Religion

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Who or What Are We Changing?

It is said, “what does it benefit a man to gain all he wants, if he loses his soul in the process?” It is the same for all of us. What does it gain us, if we save the Earth, but lose our souls, our own selves, our community, our society, our nation, our civilization, our human race in the process? We can do both, but we can only save the Earth, if we save our own Self, as well.

Put another way, the Earth is a reflection of humanity’s consciousness, and we will create in the Earth that which is in our own consciousness. If we are polluted, we will pollute the Earth, as well. If we are destructive, we will destroy the Earth, as well. If we are abusive, we will abuse the Earth, as well. If we are in conflict with each other, we will be in conflict with the Earth, as well.

But, if we are kind to each other, we will be kind to the Earth. If we show compassion to each other, we will show compassion to the Earth. If we are forgiving to each other, or show mercy to each other, we will be forgiving and merciful to all things of the Earth. If we are tolerant of each other, our tolerance will extend to our planet and all life on the planet, as well.

We can be willing to try to save the Earth all we want. But the real issue is are we willing to save our own SELF – our own heart, mind and spirit?

We, human beings, too often, choose conflict over and over and over again. We, too often, choose war and violence towards others, whether in entertainment or in real life. We, too often, choose abuse of others as a way of expressing ourselves.

We may easily condemn those we see as doing this, but if we were to walk in their shoes, we could easily be the ones doing this. We condemn those who sell the weapons of death, those who make the money, those who pollute the world, those who stand on the backs of others to make their own infinitely short life easy and themselves rich, but…. we are the ones who attend movies watching superheroes show us how to use violence to save the world, buy the products to make our lives easier, who buy the stocks in the companies to make the money, who imagine ourselves living easy and suffering-free.

We can and do point the finger at corporations and companies who sometimes make the world a worse place to live, but we are the workers at these places, we are the managers, we are the ones who make money in the offices, and we are the ones who say, “I care about my life first. I can’t afford to save the world. I’ll do something if it’s easy and convenient.”

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If we don’t start with our self – our own hearts and our own beliefs and our own thoughts – changing where the conflict and warring starts – inside ourselves – as individuals – then we will only create the same problems over and over again.  No change will happen externally of ourselves, if no change happens internally within ourselves. We might be willing to work on ourselves or change things in the Earth – for one generation – but without the change inside our own soul, we are simply changing things for others who are just like us – in wanting war, and in wanting conflict, and in wanting the golden calf.

A spiritual life is “building for eternity”. I’m not talking about a constructed “religion-based” heaven of “spending eternity with the angels singing hymns in perfect bliss” – but the eternity where we work on ourselves to change who we are inwardly, how we relate to other people – how we relate to our brothers and sisters at whom currently we throw bullets of every kind.  I’m talking about the eternity of growth, change and possibilities referred to when He said, “With God, All Things Are Possible.”

We are born to come into the Earth, challenging us to learn about our real relationships to others – not our physicality and not our religio-city, but our spirit existence – inhabiting a body for a very short time to grow and learn to find better ways to be among ourselves as people.

God sends us into the Earth to practice Love in every manifestation. God sends us into the Earth for a very short time, to demonstrate the bounty of Love- through Kindness, Compassion, Patience, Service, Mercy, Forgiveness and other fruits of the spirit.

And when this very short life is over, we get a chance to examine how much we learned, how much we extended kindness, compassion, patience, mercy, tolerance, and more. We get the chance to look back and see if we learned anything, and what it is we actually then taught to others.  We get the opportunity to look forward to see what we can work on during our future sojourns.

We get the chance to look back at this life compared to all our other previous lives, try to understand what helped and what hurt our efforts.  We can ask where we used this opportunity to help, where we used this opportunity to harm, or both. Did we change? Did we grow? Did we learn? Did we waste anything of this life ignoring our purpose?

“With God, all things are possible”, includes learning, growing, and bringing forth love.  This includes, learning, growing and practicing changes within our own hearts and minds.  With this, we find encouragement to help us get back up and dust ourselves off when we get tripped up by the billions of things that we thought were important, but turned out not to be, or at least, not to be as much as we thought.

“With God, all things are possible” includes helping change to come into the Earth, and it then to come in via the changes we make in our hearts and minds – bringing real change, lasting change, and the change that is passed down to generations instead of being lost in the next generation.  The external changes of the world are like dust in the wind.  The internal changes are built on that which lasts for eternity.

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“With all that we are within ourselves, right now, are we the person we want to spend eternity with?” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2019, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Faith unused, does nothing.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2019, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We tend to think of God being on the outside of us, hoping to get in, when in truth, all along, God has been on the inside of us, trying to come out.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2019, Jodie Senkyrik)

 

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Q and A’s, (questions 8-16)

8.       What is Russia’s near to medium term future?  … They too are asserting themselves, but their demographics don’t support it over the long term. D.M.

First, put this in the context of this physical Earth plane being a school of spirituality.

Then, as odd as it may be to say this, they struggle also with the forces that are in play – being human and subject to human issues, as well as spiritual forces.  These human and spiritual forces are the Will of the People.  Even though Russia has the government that it is known for in today’s world, the Will of the People (souls) is still a strong force.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that the Russian people/souls are like Americans in their way of thinking and behaving.  They do have a different collective consciousness and so their future as a nation and the past as a nation go along the lines of THEIR (Russian) collective consciousness and not OUR (U.S.) collective consciousness.  And I am NOT referring to citizenry ideals, but rather soul ideals when I refer to “collective consciousness”.  Individually, as souls, they have many different feelings and thoughts, some like Americans, but the collective force of their souls is what is paramount and thus more important.

Yes, they have conflict and struggle with themselves within – person with him/herself, citizens against citizens, citizens struggling with the government, citizens who accept the government the way it is – as much as outside themselves.  All of us struggle with ourselves internally, and that internal conflict then shows itself in our conflict with what is external to us.

