Jesus Christ

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Sexual Harassment? Yes, but Look Deeper

We have a lot of news about sexual harassment and sexual predators, people – mostly well-known men – who are charged with misusing their positions of power or influence to harass others sexually.  Because it has been easier than usual to isolate these incidences and charge the people with these abuses, it has been very easy for many people to jump on the band-wagon to condemn and judge those who are singled-out.

The trouble is that the problem has a deeper core.  On the surface, we can easily imagine and see how these harassing incidences play out.  We can also understand how people can take advantage of others.  We have been doing this to each other for millennium after millennium.

But, in looking at this, I’m seeing a deeper issue and cause that is across the board – human related – rather than just being isolated incidences.  I’m seeing sexual harassment on the job as only a symptom of this deeper human-wide issue.

What I see is that the issue is not about sex and power.  It is about respect.  It is about whether we respect other people in other situations, in other circumstances of life, in other genders, other religions, other cultures, other races.  The question is put to us – do we respect others?

It’s easy to say, ‘well, respect has to be earned.’  No, it doesn’t.  No infant has ever been charged with ‘not deserving respect’ because they haven’t yet earned it.  No child has ever been labeled in school – “undeserving of anyone’s respect because they haven’t fulfilled anything deserving it”.  We don’t say at some point, ‘they’ve now grown up, and we can decide whether they’ve earned respect or not.’

As human beings, we don’t think about these things, but in the back of our minds, as family and friends of those infants and children, and without thinking, we hold some level of respect for them automatically.  That level is usually based on the amount of respect we generate in our own heart for human beings in general.

As human beings and spiritual beings, we are born into deserving of Love, of mercy, of kindness, etc., … and of respect.  But, across the board of all human existence, we can see where we fall extremely short on giving that respect, or love or kindness, etc. to others.

When we actively work to respect another person – consciously – we treat that person so much better.  We work to not harm them.  We work to be kind, generous and merciful to them.  We work to forgive them, to support them and to offer them as much of the best of ourselves whenever they need it.

When we actively don’t respect someone, it becomes so easy for us to demonstrate that lack or small amount of respect through abuse of all kinds, harassment, insults, condemnation, judgmental criticism and every other means to demean them and look down on them.  It becomes easy for us to charge them with “no longer deserving respect’.  When we choose to not respect, it becomes easy to mistreat and abuse them.  When we have little or no respect for another person or group of people, it becomes easier for us to enslave and kill them.  (When we have little or no respect for others, subconsciously, we can have little or no respect for our self.)

We usually have in our individual minds and hearts that measuring stick which we hold up to them and say, ‘they don’t deserve respect because…’.  The reasons are vast and numerous.  They don’t deserve respect because of . . . their gender, their race, their religion, their lack of religion, their social status, their occupation, their age, their spiritual beliefs, their country of origin, their education, their location, their behaviors, their lack of behaviors, their affiliations, their past, their present, their future, their X, their Y, their Z and on and on.

Look across the board to all humans and look for some person or group who is giving respect to every human on the planet.  Not someone who is “saying” I give respect, but rather someone who is giving that respect without being asked.  Look far and wide, because when we are honest with ourselves, and respecting what honesty really is – and the level of honesty within ourselves – we will find all of ourselves wanting and failing at respecting all others.  Many women (and men) have been on the receiving end of sexual harassment. All human beings have been on the receiving end of being shown little or no respect.  All human beings have also been on the giving end of ‘little or no respect’ towards another individual or a group (and ourselves.)

For myself, I can think of only 1 man who, in His heart, mind, and soul respected each and every human alive – albeit all life.  And while He may have chastised and warned people against those who said one thing and did another, when it came to His end, He recognized the respect all deserve as children of God in His words of equality and humility -“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  In essence, saying “Father, they are deserving of forgiveness.  They are deserving of mercy.  They are deserving of the Love You have for them – even that Love through Me.  They are deserving of consideration, of patience, of encouragement, of all You have to give, … and they are deserving of respect… even though they don’t know it or take it on for themselves to bestow it to others.”  He saw then, and He sees today, all of us as His equals deserving all that God gave Him and all God has to give.

As souls, we are innately born into existence with respect from the Father/Mother God.  As souls, we recognize the reality of each of us having our own parcel of the Godhead within our own existence and spirit.  We are all sparks of the Infinite Consciousness of God, and from this Infinite Consciousness of God comes respect as well as the other Spirit Qualities of Love, Compassion, Mercy and others.  These qualities reside within us waiting for us to express them outwardly towards others.  By the very nature of our existence, we are children of God and innately are already deserving of respect, and called to give respect (as well as deserving of love, kindness, mercy, etc. – then called to give love, kindness, mercy, etc) by our very existence.  Yet, we don’t always automatically receive them from others or give them to others.

Every effort we make to change our own ‘lack of respect’ into ‘respecting’ moves us one step closer to creating a better world for all people.  It could help if we remember His words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”, and take them on for ourselves to bring into the world towards others and to ourselves.  In a world one day filled to the brim with our respect for one another, (and other qualities), then we will have Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards All Men and Women (and all life).

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” ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’ (John 8:7) applies to how we treat our self, also.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1997-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Jesus never lied when he spoke. Yet, sometimes we still find it hard to believe him… and sometimes, we absolutely don’t.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1997-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Disappointment in others occurs when there is a small amount of our assistance for them to reach a large amount of our expectations.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1997-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“There will never be a day that we can stop hatred and violence in the world by opposing it using hatred and violence.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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“Sell All You Have and Give it to the Poor…..”

“Sell all you have and give to the poor, then come and follow me.” Mark 10:21

This is a well known story in the New Testament. Most people, if not almost all people, automatically think Christ is talking about money and possessions. After all, the story says Christ was talking to a rich man. The rich man then walked away sad, because he had so much.

I haven’t found any Bible version that says, the rich man was a man with lots of “money”. We assume the story refers to money and material possessions, because the term “rich” usually means this, but take another look at this in relation to the whole of Christ’s message.  Perhaps “rich” means something else.

Christ worked with people all the time. He traveled with them, ate with them, slept with them, and all of these things took money to pay for and required ownership of material things. Food cost money back then like it does today. Clothing cost money back then, too. Sandals, water, wine, all the needs of the body cost money back then.  His followers owned homes, boats, nets, tools of their trades.

So, was Christ saying these words to the ‘rich’ man, and all people with money and possessions? Was Christ saying sell all your possessions and give all your money to the poor?  Was He saying sell your possessions to someone, so that particular someone else will have more possessions?  This is close to what we’ve come to understand from reading this in the New Testament.   Yet, is this all it was?  Money is a tool or resource that can be used wisely. Possessions are useful tools also, to accomplish tasks.  Houses are needed to live inside.  The gist of what Christ said in looking at Christ’s entire message of His life is “Give what you have to those that do not have.”

