareness (which is why he begins to tell his friends how they cannot know his pain). He has “a faint awareness of the Truth that God is always brooding over the earth and bringing about the fulfilling of the natural processes” and this is what begins to bring him some satisfaction and his mind begins to move away from his condition.
But does he recant?
Only after he sees the light and believes that others may suffer if he comes into his enlightenment. His saving grace is that he loses his self-pity and calls for God to be graceful and merciful to his friends (those thoughts about himself that compelled him to doubt---his three friends).
The story is really about us having compassion and demanding that forgiveness be enforced within the individual consciousness. It is about growing into the right-full stage of seeing that no suffering should be imposed by us or by our thoughts toward any one thing. It is Keren-happuch! We are using the “elevating power of light” seeing “spiritual beauty”, and knowing the “Truth”, that all Life is “a beautiful soul expressing in a beautiful character.”
For me this is great in the intellect, but it is more difficult to practice. I find the ways of Job a continual process for me as I move towards greater revelation of what ministry holds for me and what I hold for it in my consciousness. Being a minister is a huge call, and is something that calls me to compassion and integrity, to being that center for Spirit to emanate and express through meunencumbered. I seek for Jobs daughters to have a larger expression in my consciousness so that I may be “refined and established in the true Christ righteousness.”
Ezekiel is a crazy discourse of constant “on this day the Lord said that to me.”
This Lord that I sense here is really the same battle that Job was having. Job had all the despair and nothing changes here except for the receiver. Who is God mad at? Why all this judgment and destruction? What is the purpose of the foretelling of doom?
I find myself unable to understand much of what is in Ezekiel because it is scattered and is not timelined in a reasonable fashion. But I can look up the words, the names. What do I find?
It all deals with the errors of thought! Darkened consciousness not yet brought to the light. Desires! Woah! I always thought God is in favor of our desires…that it brought pleasure to the soul of man to express God through our desires. These people were destroyed for their desires. They weren’t worshiping correctly. But if God is an unconditionally loving God, would it really need our recognition? No it must be some petty egotistical, miniscule proto-power incapable of knowing anything other than itself. (just a play on words there but maybe you can find the simile).
We serve our thoughts about a thing. The message is the petty desires of the flesh, and those of the argumentative mind (the mind that wants to argue for its limitation), is what leads us astray (out of our sense of wholeness and completeness). It really doesn’t matter what we think, or what we desire, it only matters what we think about those things and those thoughts that really determine if we are serving God or serving man’s image of himself/herself. I know we talked about this in class, “whom will you serve today?” I believe the follow up to that would be, “Man cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other…” and I believe that Ezekiel is really trying to tell us to get with the program.
So to move away from the metaphysics of it and to move toward the relevance for me is, “Am I all the way in or all the way out?” There is no half-stepping to ministry! The power of God within me is that capable success, that wisdom to provide, that energy to ensure, and that love to always deliver the light where there appears to be darkness.
I get that our bodies must be well maintained and that our minds must be filled with the Spirit of the Divine, and the ongoing practice of meditation and prayer, mixed with a vision for a world that works for everyone, is mandatory. I see the importance of always testing the word that I hear against some sacred text to find its validity, and that all there really needs to be is imagination to create the new.
I can’t say as yet that I can imagine what ministry I may proceed with, but what I can say is that I am quite certain God has some genius within us all, and that we all possess some gift that the world has been waiting for, and when we give it, we shall rebuild the temple and re-establish the Holy City.
Job and Ezekiel
I wanted to get this out before the kings and solomon paper because it was closer to my brain right now. As usual I took a different approach. Will get the paper I am missing in this coming week. Thank all of you for a wonderful class and expereince. Am enjoying reading the posts though finding commenting difficult because they don't post. See all of you soon enough! Much Love. Les
Lets just pretend for a moment that we are blindly ignorant, that we have no sense of reason and that there is no path to life for meaning. We are just robots functioning, moving from point A to point B, in a lifeless gesture of existence. We are fed, famous, financed and fondled. Everything that is necessary for a happy and successful life is already demonstrating in our lives and there is no cause for concern. This is the life of Job up until the question/doubt moment. But the plot thickens and Job, harkens to doubt, questioning his righteousness and forcing his awareness to rise up (or go deeper introspectively---which ever suits you). It is this moment that alters his experience.