To say what their specific future is would simply read like any other nation.  Don’t all nations, (even Canada), have these same patterns in consciousness of the people, and therefore the same patterns represented by different groups of citizens?  For this reason, at the same time, it is possible to say that the people, and government representatives are no different than the people and representatives of the UK, the US, or any other area of the planet.

People are still people.  (Not really profound, but true none the less.)  While their own unique government has it’s own characteristics and traits and problems, the people face many of the same internal issues which we all face all over the world.  We all have similar desires – to have a home, raise children, put clothes on their backs and food on the table, etc.  Their future has very little difference from anyone else’s future.  The issues of the past are the issues of the present and future.  While this may not answer your question distinctly, it is still an accurate description of their future.

As a political force, they are known to work more behind the scenes, but then how is that different from so many other governments?  There is not enough of a difference between the  past, present and near future to mention anything specific.  In their spiritual growth as a people, they have the opportunity to seek to call out to God… as we all do.  As time progresses for Russia, the prayers of a few will save many.  The prayers of many will save even more.  Prayer changes things.  Those who are prayed for will have God’s energy and spirit in their energy fields than those not prayed for.  As the Russian people continue to pray, so will their nation have ever more of God’s presence, which does lead to change.

The fact that we are all human beings on the planet does mean very sincerely, that we’re going to be having similar feelings, similar desires and similar sufferings.  Yet, as Americans, we cannot say “Everyone wants to be an American.”  It simply isn’t true.  Souls all over the world, are born where their evolutionary path is best for them.  People/souls are where they want to be, and like trees planted where they are, the lesson becomes NOT “Where do I need to go to grow best?”  BUT rather “How can I grow best in the place that I am?”

Look at Russia’s  issues today and you’ll see the same issues on into the next decade.  The timeline I’ve spoken of here – the most difficult times to 2026, then slowly start pulling ourselves out of the most difficult times as we decide to cooperate and work on our collective problems collectively, and this leading back to climbing out of the hole we seem to be in by 2038 – is the same timeline for Russia and all other nations and peoples on the planet.

9.   Jodie, please correct me if I am wrong on this, ok?  It seems to me like a huge impediment to the world is the US’s continuing militarism.  President Harding famously said that “The business of America is business.”  It seems to me now that the business of China is business, but the business of America is war.  What do you see happening over the next 20-50 years or more?

I will address this more in the future.  Regrettably, I would not be able to do it justice here at this time.

10.   I am seriously looking at Islam as a way of life, not just because I am moving (once more) to an Islamic country.  How will my family and people here in Charlotte who know me react to this once I inform them?  I feel drawn towards it.  It started back in the early 1980’s when I lived there.  How will my life change as a result of that choice?  It is a big choice.  All choices bring about consequences but big choices like that one can bring about big consequences, positive and negative, even neutral.

Every religion that teaches there is One God – (what I extrapolate as ‘One Infinite Consciousness with Infinite Possibilities and Infinite Capacity’) is worth studying and integrating into what we believe – every one.  The choices we make with walking our spiritual path, – what beliefs to hold to, or practice, what beliefs to gather from other religions, what spiritual beliefs we develop through our own efforts – in other words, whether an organized, established belief system, or an eclectic smorgasbord of personal beliefs – are all valid and worthy of being studied.  Not because we should practice all religions, but so we understand others and in turn, ourselves.

But, remember, first and foremost:  The most important thing is not what religious beliefs we hold to, but rather how we use our religious beliefs to motivate us to behave in relation to our fellow human beings.  Both good and bad choices can be made in every religion or belief system (or paradigms, philosophies, scientific structures or ways of thinking) in which we use to motivate us to behave certain ways towards and in relation to other human beings.

To change a little bit what Edgar Cayce said about people, namely his words of “There is good in the worst of us, and there is bad in the best of us” (E.C.), I would add, there is good in the worst of religions and there is bad in the best of religions. – WHY IS THIS TRUE?  Because, they’re made up of PEOPLE!  and it is the people who take on the beliefs and manifest behaviors.  Again, it is Edgar’s words above – and I’ll add, every organization that people are members of (or adhere to,) is only a reflection of the people who are this organizations’ members (or adhere to it.)  No system of thought or belief can be more than the people who make up its rolls.  However, all systems of thought and belief have the potential for growing into what the “Spiritual Teachers” teach, though.

My own recommendation to people is to study them all and choose which rituals, precepts, and practices fit you.  I recommend this, because while I encourage the study of all religions, I make the suggestion that there is no need to strictly adhere to only one religious belief system when much of the others have meaning for anyone, as well.  One can gain much by practicing all of a person’s interested religions or aspects of religions more as an integration of the available spiritual and religious belief systems.  It is not the “adhering” to one religious belief system that accomplishes spiritual growth.  Remember also, “mankind and mankind’s spiritual evolution was not made for religions and systems of thought.  These religions and system of thought were made for mankind’s evolution.”

In this “adding to” that I mention above, the understanding and knowledge of many religions to our mind and world view, we can slowly begin to open our eyes to a greater depth of how each religion offers the very same principles and teachings as other religions.  A deeper understanding of each can come forth recognizing that the same message is included among all – that we are all the children of One God.  Therefore, there is unity in the family of religions on this Earth – and that is what all the religions are – a family proclaiming a Father/Mother God at the Center.

Get to know the whole of the family and you’ll be able to see what each family member can add to the whole, rather than just one member of the family and only knowing that one member.  This can bring forth then a vision of the existence of the greater Family of Man.  What I suggest is embrace/integrate more, and segregate less.

All the special teachings of each religion (and even non-religions) – put together – can provide a closer Earthly comprehensive understanding of God.  No single religion can contain all there is to learn about God…… or Christ…… or Buddha …. or Krishna ….. or Mohammad….  or Elijah, … or Zarathustra, … or … etc.  Remember, it is the ***Infinite*** Consciousness of God which contains all the religions within this Earth.  Yet, even all the religions put together are not enough to give complete insight into the Infinite Consciousness of God.  Put another way, only God has a complete understanding of God.