Looking at this story in relation to all stories of Jesus, perhaps Christ was referring to something greater with more meaning.

What is it that God and Christ gives to us abundantly and without hesitation? What is it that God and Christ bestows upon us infinitely, even though we don’t accept it infinitely?  It  is these things that we have been given and possess in varying degrees of abundance.

It is the Fruits of the Spirit – loving kindness, patience, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, long-suffering, charity and more. This alone does God give us without hesitation, and without limit – even to the point that He could fill us up to overflowing were we open as much.

It is us who then are called to let go of, giving out these qualities, from within ourselves, pouring it forth to give to others that which we have within us. In this light, the message to the rich man becomes something else altogether if he was rich in the presence of Spirit and Love within his heart.

The message to us then becomes “take all the loving-kindness that you have within you, release it from holding on to it, and give it to the poor – those who appear to have no loving-kindness. Take all the mercy that you have within you, and are holding onto, and give to those who demonstrate having no mercy. Take all the patience and forgiveness that you have taken  possession of inside you and give to those who are poor of patience and forgiveness inside them. Take the compassion, the support, the charity, the fruits of the Spirit that you claim as your own bestowed upon you – and give to those who seem to possess none of these qualities.”

This is a different message altogether. To give away our money can be a superficial message referring to that which is external of our Self.  It is appropriate at times, yet, it can also be thought that giving money will buy our way into heaven, even though there’s no such thing as “buying our way into heaven”.

Christ’s message is always more about what is WITHIN us.  With understanding Christ’s life and message as a whole, we can begin to understand this story in a deeper way. His message has always been “Love one another as I have loved you.” And He repeats this to the “rich man”. Take the love I give to you and that you now have within you, and give this love to those who do not have love.

We can now understand why the rich man walked away, also. Because, just how easy is it to love those who don’t love? How easy is it to show compassion to someone who has very little compassion inside him/her? How easy is it to show kindness, patience, mercy or charity to someone who has no mercy inside them, or kindness, or patience or charity inside them?  It isn’t easy at all.

In our world today, we have many that we see as having no compassion, no mercy, no kindness, no patience, and we are called by Christ to “Don’t hold on to all the mercy, kindness, patience, etc that we have been given and is now within us, but rather give it all to those who have none inside them.”

We can understand how such a daunting task today could cause us to turn and walk away.  How can we show mercy and forgiveness to someone who is showing no mercy and no forgiveness? How can we show patience and kindness to someone who is showing no patience and no kindness?  How can we show these qualities to someone who we recently have shown contempt towards or slandered.

Again, there is only one way that we can do this, because “for man, this is impossible. But, with God, all things are possible.”

With God, we can release the loving-kindness within us sending it to someone who has no loving-kindness within them. With God, we can let flow the compassion, understanding and patience to someone who has no compassion or understanding or patience. With God, we can forgive and show mercy to someone who has no forgiveness or mercy within them.

With God, we can patiently and mercifully love those we never thought we could patiently and mercifully love – others, as well as our self. With God.

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“Every time we act in a certain way, we add to the totality of consciousness to go in that certain direction – whether healthy or unhealthy, constructive or destructive.  Hence why persistent kindness and its companions can truly change the consciousness in the world.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We believe that which we believe, because of our own freewill, we choose to believe it, and for many different reasons or agendas, none of which may have anything to do with truth.  We don’t believe that which we don’t believe, because of our own freewill, we choose to not believe it, and for many different reasons or agendas, none of which may have anything to do with truth.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1995-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

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How Not to Be An Activist

Christ, Gandhi and Martin Luther King all demonstrated non-violent activism. They lived lives giving themselves human rights, as well as others, and then living those human rights. Others have tried to take these human rights away, but no one can take away our living of our human rights. We can only throw them away ourselves.

We have to remember that no matter what we fix out in the world – the external world – external to what is within our hearts and minds – that if we do not change ourselves, as well – what is within ourselves – healing that which needs healing, facing the challenges of changing our own self – we will create the exact same problematic world that we live in today. With no change within ourselves, there will be no real change in humanity’s creation of the world.  That which is within is reflected externally.

We can war with each other placing ourselves on either side of the battle, with all efforts still being “to go to war”. We simply tell ourselves that we’re righteous and the other side is in the wrong. This is how war is created. Both sides consider themselves righteous. Both sides consider the other side to be ignorant.  When violence is chosen by both sides – violence of deeds and words – there is no difference in the violence either side inflicts upon the other side whether it’s a violence of deeds or a violence of words. If we ignore the need for the inner change within our own self, we are part of the problem, regardless of which side we’re on and regardless of what changes we seek in the external world.

This may not be the popular view of our world. The popular view is addiction to violence and conflict – where conflict and war are acceptable.

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“As souls, we have the freewill choice to choose any and all life options – to stop, turnaround, run away, hide, freeze, get lost, shrink, and say ‘no’, or at any time, we can choose to get back up whenever we fall flat on our face, and renew our feelings and determination to never give up on our seeking Oneness with God.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“He who is determined enough to succeed, will never fail.” Og Mandino.

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Praying for a Miracle

Miracles are real. Miracles happen. I’ve seen them. I’ve experienced them. I’ve prayed for them specifically, and I’ve had them happen when I asked for them.

I’m not anyone special that I would be favored by God more, or loved more or be considered more worthy. God sees everyone equally, always. God has everyone equally in His/Her heart. Likewise, Christ has everyone equally in His heart.

I don’t know if I help make miracles happen besides praying and asking for them, but I do challenge myself to have faith, constantly. I consider this important, because if I’m asking God for something, then the challenge I give myself is to pray and have faith in Christ – that which He asks – not pretend or as a trick to trade something – which we all try to bargain our way into God’s good stead.

No, the challenge I give myself is to actually have faith that all things are possible with God. I challenge myself to turn my unbeliefs into beliefs – have faith in Christ Jesus – and not just in the easy times, but in the difficult times. This challenges my thinking, challenges my doubts, challenges my heart and all the thoughts and feelings within me. I have to choose to change and then change. I have to choose to not doubt, as much as I have to choose to have faith. I have to choose to not disbelieve as much as I have to choose to believe.

It is a question for me to ask, do I give Christ credit for being Christ? Do I give God credit for being God? Do I recognize that Christ is capable of all the Bible tells me and even more? For me, I am challenged to believe what the centurion said to Jesus – “If you say the word, I know it will be done.” Then open the mind, allow for all possibilities, believe it and have faith.

Christ, Himself, told us we must also pray, and in some of these prayers, I ask specifically for “A Miracle.” In the specific times that I’m thinking of as I write this, the receiving of the miracles were almost instantaneous. I say almost because one time a whole 10 seconds had to pass after I asked for a miracle, (after 3 hours of praying and working on my faith, then trusting that God knows better than I what needs to occur, and accepting that Christ is the Father’s “right hand”.)