As children, maybe up until the age of six, we really don’t have a sense of need. Our parents have supplied us with those things that have given us the ability to have a high sense of satisfaction and security (though we might now know this at this age). We go on about our days with our ritualistic performances, playing, bathing, eating, sleeping, and feeling secure in our family unit. (Can you see any resemblance to Job?) A young consciousness, obeying the ritual and sacramental laws just as the child obeys the order and directives of the parents (up to a certain age). Then all of a sudden, what is it in the child that pushes him/her into that stage of inquiry? Or that stage that appears to be rebellious? Is it anger? Not usually. Is it self-esteem? Not typically at the age. Is it hatred? Life has been good up to now. So what is it?
Well, Bildad offers us a key: “the great desire of the partially awakened intellect to contend and strive for that which appears right to it…” But hasn’t the child felt fulfilled, satisfied? Something shifted. “the judgments and decisions are being founded more in outer appearances than in Truth.” The child is starting to have more thoughts of its own, seeking desires that can no longer be satisfied with the status of the norm that the parents provide. There is a longing for deeper satisfaction, something internal is rising up to meet normality and questioning its relevance. So what happens?
Satan happens. The state of mind of the child has shifted away form the parents and has begun to believe in its own sufficiency independent of its creative source---the parents! This Satanic event is common place within each of us just as it was with Job. The desire to move beyond the status quo and to create or achieve greater, whether that be in consciousness or in effect (same thing right?) the puffed up sense of ego steps forward. But something typically happens at this stage…the temptation has a foe!
Zopar shows us where we have limited thoughts. Here we have our own doubts and how those doubts are propelled by imaginary reasoning. This opponent we face is enraged (just like our parents get at this point when we seek our independence) and hostile, quick to point our every flaw the error of the child’s ways, however, as reasonable as Zopar may be, the child cannot understand his faults while the parent is pointing to what is wrong.
Why does Job act this way? What course of reasoning does he take? He points to stars, and speaks of the heavens and of the power of God. Here is what is most important is that something has awoken with him. He cannot see the Truth as of yet, but he starts to get some awareness (which is why he begins to tell his friends how they cannot know his pain). He has “a faint awareness of the Truth that God is always brooding over the earth and bringing about the fulfilling of the natural processes” and this is what begins to bring him some satisfaction and his mind begins to move away from his condition.
But does he recant?
Only after he sees the light and believes that others may suffer if he comes into his enlightenment. His saving grace is that he loses his self-pity and calls for God to be graceful and merciful to his friends (those thoughts about himself that compelled him to doubt---his three friends).
The story is really about us having compassion and demanding that forgiveness be enforced within the individual consciousness. It is about growing into the right-full stage of seeing that no suffering should be imposed by us or by our thoughts toward any one thing. It is Keren-happuch! We are using the “elevating power of light” seeing “spiritual beauty”, and knowing the “Truth”, that all Life is “a beautiful soul expressing in a beautiful character.”
For me this is great in the intellect, but it is more difficult to practice. I find the ways of Job a continual process for me as I move towards greater revelation of what ministry holds for me and what I hold for it in my consciousness. Being a minister is a huge call, and is something that calls me to compassion and integrity, to being that center for Spirit to emanate and express through meunencumbered. I seek for Jobs daughters to have a larger expression in my consciousness so that I may be “refined and established in the true Christ righteousness.”
Ezekiel is a crazy discourse of constant “on this day the Lord said that to me.”
This Lord that I sense here is really the same battle that Job was having. Job had all the despair and nothing changes here except for the receiver. Who is God mad at? Why all this judgment and destruction? What is the purpose of the foretelling of doom?