A good metaphor for this is comparing the Earth to the entire Universe.  Do we have everything in the Universe here on Earth?  Does living on the Earth give us a complete view and comprehension of all things in the Universe?  Can we say that we completely understand life in the Universe and all it has to offer in our education, if we haven’t even completely understood life here on Earth?  See what I mean?  This is our collection of religions as compared to the Infinite Consciousness of God.  What we don’t know about God fills an entire Universe (or more.)

Christ said, “All things that come into being, come through Me.”  He also said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”    This is NOT saying Christianity is the best or should be followed or anything of the sort.  This is NOT saying that Jesus, during His life known as Jesus, only brought forth Truth during the life that we know about, when known as Jesus.  Who here thinks He is limited by only the life we currently know as Jesus?

This is saying, by any name, that the Consciousness of God which we also call Christ, Emmanuel, or The Son of Man, has many names and many presentations and many languages and many paths and many manifestations through many human generations and lifetimes and many entrances into the Earth during humanity’s existence, for all the many different children and life forms of the Infinite Consciousness of God.  This includes in relation to God’s Children that don’t reside on the Earth or in the physical Universe.  This also includes those spirits evolving in forms which human beings don’t recognize or acknowledge.  Teachings exist in the Universe, even, which we don’t know about here in the Earth.

The reason we have so many religions is because we are so diverse in our individual consciousnesses, and like the colors in the rainbow, “Allah loves variety.” [A movie quote reference.]  Infinite Creativity can create all possibilities, all languages, all ways of living, all ways of believing, all dimensions, all ways of everything – and bring all life to Infinite Oneness with God using all the Infinite paths that exist.

There is a family of religions because we are a Family of Man.  All religions are united in One God, because all life is united in One God.  Finally, because all life is united in God, and the diversity of consciousness being manifested as life forms is potentially Infinite, (as I say above) religions on the Earth were/are created to serve the spiritual evolutionary paths which lead to awareness of our own connection and oneness with that which is Infinite in Consciousness – our own Higher Self.  This family of religions is meant to and created to serve the Family of Man.

We are One with God, which means we are Infinite in Consciousness, but to be aware of Infinity, eventually, we must grow into our awareness.  (This might not be done fully while existing as human beings.)  We have Infinite time in which to do this, and we need not reject any family member in order to add more family members.

Finally, for your personal situation, the fear of rejection of personal shared religious beliefs, which can be triggered through a shift in religious beliefs like you’re mentioning, can contribute to a fear of rejection of the close emotional ties, connections and relationships with those with whom the religious beliefs were shared. This fear comes from people having seen emotional ties painfully disconnected in human experience before and knowing it can happen, so therefore fear of it comes, thinking it will happen again.

To prove there are no reasons to fear disconnection of the emotional ties, means one must prove that the emotional ties won’t disconnect.  That can only be demonstrated through our actions and behaviors of not-disconnecting, as well as pro-active behaviors making sure the connections stay in place.  No amount of words without actions will calm fears.

Religion and spiritual beliefs are personal and unique to each individual.  In essence, it is another language of understanding used to relate to each other.  Religion is a shared “language” of spiritual understanding – helping us to know what each other means when speaking of our spirituality.  However, each person’s language is still in its totality, unique to themselves, and there will be some misunderstandings, because even though our language is similar to the person sitting next to us, it is not 100% exact to anyone’s language.

For this reason also, I recommend the expansion of beliefs to include and integrate other religions rather than a trading of beliefs going from one complete religion to a different complete religion. With this comes the learning of new “languages” rather than trading one language for another.  With this expansion, also comes the making of the spiritual path into “one’s own path” unique in it’s own way, put together in it’s own way, and designed specifically by and for the person who does the choosing.

God does not care which spiritual path or which religion leads one to God.  God does care that we love God above all else, and love our neighbor as our self.  No one ever has said, “God is religion.”  However, over and over again, multitudes have said, “God is Love.”

11.   Back to my new teaching job in Kuwait:  how do you see me being of service to others?

You, also, have the opportunity to teach “how a seeking human lives a life”.  We are not just a boxed in robot meant to serve through an occupation, but rather a comprehensive individual consciousness – life being – who by our efforts to learn and grow in the different ways of searching for Oneness with all, we demonstrate to those who observe us – how to learn and grow and practice in the different ways of searching for Oneness with all.

On a smaller scale, you, also have the opportunity to serve by being kind, by being patient, by being helpful, by being understanding and forgiving, by showing mercy, by showing compassion, (to ourselves as well as to others), by listening, by having courage, by laughing and having a sense of humor, by listening within to the Still, Small Voice of God who resides inside our heart, and yes, by experiencing long-suffering and what long-suffering means.  By trying, by keeping on keeping on, by doing the best we can with what we have.  By asking questions and seeking the best answers we can grasp in the moment. By living one day at a time, but seeking wisdom, by trying, by being supportive to those who struggle, by calling on (remembering) God as much as we can, and by striving to be true to ourselves, and keeping an open heart and open mind.  How we live our life is what we teach, even to those we don’t know are observing and learning from us.  This is service, because this is Love.

So, you (and all of us) have one way to be of service – Love.  You (and all of us) have infinite ways to manifest this love.

12.   All of us have our talents which are really meant for serving one’s fellow beings.  How do you see me best serving others whether it is at the school, the community, or even the world at large?

The very foundation of this answer is one that you already know in your heart, and which will not be defined by your mind.  It is not an aspect of life that is found outside of us, but rather within us.  It will always be this way – and always will be a challenge for us when we are faced with this question throughout all the different environments of life – always being the challenge which is one that exists within us – and only is then reflected/manifested in the external environment of which we find ourselves a part.