Practicing all of this is a lesson in “learning”, also. We are called to know ourselves as spirit beings experiencing physical bodies. We are called to know ourselves as a part of and one with the Infinite Consciousness and Spirit of God. Growing into these are not automatic, but rather done through effort, practice, open-minded learning and choosing of our own freewill to move into this awareness. Learning about miracles is one of these lessons. In fact, there’s a whole course in miracles. The books are called, “A Course in Miracles”, if anyone is interested.

Miracles are real. Miracles happen. And never hesitate to ask God for a miracle.  After you ask, then you get to choose whether to be open-minded to learn or not.

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There are online prayer lines where prayers people ask for are listed. These are sincere prayers being asked for. One can add their own and pray for the others. When I pray for the others, I can sense the real need and the real calling to prayer.

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“If we miss the miracles happening, the problem is not with the miracles.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2006-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God does not criticize or label the poetry of our living our own life. ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2013, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Another of Christ’s messages: Everyone can be forgiven and
everything can be forgiven.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2013, Jodie Senkyrik)

 

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Coming to Our Senses?

I was thinking about your comment that 9/11 is a lessening of what would have occurred if it weren’t for prayers. However, millions of people died because of 9/11 – in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria. Our rights have been severely restricted and people have been tortured and had their lives taken away from them by imprisonment. It appears to me that there was no abatement in suffering and that 9/11 and its aftermath will create more before this madness ends.

Is an economic collapse necessary to bring people to their senses? Is it necessary to defund and dismantle the war machine? Will the US finally look inward when things come crashing down?  Lisa H

You are right.  Millions of people died because of the 9/11 attack. You’re also right that there is no abatement in the existence and presence of suffering. But, all I say now is recorded in the Akashic Records available for all to investigate. That future of which we were able to heal so much, the future which included the prayers and meditations of millions of people bringing forth change, the future which these millions were able to raise the vibrations of this whole planet through spiritual effort – is a future which had been helped to be avoided where billions of people would have died instead. There would have been suffering for all humanity for a whole generation and longer still.

The planet itself was slated to undergo cataclysmic destruction from energy and consciousness patterns destined to manifest.  Through the great effort of so many, who brought forth the love, mercy, compassion, cooperation and all manners of other help, so much has been healed.  But, so much has not yet been healed, also.

What we see today is still great suffering.  Yet, there is a great difference, because of what has been healed and therefore avoided because of the healing. Are there still serious problems? Absolutely.  “Is an economic collapse necessary to bring people to their senses?” An economic collapse would NOT bring people to their senses.

Are you asking what would bring people to their senses? My answer is not the answer you might look for. You’re asking for an external event to trigger people looking inwardly. External events don’t bring about civilizations to look inward. Internal events bring about individuals looking inwardly. Internal events only happen when individuals of their own freewill choose to be open in their hearts and minds to have internal events happen.  So, what would bring people to their senses?

Patience. A quality which so many deem so insignificant and unworthy that it is ignored and dismissed without so much as a second thought. Patience is a quality which people feel is so unimportant that few seek to develop this quality, (and many choose not to at all.)  Yet, in patience we will know our very souls – because of walking our path to go within to seek our own souls. And in knowing our souls, we will recognized our innate inner spiritual nature, knowing then that we are eternal spiritual beings with Infinity within us and at our fingertips, not fleshly beings that have to fight each other for every scrap of physical food.

This Earth is not our spiritual home.  We come from the awareness of our spirit nature, and in time, we will return to the awareness of our spirit nature.  Christ said to all of us, “I go to prepare a place for you.”  This is the place in consciousness where we are once again aware of the truth and existence of being spirit.  We are spirit beings, born in the spirit image of God.  Because Jesus Christ has completed the spiritualization of the Earth, this transformation of consciousness – from believing we are flesh beings to being aware that we are spirit beings – is guaranteed, but not in a single lifetime.  Neither God, nor Christ, nor so many other souls helping will give up on any soul.  God has willed that no soul shall perish – forever destined to believe they are a fleshly, separated being.  And so, the path is slow, so that no soul is left behind – not a single soul.

Hence, patience with one another and patience with ourselves is to be learned.  And with God, learning patience is possible.

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“God’s Patience is as Infinite as God.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2004-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God does not accept “No” for an answer when He calls us. He does accept “Not Yet”, but He does not accept “No”. He will wait with Infinite Love and Infinite Patience until we’re ready to have “I’m ready, now, to say ‘Yes'” come from inside our heart. ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2004-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God does not approach us with judgement or criticism in His heart, but rather Patience, Understanding, Kindness and Love.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2004-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

 

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Previous Article: Love and Hate

The previous article was heavy.  It wasn’t very uplifting, inspirational, supportive or light.  Hatred is like that, isn’t it.

God’s gift to us isn’t hatred.  God’s gift to us, is that which we are made of – that which is our very essence – that which our spirit existence is based on – Love.  Love is our essence.  Love is our substance.  Love is the material of which we are made of.  God made us in His/Her own image and that image is Love.  We are made out of the spirit substance that is known and recognized to be Love.  For this reason, and from this substance, we live and exist.

We naturally gravitate to love, are attracted to love and long for love.  To all of us beings, love is the round peg finding a round hole – a square peg finding a square hole.

In contrast, we must struggle with all our might to avoid love, to disconnect from love and to push love away (and we do that.)  We must work hard to deny love, because our very own essence is what we are denying.

Many will say, “rubbish” to all this, in an effort to run away from love, in an effort to push away love, in an effort to say “no” to love – which in turn, is running away from ourselves, pushing our self away and saying no to our self.  We do this, because we’re so used to thinking this way – to say no to love.

Being True to Ourselves

We need not do anything to be true to Love.  We need not reach outward to find it, but rather settle into it.   We need not carry out any thought or activity in order to be the essence of love, because it is the substance of which our spirit is made of.  Even if we have shown very little of this essence of which we are, we were created at the beginning of existence as love, and we will exist as love – as our self and the true essence of our self – for all eternity.  Nothing will change this truth – no thought, no action, no behavior.  This is true for every living being.

The challenge is for us to choose how, and when we express the “true-ness” of our love existence.  At any moment, we can choose in that moment to express our true self, or on the other hand, express any of the other imagined necessary reactions to the experiences we consider not worthy of love or not worthy of a form of love.

God is the Consciousness of Love – the Infinite Consciousness of Infinite Love.  All the different levels of consciousness which we perceive in the Earth, from the “lowest” form of life to the highest form, are part of this Infiniteness and what is being referred to here.  Therefore, every action, thought, and behavior impacts God and therefore ripples out to Infinity and our self.