I find myself unable to understand much of what is in Ezekiel because it is scattered and is not timelined in a reasonable fashion. But I can look up the words, the names. What do I find?
It all deals with the errors of thought! Darkened consciousness not yet brought to the light. Desires! Woah! I always thought God is in favor of our desires…that it brought pleasure to the soul of man to express God through our desires. These people were destroyed for their desires. They weren’t worshiping correctly. But if God is an unconditionally loving God, would it really need our recognition? No it must be some petty egotistical, miniscule proto-power incapable of knowing anything other than itself. (just a play on words there but maybe you can find the simile).
We serve our thoughts about a thing. The message is the petty desires of the flesh, and those of the argumentative mind (the mind that wants to argue for its limitation), is what leads us astray (out of our sense of wholeness and completeness). It really doesn’t matter what we think, or what we desire, it only matters what we think about those things and those thoughts that really determine if we are serving God or serving man’s image of himself/herself. I know we talked about this in class, “whom will you serve today?” I believe the follow up to that would be, “Man cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other…” and I believe that Ezekiel is really trying to tell us to get with the program.
So to move away from the metaphysics of it and to move toward the relevance for me is, “Am I all the way in or all the way out?” There is no half-stepping to ministry! The power of God within me is that capable success, that wisdom to provide, that energy to ensure, and that love to always deliver the light where there appears to be darkness.
I get that our bodies must be well maintained and that our minds must be filled with the Spirit of the Divine, and the ongoing practice of meditation and prayer, mixed with a vision for a world that works for everyone, is mandatory. I see the importance of always testing the word that I hear against some sacred text to find its validity, and that all there really needs to be is imagination to create the new.
I can’t say as yet that I can imagine what ministry I may proceed with, but what I can say is that I am quite certain God has some genius within us all, and that we all possess some gift that the world has been waiting for, and when we give it, we shall rebuild the temple and re-establish the Holy City.
Lets just pretend for a moment that we are blindly ignorant, that we have no sense of reason and that there is no path to life for meaning. We are just robots functioning, moving from point A to point B, in a lifeless gesture of existence. We are fed, famous, financed and fondled. Everything that is necessary for a happy and successful life is already demonstrating in our lives and there is no cause for concern. This is the life of Job up until the question/doubt moment. But the plot thickens and Job, harkens to doubt, questioning his righteousness and forcing his awareness to rise up (or go deeper introspectively---which ever suits you). It is this moment that alters his experience.
As children, maybe up until the age of six, we really don’t have a sense of need. Our parents have supplied us with those things that have given us the ability to have a high sense of satisfaction and security (though we might now know this at this age). We go on about our days with our ritualistic performances, playing, bathing, eating, sleeping, and feeling secure in our family unit. (Can you see any resemblance to Job?) A young consciousness, obeying the ritual and sacramental laws just as the child obeys the order and directives of the parents (up to a certain age). Then all of a sudden, what is it in the child that pushes him/her into that stage of inquiry? Or that stage that appears to be rebellious? Is it anger? Not usually. Is it self-esteem? Not typically at the age. Is it hatred? Life has been good up to now. So what is it?
Well, Bildad offers us a key: “the great desire of the partially awakened intellect to contend and strive for that which appears right to it…” But hasn’t the child felt fulfilled, satisfied? Something shifted. “the judgments and decisions are being founded more in outer appearances than in Truth.” The child is starting to have more thoughts of its own, seeking desires that can no longer be satisfied with the status of the norm that the parents provide. There is a longing for deeper satisfaction, something internal is rising up to meet normality and questioning its relevance. So what happens?
Satan happens. The state of mind of the child has shifted away form the parents and has begun to believe in its own sufficiency independent of its creative source---the parents! This Satanic event is common place within each of us just as it was with Job. The desire to move beyond the status quo and to create or achieve greater, whether that be in consciousness or in effect (same thing right?) the puffed up sense of ego steps forward. But something typically happens at this stage…the temptation has a foe!