How to best serve:   Love and all the ways we can create to manifest love, thus making it real in our everyday life.  It is love that brought us into existence.  It is love that brought all things into existence.  It is love that helps us to individually get to know ourselves – and find it within ourselves to forgive ourselves and others, to show mercy to ourselves and others, to have compassion for ourselves and others, to let go of judgement of ourselves and others, to be patient with ourselves and others, and on and on.

When we find the willingness to do this – towards ourselves as well as others – we are then opening ourselves to the awareness of the Infinite Love and the Consciousness of Infinite Love that exists with our very hearts at all times.

Offer service to that which is in one’s own lap to offer service to.  Remember, we need not travel the world to find what is in one’s own lap.

13.  I am now convinced that I still have the great potential for being materially very well off in this incarnation.  However, I am even more convinced that I will gain far more joy and purpose in my life by being of service.  I feel deeply and clearly now as I type this (probably due to fasting) that this particular incarnation is meant to be more of service.

I will entitle this answer as “The Wise Use of Money“

Yes, this is the challenge for each of us individuals – to see the inner gain as the real gold and to recognize money as one tool of many.  Money, material wealth, is like a hammer.  How much money we amass is like how many hammers we can amass.  But, how many hammers can we use at once?  How many hands do we have?  If we only have ourselves, then we have 2 hands, but if we share it with many others, we can have millions of hands.  Do we hold on to these millions of hammers selfishly for our self, or do we strive to share what we have unselfishly with others?

Money is a tool, just like hammer and nails, building materials, wood, metal, etc.  It can be used to build.  Used through us by the Inner Spirit, it can do many things, but of itself, it can do nothing.  Just like a human being.  When we take the hammer in our hand and put it to use, that is when we build something.  In essence and in truth, we are the tool, we are the hammer and nails and we are the money- the currency that God uses.

And at the same time, when has amassing wealth, by itself, ever been what leads us to go within on our inner journey to know God?  When have we ever needed money to enter within and commune with God in the silence of our own inner being – in prayer and meditation?  When has money, of itself, ever been required to love God above all else or love your neighbor as yourself.  Yet still, neither does it need to get in the way of doing all this (both sides of the coin can be seen in the last sentences if we look closely.)

Both, money and the human heart/mind is like the water at the Canaan wedding.  When these are poured forth in the service of others, they become worth so much more.  Money only has value when it is put to use.  The human heart/mind has value for others when we pour forth the fruits of the spirit.  The water in the urns at the Canaan wedding, only became wine when it was poured forth.

We all imagine that we can accomplish great things with great amounts of money, but the great things we think we’ll accomplish tend to be all external world things – and not the internal world things.  It is therefore important to always remember that we won’t take any external world things with us when we move on from this world, however, …  of the internal world within us – we will take everything which we have gained or become.

Money is a material tool, and like water, it accomplishes material things, but only when it flows with us and through us and keeps on moving.  It is like a river that must move or it becomes stagnate.  Hence, why so many in the world are involved with making and spending it – everyone, for the most part.  It serves as a means for all souls to be involved with the world we live in.  The only one who doesn’t use money is the person who has closed themselves off from the entire world – like the person on a deserted island by themselves.  The use of money has served to help us stay connected to society and the world.  We must go out into the world to obtain some.  We must involve ourselves with other people. We must connect with others to obtain our material needs.

We wish we had more, because we are challenged to ride the eddies, the white waters, and currents of the river of life – and we have to work and be challenged to navigate this river of life.  We get tired and weary of the river of life – but this weariness lesson also is an internal struggle/challenge in itself, isn’t it – our attitudes and judgements towards what we find on the river of life is also a spiritual exercise in play.  In turn, as we connect with others on this river, we are able to strengthen our presence in the river, making the journey better capable of providing for us and others.  It is this uniting with others that is even one more spiritual lesson, isn’t it.

You may pursue more material gains.  While money doesn’t automatically come into your life for the purpose of tripping you up spiritually, the potential is there for imbalance of attitudes towards money and thus tripping up – falling flat on one’s face.

In the doing so – the pursuing of work and payment – do so with a real purpose – and watch out for those imagined purposes.  Seek wisdom in life and all life offers.  Seek wisdom in gaining of money and the using of it.  Humanity has never had a billionaire as a real spiritual leader – as a teacher of humility.  More often, we have them as examples of stumbling, but not as spiritual examples.  Still, in our observance of those with money, we tend to think, “if we had that money, we would do a lot better job of handling it.”  Of course, that is what that other soul said, too.  AND God will give us that chance, if we so choose it, but … what will it serve us if we lose our soul during that chance.  If it is our egotism that says “I would do a better job of handling lots of money”, that same egotism will be present when we are in that position.

God, in His Infinite Mercy, spares most of us the path of being a billionaire or millionaires.  Still, it is an experience where we tend to run straight towards, though – thinking that our suffering and struggle would be less, if we had so much money.  But, in having the amount of money in our life that we currently have – as an average person – are we now extending all the love that we have in our hearts to the people in our lives?  Are we now forgiving all those in our minds and hearts because of money?  Are we now showing mercy, unselfishness, understanding, tolerance and compassion to all the people that we come across – only because of money?  Are we extending our support and help when we can, only because of money?  No, it’s because of what is in our hearts.

It is all in the consciousness of the person – in the heart of the person, and in the fears or courage of the person.  If we’re not helping with the current monies that we do have in our life, how would having more money change our attitudes and our feelings?

It is this path that Jesus was referring to when He said, “What does it benefit us to gain all [the material gains] that we want, but lose our soul in the process.”

Money is not selfishness of itself, nor are we meant to learn to condemn it or be afraid of it – not at all.  It is a hammer and nails, tools, with real purpose, meant to serve us to help us be a part of this Earth community.  As we gain understanding of this – how to use the hammer and nails we have while building our hearts and minds, we are given more to hammer with.  God does not overwhelm us with more than we can handle – that includes material wealth.  We are not given 3 hammers when we only are capable of using 2 hands.  We may be given 3 hammers if it is already in our consciousness and history to share what we have with others.  If we seek and learn wisdom, part of our classroom will also be to use the money in wise ways.