If we are unwilling to make these choice to express the truth of the substance of our essence – love – to be our self – our true self, how can we expect others around us or those we are aware of through the media or in positions of prominence to make these choices. If we choose to demonstrate expressions of “non-self/non-love”, how can we expect others to demonstrate the self that is love in return to us. If we are not willing to change our own expressing of that which is not love, how can we expect those who are learning from observing us – our personal example (of which their are many) to learn to change their ways of expressing.

From the essence of the substance of God that we call our individual self with our freewill, we choose how we express life in this world.  No one can force us to hate.  We can only agree to it.  Likewise no one can force anyone to love.  We can only decide to be willing and then carry love out.

Regardless of how much we argue that we were forced to act a certain harmful way, we still know that we were not forced to feel the feelings that led to that harmful act.  We were not forced to think the thoughts that fed the feelings.  We were not forced to perceive the other as worthy of harmful acts.

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What this means is the phrase, “Be yourself” has a bigger meaning.  For us to be ourselves, we need only to be willing to love and to be loved – in other words, to BE LOVE – to exist as our self – Love.

It’s not easy, but with desire, hope, practice, patience, forgiveness, mercy, compassion and effort one day at a time, we can let ourselves be ourselves, more and more.

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The Good Fight

There are many that are ready to fight the current political establishment.  There are many that are ready to fight against these first people.  Which group of people has something worth fighting for?  Both.  But, what is it that each is fighting for?  This is the question that each of us must ask ourselves.  We can claim that we are fighting for the most noble causes – for people, for security, for freedom, for rights, for this, for that, for the other thing, etc.

But, who is fighting for honesty?  Who is fighting for compassion?  Who is fighting for mercy and forgiveness?  Who is fighting for kindness and patience?  Who is fighting for patience towards yet “not condemning” the other side?

The “fight” for these is in bringing them forth through our behavior.  In effect, letting these live from inside us, coming from our own heart and mind, coming out in how we relate towards those around us is the strongest way to fight for them – by demonstrating them.  It is the strongest way to make honesty alive, real and solid in the world.  It is the strongest way to make compassion, kindness, patience and the others alive, real and solid in the world.  But, it is a fight that few are willing to engage in, dismissing it easily as if Christ never mentioned it.

If we require the acts of others to have these qualities, yet without these qualities being alive in us, through our own actions, then we are not putting forth the good fight.  When fighting for truth, why bother if we aren’t truthful with ourselves?  When fighting for kindness, why bother if we’re not kind to our enemies?  When fighting for mercy, why bother if we don’t show mercy to any group who thinks differently than we do?

Christ taught that the Romans were the brothers of the Jews.  He never condemned the Romans or their system of government.  Christ taught the message that what was worth fighting for was that which we can find within our own hearts.  It requires us to address who we are within ourselves, first and foremost.

Governments and people in the government will come and go, but who will we be during this time slot – a kind and cooperative person if one side wins and a violent and condemning person if the other side wins?

What does it benefit us to gain all we want in government, or all we want within our own business, or in the world, but then lose our humanity, lose our respect and kindness towards others, our dignity and self-respect, lose our ideals and that which we strive for bettering ourselves?  What does it benefit us, if we use our mind and heart to win the insult battle or win at condemning others more, or use our knowledge to belittle anyone, but then lose our spiritual path or lose our very soul in the process.

This will be done plenty, by others and ourselves, but who do we become when we add to the insults and belittling?

As human beings, we have many examples throughout history of when it became fun to cause suffering onto those we saw as less than, who we saw as beneath us in character, or the enemy, idiots or clueless.  We have many examples of when it became easy to pick up the stones with which to stone others.  We laugh at the words, today, that ridicule those we don’t like.

Imagine the world, today, if we put all that energy and effort into praying and meditating for all the people and all life on the Earth.  Imagine if every day more and more people joined in the praying and meditating to lift the spirits of all life on the Earth.

How does something like millions of people joined in praying and meditating come into being and start?  With one person one day deciding “I will.”

“We can do it if we try.”  John Lennon

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“If chaos, selfishness, bitterness and judgement of others gives us joy and peace of mind, and lifts one’s heart into the presence of Love, then by all means hold onto that.  But, if it doesn’t, consider trading up for that which may be better at lifting one’s heart into the presence of Love.”  (The Rainbow Cards, 1996-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Seeking the Truth

Every single human being on the face of the Earth, who has lived before and who will live yet, believes that we hold the truth in our own paradigm of our own everyday beliefs.  Holding onto this paradigm can motivate some of us to close our minds and hearts to anything other than what we already have in our own paradigm.  If we’re so convinced that we hold the truth in our beliefs, we will not then open our minds and seek even greater truths.

This is unfortunate indeed.  Even the Bible tells us to “Trust not our own understanding.”

Regardless of whether we believe something is the truth or not, if we look for the truth, with effort, we will find it.  If we look for what is untrue in order to call it true, we will still find it.  If we look for whatever will shore up what we believe, we will find that.  Whatever we seek, we will find.  Whatever we have in our hearts or minds, if we seek more of that, we will find that.  Hence, why is it that we don’t always seek greater truths.

If we have cynicism is our hearts and minds, and we seek to confirm our cynicism, we will find what we want.  If we have doubt in our hearts and minds and want to confirm our doubt, we will find what confirms doubt.

The person who works hard to discern the difference between the truth and that which is untrue, – only through holding onto that desire in one’s heart and mind – will find the truth, and eventually know it.

Christ gives witness to the truth from within our own consciousness and within our own heart.  There is no mistaking Christ coming forth to confirm the truth within our own consciousness.  There is no lie that can stand up to the truth Christ confirms.  There is no prejudice, selfishness, fear or judgement that will stand up the the truth Christ gives witness to.  The truth is based in Love, and it is love which helps us to grow in discernment.  However, we have freewill and so we can still reject what Christ confirms.

So we need not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  It is easy to say, “they are all fake and all lies and all unethical”  It is easy to seek out confirmation of this, but the person who ONLY has their own understandings and beliefs about the world, will stumble and fall over and over again, for as long as they have themselves ONLY that they believe.

There are some us humans who fully intend to mislead, because it serves selfishness and what is desired.  There are some of us who mislead ourselves.  None of these people are easy to pick out, because sometimes there are parts of us that want to believe that what they say is the truth.  There are sometimes that we want to believe what we ourselves are telling ourselves.  We wish it to be true so much that we are willing to believe what is untrue.

But, there are also people who fully seek to put forth effort to be honest and ethical.  To say that all are unethical is to deny the truth.  This is true of leaders, journalists, teachers, and all manners of all people.

It is a good prayer to pray, “Lord, teach me the Truth.  Help me be good soil for the truth you teach.”

One thing I believe I’ve found is that Love and Truth are same, but you’ll still need to decide if you believe it or not.