Zopar shows us where we have limited thoughts. Here we have our own doubts and how those doubts are propelled by imaginary reasoning. This opponent we face is enraged (just like our parents get at this point when we seek our independence) and hostile, quick to point our every flaw the error of the child’s ways, however, as reasonable as Zopar may be, the child cannot understand his faults while the parent is pointing to what is wrong.
Why does Job act this way? What course of reasoning does he take? He points to stars, and speaks of the heavens and of the power of God. Here is what is most important is that something has awoken with him. He cannot see the Truth as of yet, but he starts to get some awareness (which is why he begins to tell his friends how they cannot know his pain). He has “a faint awareness of the Truth that God is always brooding over the earth and bringing about the fulfilling of the natural processes” and this is what begins to bring him some satisfaction and his mind begins to move away from his condition.
But does he recant?
Only after he sees the light and believes that others may suffer if he comes into his enlightenment. His saving grace is that he loses his self-pity and calls for God to be graceful and merciful to his friends (those thoughts about himself that compelled him to doubt---his three friends).
The story is really about us having compassion and demanding that forgiveness be enforced within the individual consciousness. It is about growing into the right-full stage of seeing that no suffering should be imposed by us or by our thoughts toward any one thing. It is Keren-happuch! We are using the “elevating power of light” seeing “spiritual beauty”, and knowing the “Truth”, that all Life is “a beautiful soul expressing in a beautiful character.”
For me this is great in the intellect, but it is more difficult to practice. I find the ways of Job a continual process for me as I move towards greater revelation of what ministry holds for me and what I hold for it in my consciousness. Being a minister is a huge call, and is something that calls me to compassion and integrity, to being that center for Spirit to emanate and express through meunencumbered. I seek for Jobs daughters to have a larger expression in my consciousness so that I may be “refined and established in the true Christ righteousness.”
Ezekiel is a crazy discourse of constant “on this day the Lord said that to me.”
This Lord that I sense here is really the same battle that Job was having. Job had all the despair and nothing changes here except for the receiver. Who is God mad at? Why all this judgment and destruction? What is the purpose of the foretelling of doom?
I find myself unable to understand much of what is in Ezekiel because it is scattered and is not timelined in a reasonable fashion. But I can look up the words, the names. What do I find?
It all deals with the errors of thought! Darkened consciousness not yet brought to the light. Desires! Woah! I always thought God is in favor of our desires…that it brought pleasure to the soul of man to express God through our desires. These people were destroyed for their desires. They weren’t worshiping correctly. But if God is an unconditionally loving God, would it really need our recognition? No it must be some petty egotistical, miniscule proto-power incapable of knowing anything other than itself. (just a play on words there but maybe you can find the simile).
We serve our thoughts about a thing. The message is the petty desires of the flesh, and those of the argumentative mind (the mind that wants to argue for its limitation), is what leads us astray (out of our sense of wholeness and completeness). It really doesn’t matter what we think, or what we desire, it only matters what we think about those things and those thoughts that really determine if we are serving God or serving man’s image of himself/herself. I know we talked about this in class, “whom will you serve today?” I believe the follow up to that would be, “Man cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other…” and I believe that Ezekiel is really trying to tell us to get with the program.
So to move away from the metaphysics of it and to move toward the relevance for me is, “Am I all the way in or all the way out?” There is no half-stepping to ministry! The power of God within me is that capable success, that wisdom to provide, that energy to ensure, and that love to always deliver the light where there appears to be darkness.
I get that our bodies must be well maintained and that our minds must be filled with the Spirit of the Divine, and the ongoing practice of meditation and prayer, mixed with a vision for a world that works for everyone, is mandatory. I see the importance of always testing the word that I hear against some sacred text to find its validity, and that all there really needs to be is imagination to create the new.