Finally, the millions of dollars in these large corporations don’t only go to a few people, but these people then hire other people, giving them money for their services, they then hire others, they then hire others, and on and on.  Each of the places are employers who provide jobs to people who then help establish and continue with other jobs.  This is the story that Jesus told of the 4 servants.

14.   Will fasting bring a huge benefit to my health?  How much?  In Islam, Muslims fast for the month of Ramadan but that really means just from sunrise to sunset.  Maybe one week of out each month?

When done appropriately and wisely, fasting can bring benefits to physical health and the spiritual journey.

But, not fasting can also bring benefits to physical health and the spiritual journey.  The issue and question is not whether fasting brings benefits or not, but rather, where is the heart and mind in the journey of spiritual learning.  One saying that is mentioned in spiritual teachings is, “It is not what goes into the mouth that causes mistakes [or is kept from going into the mouth].  It is what comes out of the mouth [the words we say to others].”   Look at the heart and mind in the dedication to the spiritual path and all that the spiritual path calls us to do inwardly.  This is because fasting of itself can do nothing, but rather it is what is in a person’s heart and mind that takes our religious practices and turns them into true purposeful acts of dedication.

With that said, fasting can support a person’s spiritual practice and is a helpful health related activity for you and many people, in general.  For you, it can enhance the spiritual journey you are on, but remember, by itself, it can do nothing to help the spiritual journey, but with God, all things can help the spiritual journey.  Do so with wisdom, and seek a deeper understanding rather than acting by rote without understanding.

This means that even if we spent all our life doing physical fasting, but still spent all our life not working on fasting of the heart and mind – the letting go of judgment, condemnation, blame, guilt, shame, prejudices, criticisms, hatred, fears, impatience, etc – then we haven’t accomplished anything.

Finally, all three parts of us are connected – spirit, mind and body.  What affects one affects the other two, also.  This also is relevant when the body is involved in our spiritual practices.

If you’re seeking a detailed description of what food fasting can do for you, then I would also offer that food fasting is not the #1 thing that God asks of us for our spiritual path – “The Father does not seek sacrifice from us, but rather mercy.”  So, while you practice food fasting, (which I see can be some health benefits, as will other health activities) also take the deeper step and fast from the negative things of the heart and mind, as well.

For you personally, I can see food-fasting for about 4 days to be the optimum physically – a 5th day if you feel up to it.

15.   What do you see for the future in a country like Kuwait?  It is an oil producer but eventually they will need to diversify away from that.  There is only so much accessible petroleum in the ground and their country is small.

Yes, that is a good assessment of the decades ahead for Kuwait.  They will provide oil for the world for about the next half century before their economy begins to suffer.  Open minds with foresight can help them to steer into the future, leading them to expand on opportunities and draw upon their own inner, national resources – which includes people and what people offer.  (I say the next half century, because other energies will come forth, but petroleum will not become useless.  Kuwait’s exporting will diminish some, but they will continue to export at levels which will still contribute to their economy.)

16.   North Korea…..what is their future?  That is all I can think of for now.  As always, I truly appreciate your answers!!!

This nation will have a slow evolution as compared to much of the rest of the planet, but it is their own rate of evolution none-the-less.  As the 2020’s close, going into the 2030’s, then is when they will open up noticeably but slowly to outside opportunities reaching out to friendly nations to help them to enter into more of a world arena.  This will be a slow process, but the NK of the end of this century will be different than the one at the beginning of this century – as all nations are.

But, all nations have their own serious problems to work on.  No nation has all the answers and no nation stands out above all others as being the best.  Each nation is different and cannot really be compared to any other, although this has never stopped anyone from comparing.

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Do not be discouraged about the stories of people in government being involved with intrigues and all the back-room deals, back-stabbing, international conflicts and such that causes great fear to grip people.  These exact same things have been happening on this planet coming from human involvement for over 20,000 years and even in greater ways than today.  And those of us human beings who choose to bring about the destructive parts and harmful parts always do find ourselves, as souls, coming face to face with the acts which we inflict on others.  NO SOUL ever escapes the responsibility connected to the return of the pain and suffering we created for others.  NEVER.  But, sometimes, it does take many lifetimes to come full circle in order to heal these created experiences for others, learn from our mistakes, put things back together, clean up the mess we make, and find that which we’ve lost.  And remember, all that happens comes from the hearts and minds of individual people joining with other like-minded and like-hearted people.  No institution of itself can do anything.  It is the people who are involved inside the “institutions”.

So, from a spiritual point of view, this Earth plane of existence is a school of spirituality.  We will face our own acts with the purpose of cleaning up the mess we make or have made in a past life, learning from our mistakes and growing beyond them.  Even the darkened souls of WW2, will one day, as souls, come into a lifetime where they will reverse the injuries they created, and lead people back to healing and light.  There are many famous people who’s name you would recognize, who have found their way back onto their better paths – working to bring healing this life instead of the harm which they did in their pastlives.  I will not mention names.

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And with that, I end this particular set of questions, because in truth whole books could be written with these questions.

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Thank you to everyone who sends in questions.  I hope this offers you much.  Meditate on the answers and even more will come.

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Q and A’s (Questions 1-7)

Some of what I have written in response to the questions, are general in their statements, rather than specific.  This is because part of our growth is to learn the general principles of Spirit and apply them in personal ways in our lives.  We are not meant to be like computers – told what to do and do only what we’re told to do.  We’re meant to take our understandings and apply them in personal and unique lives, practicing the wisdom and the principles, so that we can make these learned lessons real and applicable to a human life in the world.  At no time will freewill be taken from us to turn us into machines answering only to commands.  We are meant to develop our comprehension of all we learn and practice in order to learn more.  We practice by applying the lessons in our real life situations.