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“Sometimes, we prefer to still think we’re right, rather than accept that we’re not and correct it.  And boy, how visible this is to the other people who observe us.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“The real truth of the world we live in vs. our perspectives and understanding of the world we live in – are worlds apart.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“How we live our life, while in this world, is our legacy to the world when we leave it.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Staying on Our Spiritual Path in Times of Troubles

We may feel that it is especially difficult to stay on our spiritual path in these days of political difficulties.  As Christ said, “Many of the elect will fall away.”  This statement also pertains to when we stumble and fall flat on our faces when trying to maintain our spiritual center.

The real issue is not that we stumble and fall away from our center, but rather that we work to try again and again to return to that center.  It is entirely reasonable to recognize that we will stumble and fall flat on our faces when we struggle with that which we see and hear which can be harmful to ourselves and other people.  We are at a place in our paths where we face strong challenges from within our very own selves – to practice our learning of that which is a higher path to walk in life.

How do we stay on our spiritual path?  When so much upsets us?  by praying for guidance, being willing to try over and over again – one day at a time, holding to and trying to live from a chosen higher ideal, and asking a very important question.  “God, how do I serve You?” [instead of my own fears, anger and aggression towards others]

Remember also Christ’s words to Peter, before Christ ascended.  “Don’t be concerned about those others.  They are my concern.  You follow Me.”

The Illusion of Battle

What is the purpose of all this fear, anger, and aggression? When it’s on both sides of any issue?

There really can be a purpose created from this struggle. One purpose can be to learn what it’s like to walk in the other person’s feelings and thoughts, but from inside ourselves. During this unique learning, if anyone can step back from the fear, anger and aggression, and look at the whole “fear and anger” experience, then we can see that this whole fear, anger, and aggression experience is exactly what the other person is feeling and thinking, too – only on a different side of the issue.

It’s the exact same feelings – fear – anger – aggression, and even righteousness in these feelings. Step back from the motivating issue and look only at the feelings.

If anyone is wondering why the other side is so entrenched in their viewpoints, we can begin to understand at least their fear, their anger and their aggression. We feel the exact same feelings.  There is no better teacher than to walk in another person’s shoes – to feel the same feelings (even when it’s from different thoughts and beliefs.)

Would you give up your current viewpoints when you’re feeling this fear, anger and aggression against opposition to these viewpoints? If you would not, then you can understand, now, why “they” don’t either.

Is there a purpose to being inside the experience of fear, anger, and aggression? There can be. It is to give us a chance to decide whether we want to learn something from this whole 2-sided battle going on.

Moving from 3rd to 4th

If anyone wants to fight, to get their 3rd chakra’s adrenaline going, we can stay in the 3rd chakra for eons and eons and eons – for thousands of millenniums. And if any of us wants to move into our 4th chakra – the chakra of the heart – the chakra from which we can love God above all else, and love our neighbor as our-self, then we can choose that, instead.  In the 3rd chakra, we can readily experience 2-sided battles.  In the 4th chakra, we move out of duality into recognizing a Oneness among us.

The winning of a battle is an illusion. But, using the 3rd chakra, one feels adrenaline in the battle, which brings the belief that adrenaline means power. However, there is no winning of any argument or battle, because we stay in the 3rd chakra when we bring forth our contribution to battle. We only win, when we realize that life isn’t about winning the battle within the 3rd chakra – the battle of fear and adrenaline. We win when we realize there is no battle, only learning.  This realization happens when we move into the 4th, the heart chakra.

It literally is like moving from one world or plane to another world or plane. The experience is very different, and it can only be understood after the move is made.

There is no convincing another to leave their 3rd chakra when it is the adrenaline which they seek from the experience. As it says in the movie “War Games”, the only way to win is to not play.  There is only one way to conquer fear – as Christ says, “Perfect Love casts out fear.” Choosing to move into the heart chakra moves us out of the Solar Plexus chakra.

There is only a choice of where to live – the 3rd chakra or the 4th.  In giving all of us freewill, God lets all of us make our own choice.  Moving into the heart chakra, we can then see that part of the expression of the heart is to let others choose for themselves the lessons and their timing on when to learn them.

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“An idea is like the stars in the heavens.  An ideal is like all of Space in which all the stars exist.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

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God Loves Ordinary People

God doesn’t need spiritual giants in order to work through for Him/Her to be present in our world. God doesn’t need people of great wisdom or anyone who is good at doing public speaking. God doesn’t need anyone special.

God can and does work through ordinary people – like us. God can and does work through any person who has the capacity to love. God can and does work through any person who is willing to help in some way. God can and does work through any person who can be open.

Each of us who opens our hearts and minds to assist or help in some way, opens a channel for the Consciousness of God to be active within that person. Sure, we may not be aware of the Consciousness of God, in those moments, but Christ walked among us and appeared as an ordinary human being.  He can work through us, and it seem like an ordinary experience.

The determining factor is that when we have our hearts and minds open – willing to help someone who may need help – we are focused on an “other” person rather than ourselves. We aren’t concerning ourselves with what benefits our self, or what we get out of something, but rather we are focused on the well-being of another person or many other people.

Christ said, “As the Father is in me, so am I in you.” He also said, “I and the Father are one.” Any time we act from love or kindness or compassion or mercy or patience or any of the other fruits of the spirit, the Infinite Consciousness of God is present, because there is no separation between Christ and Love, God and Love, and therefore, God and us when we act from love. The Spirit of Love comes through us instantly when we love another.

Unfortunately, our own consciousness is not able to conceive of an Infinite Consciousness. It’s sort of like trying to teach a turtle how to perform algebra. There is no comparative conception going on. But, conceiving of an Infinite Consciousness doesn’t have to happen for us to love, and therefore for the Spirit of Infinite Love to be part of the experience.

We are ordinary people. God loves to work through ordinary people, because there are so many of us.  He/She/We can touch more people with the love, kindness, mercy, patience, etc that we have within us. And God can then bless us with His Infinite Healing presence in those moments when we are open and loving kindness is extended to each other.  We may not call it an Act of God, but anywhere Love is, God is.

“Love one another as I have loved you.” God asks us to do this, also for the reason that He then gets to be more present and active in our life when we do.

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“If you want a direct experience of God, then Love someone, for God and Love are never separated.”  (The Rainbow Cards, 1990-2016, ©, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Forgiveness: Why It’s So HARD!!!

We all may agree that forgiveness is needed in our lives.  It is a spiritual prerogative.  It is also a social, emotional and psychological imperative.  But, it is one of the hardest things to do within our own heart and mind.

There are so many factors that are involved with forgiving.   There are so many facets of our own psyche that are attached to the circumstances and actions in which we are called to forgive about.  So, of course, it is going to be a difficult challenge, especially if the different parts of us – within us – are struggling against the other parts of us that are within us.