I can’t say as yet that I can imagine what ministry I may proceed with, but what I can say is that I am quite certain God has some genius within us all, and that we all possess some gift that the world has been waiting for, and when we give it, we shall rebuild the temple and re-establish the Holy City.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Metaphysical Bible I
Joyce Kinzel
10/17/09
My Thoughts on
1 & 2 Kings and Song of Solomon
1 & 2 KINGS
The books of Kings tell us about the establishment of the lineage and leadership of the kings Israel and Judea. Through these stories metaphysically we see developing a belief omnipresence of God and a belief unity rather than separation. Humankind is constantly learning by trial and error.
David starts out as a common shepherd who was a poet. He was able to soothe King Saul painful headaches through his music. This shows how the power of love can quell pain and discord. David, which means the beloved, was promised by God that his descendants would rule Jerusalem forever. David represented the divine love in human consciousness. David was a beloved king. He was flawed and always brought back to God.
Through the efforts of his mother Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan, Solomon was anointed king, while David was still alive. Metaphysically the name Solomon is when in consciousness the soul unifies wisdom and love.
Solomon had quite a reign, which included eliminating his enemies, the building of the temple, reorganized the country and 700 wives and 300 concubines. Solomon also recognized the importance of the divine feminine. He was also a man with legendary wisdom and judgment.
Solomon represents a journey of the soul that as it opens up to wisdom it evolves in consciousness. Our quality of life improves when we are open to giving and receiving love. When we let the ego out maneuver our spiritual side, we become vulnerable to the world of appearances.
As discussed in class the triune nature developed during this time:
wisdom – strength – beauty
spirit – soul – body
thinking – willing – feeling
SONG OF SOLOMON
The Song of Solomon is a collection love poems. They are about human love with all of its passion and deep emotion between and man and a woman. These poems have been attributed to King Solomon; however, it is very unlikely that he or any one poet wrote them.
I believe the only way they could have been included in the Old Testament was as an allegory. The allegory is talking about God and his people, god was the bridegroom and Israel was the bride.
From a metaphysical perspective, as we discussed in class, this is about loving others and ourselves as a regular spiritual practice. It is always seeing the divine in yourself and in your world.
Joyce Kinzel
10/17/09
My Thoughts on
1 & 2 Kings and Song of Solomon
1 & 2 KINGS
The books of Kings tell us about the establishment of the lineage and leadership of the kings Israel and Judea. Through these stories metaphysically we see developing a belief omnipresence of God and a belief unity rather than separation. Humankind is constantly learning by trial and error.
David starts out as a common shepherd who was a poet. He was able to soothe King Saul painful headaches through his music. This shows how the power of love can quell pain and discord. David, which means the beloved, was promised by God that his descendants would rule Jerusalem forever. David represented the divine love in human consciousness. David was a beloved king. He was flawed and always brought back to God.
Through the efforts of his mother Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan, Solomon was anointed king, while David was still alive. Metaphysically the name Solomon is when in consciousness the soul unifies wisdom and love.
Solomon had quite a reign, which included eliminating his enemies, the building of the temple, reorganized the country and 700 wives and 300 concubines. Solomon also recognized the importance of the divine feminine. He was also a man with legendary wisdom and judgment.
Solomon represents a journey of the soul that as it opens up to wisdom it evolves in consciousness. Our quality of life improves when we are open to giving and receiving love. When we let the ego out maneuver our spiritual side, we become vulnerable to the world of appearances.
As discussed in class the triune nature developed during this time:
wisdom – strength – beauty
spirit – soul – body
thinking – willing – feeling
SONG OF SOLOMON
The Song of Solomon is a collection love poems. They are about human love with all of its passion and deep emotion between and man and a woman. These poems have been attributed to King Solomon; however, it is very unlikely that he or any one poet wrote them.
I believe the only way they could have been included in the Old Testament was as an allegory. The allegory is talking about God and his people, god was the bridegroom and Israel was the bride.
From a metaphysical perspective, as we discussed in class, this is about loving others and ourselves as a regular spiritual practice. It is always seeing the divine in yourself and in your world.
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