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1.        I think you mentioned … about the children now seeing things in their lifetimes that we can’t imagine.  I am very interested in First Contact.  I would love to be around when that happens.  Do you have a rough ballpark estimate?  Are they waiting until we collectively evolve more; stop this senseless violence towards each other, ourselves, animals, the planet? D.

First contact has been “made” thousands of times already.  There is regular interaction with many species for generations and even today.  What you’re talking about is a public recognition of regular and recognized interrelations.  This won’t happen in a “Star Trek”-like way for many, many years.  There is possible public recognition in 30 years to 60 years, but not in a big way.  More in the “long distance” phone call way.  Then the times will be un-exciting again.  So, lots of time will pass, yet.

Look at our world and all the conflict and wars we have.  THEY DO NOT WANT TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THAT!!  Look at the ways that the politically powerful people want more power or the place in our lives where we humans place money.  WE DON’T WANT TO GET MORE PLAYERS INVOLVED LIKE THAT!!  Look at what we’re doing to this planet.  THEY DON’T WANT US DOING THAT TO THEM.

There are some that think that technology is our savior and that is absolutely an incorrect understanding.  Atlantis had higher levels of technology than we do today and wiped itself off the map and out of historical records.  Technology is the external to our internal inner spiritual guidance – and the external is never where the Savior exists.

There are some ET visitors that would help and some that would harm.  In the 2nd half of this century, we will be able to go beyond the moon.  Help with this from ETs will begin in very small ways sometime at the end of this/beginning of the next century in ways more than they have so far.  You and I will not see that this life, but more in future lives.  As a planet we are moving in this direction and it is our species future.  You will be able to see this evolution as a soul, as you continue.  Your interest in this is because you like being a traveler/ adventurer.

2.       You gave an overview of this year, 2019.  What will 2020 be like?  I know those challenging years of low energy are coming and soon.  I also know that so much hinges on choices made so I am aware that you can only do this from a big picture perspective.

I’m waiting to talk about 2020.  I’ll be posting as much as I can about 2020 in the Fall, near the time that we enter into 2020.  It is a very significant and important year.  I will also post this year’s 2019 predictions publicly in October, 2019.  [My 2019 predictions were available to the public beginning in January, 2019, for a fee of $6 – through this blog.]

3.       Speaking of those years of challenge (i.e. great opportunity), how can I prepare myself best to make it through those years and even thrive?  While material comfort is certainly nice, I guess the question really ought to be how to best prepare myself spiritually.  That’s always the key, isn’t it?  The real foundation of all things? 

The years of challenge, 2020-2026:  the best spiritual way to prepare is to practice, practice, practice.  There is no romantic activity to be a part of and no special outward or external participation that we are called towards – except —- Service and help to those who need help – including giving the help and service to our own inner being, because sometimes we are called to — “physician, heal thyself”.

The call is to respond to the outward struggles with our inward connection to the Christ or God or Higher Self or Buddha within (whichever name we use when referring to the Father/Mother God within our own hearts).  We prepare through the manifesting of the fruits of the spirit in our everyday lives: patience, loving kindness, mercy, compassion, understanding, faith, forgiveness, support, comforting, humility, charity, long suffering and the others, as well as continue to pray and meditate.  This is not just for extending and expressing to others, but also to ourselves as one more who must find our way, as a being who is united with others – and others who are united with us.

We are called to go deeper within to discover ourselves, and to discover why we sometimes choose to not love, choose to not be kind, choose to be afraid, choose to not pray or meditate.  All of this is the walking of the spiritual path, at times alone, and at times in groups and communities together.  It is from this learning process and practicing process which we develop the inner tools to help each other and make it through the Time of Challenge. 

Be open-minded and open-hearted, as Christ was/is.  It is the open mind that God fills with wisdom, understanding, and insight.  It is through the open heart that God’s love and consciousness come into this physical world.

4a.       With the evolution of computer processors and AI, how is this all likely to play out over the next 20-30 years?  I mean, there are two extremes in predictions.  The free market libertarians always say that advances in technology create more new jobs than what gets destroyed.  The doomsayers are claiming that half of us will be made redundant and rendered useless. 

The doomsayers are not saying those things for the reasons they think they are.  The libertarians are not saying those things for the reasons they think they are.  Many Doomsayers say this, because they aren’t seeing the Infinite Creative Spirit of God within each living spirit living in the Earth.  Many Libertarians say this, because they seek to promote their views of the future, and know nothing other than seeing technology and money as the primary force bringing creativity. 

Both fall short in seeing this as having an evolutionary potential, and both fall short in understanding how God, mankind and technology relate to each other.  No amount of technology will cause souls to Love God above all else and Love our neighbor as ourself.  We advanced to the point of splitting the atom and putting a man on the moon, but did these advances help us to unite as human beings across the planet?  We have created the Internet, but has the Internet ended hatred, prejudice, condemnation of those who are different or who hold different beliefs?  Technology is not a savior, but like all tools, they have their purpose and uses.  It is through the human heart that Infinite Love can come into this world.   Infinite Love is the Infinite Savior.

The extremes are not where we will be going – but sometimes we human beings have the desire to want to be important to others or promote our own views.  We want to be loved, we want to be held in high esteem – and mostly because inwardly we tend to believe just the opposite about our own self – that we are not lovable and we are not worthy of being respected, well-regarded or even to be alive on this planet.  Of course, this is a simplistic explanation, but we are faced with dealing with two directions – selfishness or unselfishness – us against them or all of us uniting together as One – putting ourselves first before others or putting all of us together on equal standing. 

And although it is easy to see these issues played out in others, we are not called to heal others where these issues are concerned.  Rather, we are called to heal ourselves.  Jokingly, I offer that after we have made ourselves perfect, then and only then, we can make others perfect.