Books and more are written about forgiveness.  There are countless articles and treatises that are written about forgiveness.  The Bible is filled with the calling to forgive, and so we try.

Forgiveness isn’t always a “freeing” experience, like some say.  It isn’t always a wonderful experience.  This is because we are multi-dimensional and multi-faceted individual souls.  There’s a lot going on inside us – in our minds, in our hearts, in our hopes for life, in our dreams, in our motivations, in everything about us.

Forgiveness is, in fact, an act of letting go.  But, there is sometimes great grief in this act.  Why grief?  Because there is a death occurring.  It isn’t a death of a person, but rather the death of a dream and image of something – giving way to the reality of something.

More often, it is the death of who we think a person is, and who we want that person to be, as well as what we think our relationship to the person is, and what we want our relationship to be.  Forgiveness brings us to a realization that the person and our relationship aren’t what we had imagined, thought, believed, hoped, dreamt it all to be.

It is with forgiveness that we come to realize that the person is slightly or greatly different than we had projected onto them.  The death of that “imagined person” comes through the act of forgiveness.  Who we wanted to believe that person or persons were comes to an end (or partially).  There is sometimes great grief that comes with this realization.

This all brings us to the point that we can let that other person become a human being instead of being an imaginary person whom we projected onto.

In our hearts, it is easier to like and love someone who we don’t know that well as a human being.  It is easy to project onto that person.  In our hearts, it is more painful to love an actual human being who is capable of hurting others – someone who we learn about in a deeper way – someone who demonstrates their ability and willingness to disregard and hurt others.

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Forgiveness is an act of growth for us when we forgive.  We open up our mind to see a real person – a real live human being who has thousands of qualities – both good and bad – and not some idealized image of a person whom we only were willing to see either the good or the bad – without the other.

When we put someone on a pedestal, we don’t see the reality of who they are.  We don’t see them as human beings with all their faults.  We only see an image – a false human being – an unreal human being.  That is why it is then so easy to crucify them.

When we forgive, we let them get off the pedestal and become a soul who is trying to learn how to be a human being – regardless of whether they’re successful or not – regardless of whether or not we’re aware of whether they’re trying – regardless of whether they are even trying or not.

When we forgive, we change ourselves into a human being who sees another human being – instead of an image of that human being.  When we forgive, we allow the relationship to be what it is, rather than what we want it to be – leaving us in a better place to decide whether it is a relationship we wish to continue and bring forth a different love or discontinue because of the need to remove ourselves from a bad relationship.

The reason why Christ can love us without reservation is because He forgives us over and over.  Forgiveness doesn’t make the relationship better not even how we relate to Jesus, but it does create an open door for our inner change to happen.  If we’re willing to walk through the open door for change, then the relationship can get better, but not everyone who is forgiven is willing to walk through the open door for change.

That is why forgiveness can also bring grief.  Forgiveness can also bring the reality of a destructive relationship which needs to come to an end.  We can forgive ***and forget*** but it comes with change.  Sometimes that change is to love more.  Sometimes that change is to move on.

The challenge of many of the Jews and others who were alive after WWII was to forgive the Nazis.  The awareness was present for many that only in the forgiving of them did the prisoners become free from the Nazis.  If there was no forgiveness, the two were still tied together.

Forgiveness doesn’t make everything peachy-keen.  Again, it brings a view of the reality of what the relationship is and what the relationship isn’t.  It helps us to see when we have been holding onto someone wanting them to be someone they aren’t.  It helps us to see when we’ve been holding onto a relationship wanting it to be something it isn’t.  And with this awareness, perhaps be able then to choose a better action on our parts other than idealizing someone or some part of someone, and idealizing the relationship or some part of the relationship.

Finally, mercy is always available to help us to forgive.  Remember, each of us has been forgiven many, many, many times and by many, many, many people – including by Christ, Himself.  And we’ll never know the full spectrum and all of the quantity of the times we’ve been forgiven.  As long as we are alive as human beings, we will never know.  We can only know that we’ve been forgiven countless times, but for the rare occasions that we may learn a few of the details of when and why.

We can then participate in our forgiving of others without holding onto expectations – just letting the act of forgiveness itself be a hidden act of mercy, and then moving on with our life.

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Forgiveness is also the act of taking our own heart in our own loving arms, holding our self close with kindness, forgiveness and love.  ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik

“Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid! I can’t take God’s place.” ” Genesis 50:19

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Deuteronomy 30:19

When in human history has there not been conflict among each other, hatred, war and killing of people by other people. And yet, we human beings are still alive and living our lives. We have 7 billion people on the planet, and I know why.

It’s because “he” loves “her,” and “she” loves “that guy,” and “they” love “somebody,” and “he” loves “somebody” and “we” love, and “she” loves, and “different people” love and “children” love and on and on and on and on. Any planet where “many people loving other people” exists, is a planet worth living on. Any planet where a person or many people express their love through all the different forms that love gets expressed – support, kindness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, more kindness, etc, – for other people, is a planet where God is among us and active through our choice to manifest love to other people through support, kindness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, more kindness, etc.

God and Love and God and Love

Where love exists, God exists. Where people love, God’s love gets through to us.  When we love any person and any life that God has created, we bring God’s Presence, Kindness, Patience, Compassion and Love onto the surface of this planet, mixing into the lives of the people we contact and with whom we connect.  We bring God’s active involvement into our personal lives and our lives as a planet full of people.

The Choosing

If any person or group of people wants to bring more conflict with other people, more condemning of another group of people, more war among different groups, more killing of men, women and children – more hatred and fear of someone who is different – into the world, we can choose this activity simply by harming, judging, condemning, fearing, abusing, or hating the person we see either in front of us, next to us, far from us, or someone on the news channel.  This then becomes the act we add to our children’s lives, to our family member’s lives, to the lives of the people in our community, to the people of our nation and to the people on the planet.

At any time, we can choose to condemn different people more, judge different people more, kill different people more, be more violent to people we don’t want near us.  We can do this more and more, not just through our actions, but through the words we speak and write, through our beliefs about other people and our actions born from our attitudes which then become our real treatment of other people.

We can fear and hate, either the person sitting next to us on the plane who looks different, or the person who looks different on the other side of the planet that we only see on TV – all at the drop of a hat.  We can inspire others to hate through our written words and our spoken words in any avenue of writing (and now social media.)  We can return hatred to those people that already hate thereby increasing the hatred among more and more people in the world.  Look at the world and see how we have chosen the easy way of hating and fearing the person that is different.  No one of us is innocent of doing this.  And as Dr. Phil says, “And how has that worked out for you?”

