Again, eloquent and sincere. I on the other hand am simple of mind and words and honestly have no such talent; and so must boil things down to the simplest of elements in order to discern any meaning. The first and foremost commandment is straight forward and clear
"1. You MUST... love JAH your God with your WHOLE heart, your WHOLE soul, your WHOLE mind and your WHOLE strength..."
And if we do not ...
" there will indeed be a trial, with a judge, God... God Himself promises vengeance.... it is destruction, the end of the body (flesh) AND the spirit. For although the body (flesh) dies and returns to the dust, it Can be resurrected because the SPIRIT still lives on. Thus, the spirit... must be destroyed. And it can ONLY be destroyed... by fire… from heaven."
So again, it comes down to "Love me, or I will kill you". Forgive me SJ, if you have presented something here that says otherwise. But when all is said and done this very stark statement seems to be the end result, and jumps out at me like a speeding semi truck. You can paint it pretty and put lights on it -- it's still a speeding truck. I have searched deep within my heart, dear SJ, and I am incapable of loving that, which will kill me if I don't. No matter how you express it, for me, it goes against the nature of love. So, years ago I began to question my understanding of God. I have no problem with the secondary commandment :
" 2. You MUST... love your neighbor as yourself."
This rings wise and true. In fact, if I was in your Gods place, there would never be the need to kill a single soul; let alone millions or billions. For I would realize that my creation is only as good or bad as what I give them, for indeed of themselves they are nothing. Any goodness, any Christ-like attributes are mine expressed from within them -- and not theirs. Thus, all ignorance and seeming disobedience would be forgiven, for to judge them and to condemn them, is simply to judge and condemn myself; as they are but an expression of my failure and short comings. I did not feed them adequately. I did not give them the vision to see. If I was God, my love would be Infinite and have no end, or boundary. Period. The above sense or feeling was what I found in my heart, so I had to ask myself "is my love more Christ-like than God's? Am I, who am nothing, capable of sensing or imagining a love far greater than God's? Of course not! God's love must be INFINITELY greater than my feeble sense of things. Thus, I understood, it was my traditional and orthodox beliefs and ideas about God that were limited and tiny....not God.
I hope this has served to provide you with some answers, dear James. I must tell you, however, that there is a “better” way for you to receive them… and that is to go directly TO the Way: ask HIM. Ask God, through, Christ, to grant you His holy spirit so as to “prepare” for you a body with ears “excavated” so that you can HEAR. And then… hear… what the Spirit and the Bride says to YOU"
Beautifully said, and I have done this and still do. I have come to see that ideas of God -- as a person or thing -- wandering about through time and space, are only creations of the mind and have no bearing on Truth. God/our Source, is not so tiny as to be limited to somewhere other than here and now; and through our believing ourselves separate from the Infinity of God, we have, in a sense, reaped the "judgment" of which you mentioned. We have (in our minds) cut ourselves off from the Source, the Beloved, our Sustenance. The remedy is simply to love God/Truth enough, to see otherwise. Perhaps our ways are no so different SJ. It may be more a drastically different way of expression and semantics. Then again...? I appreciate SJ, your time and attention that you have given me, and your ability of expression with words and scripture. I myself seldom if ever use scriptures, as it's words can easily and mistakenly belittle and diminish God, so that we come to believe and accept our Source, as simply a big invisible man with very human qualities. For me, to love God with my whole heart, mind and soul is to forsake everything that belittles and separates me from God...which is pretty much everything I have ever been taught. JamesT