To say human beings will be useless is like saying God is useless, evolution is useless, eating and breathing is useless, growing, learning, evolving is useless.  Humanity and evolution are synonymous.  They are equal.  There is none of one without the other.  The fear comes up, but only because fear comes with looking backward. 

The “new jobs” come and will continue to come and will continue more – being created as needs arrive.  To say there will be no jobs is to say there will be no needs to be fulfilled.  Having no needs to be fulfilled has never been the case with human beings, and will never be the case, because human beings as physical beings have needs, which are always evolving.  Human beings are constantly evolving, and therefore, our needs are always evolving.

Look at the technological influx we have now as compared to 500 or 1000 or 2000 years ago.  Question:  In our times, now, are people sitting at home with nothing to do because all their needs have been met?  No.  However, the idea is still in our consciousness that this is what we want.  The surprise to humans, as we continue to live our life is that we don’t want to “do nothing”, we want to evolve, and with this, we always have “needs”.  One of these needs will only be fulfilled by going within and developing our awareness and awakening to our relationship with God.

Creativity comes in to the picture for us to come up with “something to do” and “fulfilling the needs”.  This creativity is Infinite and is a manifestation of the Infinite Creativity of the Infinite Consciousness of God.

4b. Where on this continuum do you see the true being located?  Of course, my concern in all of this is where and how do I fit in with the emerging economy?  Anyone who claims that age discrimination is not widespread needs to talk to people over the age of 50, which I am approaching before too long.

The TRUE BEING can and will continue to create the methods and processes AND avenues in which to fulfill learning, and evolution, whether in the Earth or out of the Earth.  Many “forms” (like jobs,) are created when they are needed.  We manifest what we, as souls, need, when we need it. Notice I didn’t say, “…as humans…”

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The emerging economy is one where we will ALL face the up and down cycles, … each in their own way.  The Bible tells us, “It rains and sunshines on the good and bad.”  It also rains and sunshines on both the rich and poor.”  Living in the Earth, all are subject to the Earth’s laws and circumstances.  Your own circumstances, although not the same as the other 7+ billion, they also will not be different than the other 7+ billion.  Your own situation will go through cycles.  This is a time for ALL souls to make decisions and choose.

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There is no human being who has not been discriminated against in some way, whether during this life or a past life.  The fear of this coming forth again in our own current life, can trigger more discrimination.  In other words, we manifest towards others what we are afraid will happen to us.  But, we don’t always learn the lesson of not participating in discrimination towards others, the first time we experience it.  So, here we are on Earth, smack dab in the middle of discrimination alley.

While the demonstration of discrimination is noticeable, it can serve to teach spiritual lessons to those who had discriminated against others in the past.  The avenues used for spiritual lessons which are available to any who are ready to “get busy and get their hands into the good soil” – get to work on our spiritual path – are readily available – just, not always in the way we want or have decided in our head that they must look like or must show up.  Therefore, the experience of pain and suffering, including discrimination, while painful and full of suffering, have been chosen by souls as a way to experience spiritual lessons – the main one being – That which we create for others to experience, is that which we are creating for ourselves to experience.

Many souls have chosen to inflict pain and suffering onto others (including ourselves choosing to inflict pain and suffering onto others).  By choosing this, we have deemed pain and suffering to exist and if it then exists for one, it exists for all of Infinite Consciousness.  The experiences of pain and suffering which we create for others will then go full circle and come back home to the one who created them, for the creator of the experience to then be on the receiving end.  Can you see areas of your own life where you’ve experienced pain and suffering?  We all have, which means we all have helped create pain and suffering for others – whether in this life or in past lives.

The way things work is not – “God, make my will happen, not yours.” but that is how we want things to happen sometimes, isn’t it.  We want others to learn their lessons, but not always our self.   Therefore, as with other forms of harm inflicted on others, discrimination is also a “created” experience, and therefore also subject to this “full circle” principle.

The healing of discrimination, like the healing of pain and suffering, is the same principle.  The experiences we create for others is the experience we create for ourselves.  Some say a person must go through their karma, guilt, shame, pain, or on and on.  If that is what we are creating for someone – to go through their karma, guilt, etc, then we are creating the experience of going through karma, guilt, etc for ourselves, as well. If we create the experience of sincere forgiveness, compassion, tenderness, mercy, kindness, patience, understanding, support, etc, then it is that experience which we are creating for ourselves. 

This means that recognizing others in ourselves and ourselves in others is the way to healing discrimination as well as other forms of pain and suffering.  When we see someone else suffering in some way, we are also witnessing our self suffering, because when it is created for one person to experience, it is created for Infinite Consciousness of God to experience.  All souls are part of Infinite Consciousness, therefore all souls are impacted in some way by the experience. 

To see one person suffer, is to see all people suffer.  When this lesson is learned, many will choose something other than pain and suffering for others to experience.

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The creativity of God is infinite, and creativity is infinitely happening.  Infinite creativity is always creating Infinity.  We can see this in a small way with the ever expanding physical Universe, but won’t understand the Infinite part until after we integrate an awareness of the existence of life beyond the physical world – into the spiritual plane of existence – something which we can “see” with our “beyond the physical plane” senses.

As we connect to the Infinite Spirit of God within us, and ask/seek that guidance from within, we tap into this Infinite Creativity which is creating brand new possibilities and opportunities always.  Those who say we will be rendered useless are unfamiliar with Infinite Creativity.  Look back hundreds and thousands of years in the history of human beings.  Question:  When was there never evolution occurring (socially, physically, etc)?  When was there ever lives who were rendered useless?  Now remember, though, technology has never, in all history, been the savior of mankind.  The higher mind/ heart-centered learning and evolution guided by the Infinite Spirit of Love – has indeed been the savior of mankind – regardless of how much technology or lack of technology has existed.