When we fear and hate, our hatred and our fear within our hearts and minds, go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. They are the right hand and the left hand to a body of living that we can choose simply by believing our own words of fear and our own words of hate.   Our fear feeds our hatred and our hatred feeds our fear. Anyone who fears and says they don’t hate is selling more fear and more hatred to any buyers.

Is Christ a real option?

Jesus was/is a real person.  Regardless of what the Bible tells us, we don’t know that much about Him.  We fill in the details with whatever we come up with in our minds, and from what other people come up with in their minds.   We even remake Jesus in our own image and likeness, sometimes.

Other times, we put Him so high on a pedestal that He becomes unreal.  When He becomes unreal, His guidance becomes unrealistic.  His teachings become unrealistic, and our beliefs about Him become unusable for any real-life situations.   We live day to day, and we don’t practice any of His teachings and guidance.

He was a real human being.  Perhaps not the human being that we’ve imagined, though.  He died from physical wounds and the blood loss.  Real people die from physical wounds and blood loss.  There were no EMT’s or Surgeon’s.  If we were in the same situation – a knife, a sword (not too many any more) a gun, a bomb, or the like, we also would possibly die from the blood loss  from wounds.

We may yet think of Him as an imaginary person.  Imaginary people don’t suffer or physically die.  Imaginary people go away and don’t come back.  Imaginary people aren’t around when you need real help.

But, to better choose Christ, we can start with entertaining the idea that He is a real person, like you and I – “one of us” – with Him walking down the street, or next to us, or waving as we walk by.  As a regular real person, His statement – “For man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) gives us the room for something better to be hoped for and chosen.  This statement can give us hope that we can find it within ourselves to choose something better – with help from within – with God, a better choice can be chosen, from within.

Real people can act with kindness, gentleness and tenderness.  Real people can act with patience and compassion.  Real people, like you and I – “if God was one of us” – can choose forgiveness and mercy.  This is how we can choose Christ.  He chose to extend forgiveness, patience and mercy and still does.

Making a Choice

We can focus on continuing to choose to love-which takes making a decision, and then following up that decision with prayer asking for help to manifest the decision, and then following up that prayer for help with hard work – as anyone who is married, (one of many examples of an expression of love,) will tell you – continuing to love takes hard work.

On the other hand, in any one moment, in any one second, we can choose to hate and express that hatred through violence, through vengeance, through killing,…

or we can choose to love and express that love through patience, through faith, through kindness, through mercy, through more patience, through understanding, through prayer, through more prayer, and through the examples that we have already learned.  We can choose through any method that brings our minds and hearts back to the better side of human beings and away from the worst side of human beings – fear, hatred, and the like.

It is so, so easy to become just like those we condemn, those we hate, those we fear or those that are different. All we have to do is condemn others and justify the condemnation, hate others and justify the hatred, fear others and justify the fear.  The other side does exactly the same thing.

Deep within ourselves, we don’t want to be hate-filled and fear-filled. But, we choose that when we choose to return hatred for hatred – when we choose to return condemning of others with more condemning of others.

There will never be a day that we can stop hatred and violence in the world by opposing it using hatred and violence. We cannot add to the cooperation and unity among different people by adding more conflict and separation.  Whether it’s felt towards people next to us in the grocery line or someone on the opposite side of the planet – it is the same.  Thoughts of hatred and of condemning other people as well as thoughts of fear of those other people, find their way into how we treat the people in our own presence – the people sitting next to us on a plane or standing next to us in line.

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There is no difference between the violence of one person and the violence of another person.  There is no difference between the hatred and condemnation that one person has, and the hatred and condemnation that another person has.  Both people justify their own and both people say “God is on our side.”

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While the title refers to a “strict or strong” stance – sometimes an interpreted judgmental stance – in the Bible, I list it because it recognizes that we have freewill.   We will always have freewill.  We will always be able to choose.  Our response to all things in life is up to us.  We can choose life.

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The real God is the God of Infinite Love – the Love that existed before time, and which will exist beyond any imagined future.  The real Jesus Christ is the Christ of Infinite Love.  The real Spirit within all of us is the Spirit of Infinite Love.  We have within us more capacity for love than we currently choose to imagine and manifest.  When the time comes that we choose to imagine Infinite Love and choose to manifest Infinite Love, this world and all other worlds, as well, will change to One of Infinite Love, Infinite Kindness, Infinite Patience, and…

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“Those we pray for have God available in their lives in stronger ways than those we don’t pray for.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Love Is It

Every individual struggles to live life as best as possible, even with all the hurdles we place in front of ourselves, and the stumbling blocks we cling to. Yes, our lives are filled with difficulties, pain, suffering and the like. Even when we have wonderful things to potentially make life easier, bring joy and be less painful, and bring happiness and have less suffering, our lives are not free from any aspect of life. We simply have a different kind of pain and suffering in our life.  Some of it is easily seen, and some of it is hidden to everyone except ourselves.

No individual’s life is strictly either black or white. No life is strictly either pain or joy. No individual, no soul is strictly either good or bad. Consequently, no experience is strictly only good or bad, black or white, pain or joy.

In our world, we know suffering exists and many of us try to help there be less of it. In our world, we know that understanding God more can help there be less of it. Yet, again and again we run into the wall of the differences between our efforts and our results. Over and over we seek ways to offer others insights or learning which we have with the hope of reducing suffering and with the hope of increasing understanding and compassion in our societies and the hearts and minds of people.

It is so common to get very discouraged and saddened when we believe that we’ve been ineffective and unsuccessful. If we hold to this belief – that we’ve been ineffective and unsuccessful – or that we haven’t even been able to change ourselves or enhance God’s presence in our own lives, then we can also become depressed or despairing – feeling that we get nowhere with our efforts at changing another’s consciousnesses.

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But, if we open our minds just a little bit more, we’ll be able to see something different happening. If we can see that our effort at changing our self is the superior path – the path that brings us to greater awareness of our world through the greater awareness of our self, we can begin to see that, of course, we’re going to get depressed about our ability to change somebody else. Of course, we despair when we think we’re here to put love into someone else’s heart.

There’s a paradox here.  These tasks are not realistic tasks for us. These tasks are not the tasks set before us by God.  These tasks are not why we’re here. We’re not here to bring salvation to someone else. We’re not here to bring enlightenment to someone else. We’re not here to bring about someone else’s greater learning.

We’re here to demonstrate something special.  We’re here to seek salvation within. We’re here to seek enlightenment within. We’re here to come to know our own self as uniting with God within. We’re here to seek our own greater learning within.  We can do this by loving God above all and loving our neighbor as our self, and demonstrating all of the above.  What we learn from this is a very simple realization.

Each time we love or express love in some way, each time we feel love in our hearts and demonstrate it, we are in a very real way, bringing God’s consciousness, energy, and vibration into this plane in order to affect this plane – like a tuning fork, to raise the vibration of all things. Each time we love, regardless of who or what receives, we are opening to allow God to have a greater presence in the world. Each time we love, the love energy extends and strengthens the connection we have, and increases our awareness of the Oneness of all life. Each time we love, the world, the planet, the environment we’re in changes. Each time we love, we change.

This means the way to healing is to love in a greater capacity than the way of illness. This means the path of illness, dis-ease, darkness or whatever we call it and this path’s strong inertial pull, can be changed by choosing to love and sending this love out.

While the path of love is not an easy path to walk, it certainly offers more than the path of trying to change others instead of ourselves. It offers more than the path of thinking that we’ve failed because the world is still “crazy” even after all those meditations and talks we’ve done. It offers more than the path of trying to figure out what what we’re supposed to be doing to make ourselves “spiritual.”  It offers more than the path of believing that spirituality is what we do rather than what are.

The path of loving is the path that can offer the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and taking life one day at a time.  The path of loving is a path of demonstration of all that has been said in this article.  Every time we love, we bring God in all God’s Infinite Consciousness into the present moment into this space that we’re in. Every time we love, we demonstrate love to someone who may have forgotten it.  There is no greater spiritual act that any of us can enact than to love. There is no greater spiritual purpose to which we can attain. There is no greater spiritual path that we can progress upon.

Love is it.

Now, a few questions:
If any of us died right now, would the people in our lives have known for certain that we loved them?  or would they think something else?  If anyone we knew died, right now, would they die knowing that we loved them?  or would they die thinking something else?

What is the harm of demonstrating to someone else that we love them?  What is the harm of expressing to all life that we love all life?
What is the harm of showing God that we love God?

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This article is dedicated to a friend of mine – someone I love.

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Thank You

I’ve been receiving a few emails and comments asking where I am or why I haven’t written in a while.  It is true, that I haven’t written an article in almost 2 months.  Thank you for your interest.

Needless to say, it has been an intense few months for me, but then I can say that about a lot of you readers, as well, can’t I.

For many, these past few months have been noticeably intense.  For the most part, this is a good time to remember meditation and prayer.  During challenging times, we benefit most from the help we get from Spirit.  When we put forth effort to be aware of our Spiritual Center and Spiritual Help, our Spiritual Help responds in kind.

And remember, through good times and bad, we’re in this boat together and like the Apostles while in the boat with Christ during the storm, we are never alone.

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“Come unto Me, and I will come unto you.” The Spirit Within During Meditation

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The Prejudice We Don’t Know

Everyone knows prejudice – what it is – that it exists – that it contributes to the pain and suffering of human beings.   During our own lives and in our past, we’ve seen prejudice be at the core of oppression, suffering, and the killing of people.  We see it without trying to find it.

Like a ball, it has many sides.  Contrary to some beliefs, understanding prejudice is not a black and white understanding – either knowing it or not knowing it.  Recognizing prejudice is not a black and white experience – either seeing it or not seeing it.  Human prejudice is as visible and invisible as the human psyche and spirit permits.

This is partly because very few know how to cleanse themselves of prejudice.

This is because the real issue is never whether we are prejudiced or not.  As difficult as it is to read this statement, it is true.  The real issue is different.  The real issue is how do we cleanse ourselves of prejudice.

Imagine if God, in His/Her ability for Infinite Possibilities, one day when we woke up, had turned us from what we are in this world into another race or the opposite gender, or a different religion or sexual orientation or different nationality, an opposite or different… anything – than who and what we are right now – all while we stayed aware of all of this transformation.  In one moment, we went from one identity and paradigm of who we are to an opposite in the next moment.  Impossible, but not for God – since “it just happened.”

How would we feel being aware of who we were one moment and then being aware that we’re no longer who we were but we’re now the opposite?  Would we welcome it?  Would we dread it?  Would we be glad?  Would we be sad or devastated?

The real issue mentioned above is whether we could then be honest with ourselves, because we would come face to face with our true feelings, thoughts and attitudes of the “other” that is now our self.  Our feelings and attitudes would give our self away.

Within the awareness, within the body, within the mind or within everything of this opposite that we now are – would we feel it is a punishment? or would we feel it is a release from a prison?  or a prison sentence?  The next question becomes “Why?”  Why would we be glad? or sad?  Why would we feel it is a punishment? Why would we feel it is a release from a prison? or a prison sentence?

And there are other questions.  Are we now that which we had blamed, looked down on, hated or targeted?  Have we become someone who we would want to be?  Or are we someone who we would dread to be?

Targets

Ultimately, the question is ‘Have we ever thought, felt or acted against another person or group?  It is this person or group, who we thought, felt, or acted against that is our target.  Targeting anyone or any group is what prejudice is about.

Only when we take the journey of working on ourselves within, striving to have no one anywhere as our target – only then, do we strive to work to cleanse ourselves from prejudice of any kind- and cleanse ourselves from our judging another person or group who is not that which we individually are.

Who among us can claim we have cleansed ourselves completely of prejudice?  and then become the opposite of what we are – with no qualms or shame, or worry, with no gladness, no sadness and then go on to recognize that we are both the previous self and the opposite of our self – and both of these are our self.  Ultimately, in being prejudiced, we are only prejudiced, and have targeted, (and seek to limit, blame or hate) our own self.

Not being prejudiced is a journey of letting go of judgment of ourselves as much as it is letting go of judgment of others.  It is a journey of discovering that every one is our self, and our own self is everyone – including the ones we currently target, judge or hate.

If we choose to strive to cleanse ourselves from targeting anyone, we also strive to accept and welcome everyone as our own self and our own self as everyone – more importantly, we will have traveled a journey that leads us to accept our whole Self -that Self who contains all the opposites within one person even though the surface doesn’t show it, yet.

Is this possible to do for human beings?  As Christ said, “With God, ALL THINGS are possible.” even traveling a journey of discovering as individuals, who we really are.  With that discovery, hopefully being that we are all one another and therefore, we are all One.

Is this hard to understand? Sure, but cleansing prejudice is only done with effort to understand more things and greater things about people, than that amount we understand so far.  This takes effort and striving.

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Changing away from prejudice is a journey of “a thousand days.”  However, on a day to day basis – taking one day at a time – it is a light switch.  It is a light switch when we realize that we targeted someone yesterday, and we can choose to not target them on this day – today – not target another person or group of people through our words, our actions or our thoughts – today.

We can turn our journey into “1000 light switches” when we take our journey one day at a time, and choose only on this day, today – with each “today” which we are given – to target no person or group of people whatsoever based on that which identifies them beyond their own character.

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There was a movie made in 1970 called “Watermelon Man” which covered the experience of waking up as “a different man.”

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“The things we can do, are the things we’re willing to do.  The things we can’t do, are the things we’re not willing to do.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016-2018, Jodie Senkyrik)