5a.       One place of interest I would like to live in for a time is the UK.  Big reason for me is the awesome National Cycle Network.  With me being an avid casual bike rider, that is the place despite the rainy weather.  I am curious about the future of the UK and Europe in general.  The native population is ageing, becoming more atheistic, and more pessimistic about the future.  It’s like they have been taught to hate themselves and everything about their culture and traditions.  Then you have a growing population of Muslims.

As the years progress, in the UK as other places, the different cultures will make efforts and some successes at coexisting.  It’s like trying to fit more people at the supper table when they weren’t expected.  Things get shuffled around, effort is called for, but the world is now this way and no one is exempt from being in the world of today.  While there are conflicts, (some at the supper table get upset with having to make more room at the supper table) there are also lessons for every single individual that is alive in the UK, and the Infinite Consciousness of Infinite Love is actively working to help every single person alive in the UK.  All the forces at work at all Infinite levels of Consciousness are at work to help all these people who exist there.  Sound familiar?

Yes, there will be “butting heads” between people who want to keep life in the UK the way that it never was and never will be.  There will be “butting heads” between peoples who want to make life in the UK shape into ideas they hold in their own heads.  Sound familiar?

The UK will not be free from the cracking of the eggshell of consciousness, with the new chicks being born.   All children of God cannot stay where we were in our awareness and consciousness of Spiritual truth – not even those of us who think we are aware and conscious of Spiritual truth.  All of us are being remade in the image and likeness of our maker and our maker is the Infinite Consciousness of Infinite Love.  Who among us as a finite human can claim that we are Infinitely Aware of the Infinite connection to Infinite Consciousness?  :-)

5b.    Europeans overwhelmingly eat pork, drink alcohol, and have casual attitudes towards sexuality and how revealing they dress.  What is going to likely happen between the two groups:  native Europeans and Islamic newcomers?  I hope both of them learn to simply coexist and accept one another.

The absolute need for infinitely diverse circumstances of life, which we all find ourselves in – are what is needed for all the diverse souls that enter into the Earth in order to evolve in our journey of spiritual awareness and learning.  Eating, drinking, casual attitudes towards sexuality, revealing dress codes are all manifestations of the different needs and manifestations of the different levels of consciousness of souls. 

Look at any one human being, even one’s own self for example, and we find lessons specific to our self and our own learning.  Look at any other human being and we find lessons specific to that person that are so foreign to us as to make us think they’re from another planet or they’re literally insane.  These are not similar souls but diverse souls, … and not all the same lessons to learn the same principles, but diverse in lessons and diverse in principles.  Different foods, different drinks, different attitudes towards sex, different political views, and more and more are all manifestations of the Infinite Creativity of the Divine, for helping all of us to struggle and learn of who we are as a diverse humanity. 

This is why our beliefs being different from each other are not as important as what our beliefs motivate us to do to each other.  Different attitudes towards drink, food, sex, politics, etc are always going to be different from one person to the next.  This is why our most important spiritual lessons are practicing compassion, patience, tolerance, mercy, forgiveness, loving kindness, understanding, and the like – especially with people who are very different from ourselves.  (Continued after the July 29, 2019 segment.)

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Added July 29, 2019: 

Practicing the fruits of the spirit-loving kindness, patience, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, charity, etc – are not just meant to provide something to do, biding our time, until the day comes that we all believe the same way so that there is peace among us.

It is the opposite – it is the diversity of thought, beliefs, and ways of living that have the purpose of calling us to practice the fruits of the spirit.

It is for the development of the fruits that all the diversity exists. The purpose of diversity is for us to do the work of developing loving kindness, patience, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, charity, etc –  in order to create peace among us. Put another way, the purpose of diversity is to have relationships, environments and circumstances in which the practicing of the fruits becomes the path to finding peace and goodwill towards all men.

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(Continued from previously)  For myself, my learning has taken me to learn that it is not what is external of ourselves (eating, drinking, clothes) that causes problems (“sins”), but what is internal – those attitudes and feelings within us — the heart and mind, the feelings and judgements, the openness or closed-ness of our own heart and our own mind.  There is plenty of open heartedness and openmindedness in society, but there is also plenty of closed heartedness and closedmindedness.  It is the open mind that learns more from God.  It is the closed mind that stops learning from God.  It is the open heart that loves more.  It is the closed heart that stops loving. 

Choose for yourself, and know that it is the judgement of the Infinite Existence and possibilities which the Infinite Consciousness of God brings forth – that throws us off balance on our spiritual journey – and what we judge becomes a magnet to which we are drawn into, if we refuse to learn what is it like for the soul who we are judging, and instead judge and condemn them.  That which we judge and those whom we judge – mirror parts of our own infinite consciousness which we have yet to learn to “Let Go of Judging” as well as that part of ourselves being judged — will come forth if we are needing to learn to let go of judging this aspect, but instead have chosen to only let go if we come face to face with it within ourselves.

Remember, all that exists, exists inside the Infinite Consciousness of God.  There is nothing that exists that does not exist inside the INFINITE Consciousness of God.  So, those souls we judge, we are blocking out a part of the Infinite Consciousness of God.  We need not experience all things on the Earth, nor do we need to create pain and suffering for others, but to judge and condemn others’ lives is to judge and condemn the efforts of God to teach and bring forth growth.  We can choose the path we walk – the life we live, but because we are not yet Infinite in our own understanding of the evolution of all life, we cannot take the Infinite Consciousness of God’s place in being a judge over another person’s life or over another person’s circumstances.  We cannot judge different possibilities in Infinity with having a human finite understanding of all the different ways to live life.

However, we all have freewill to listen to the guidance of God, and we all can learn from both experiences of 1. listening to the Still, Small Voice of God within our hearts or 2. not listening to the Still, Small Voice of God within our hearts.  We can pray for others and send light to others, so that they (and we) can hear the guidance of the Infinite Consciousness of God. And through Infinite Mercy, God can take our “Not listening” experiences and turn them into learning lessons for us.

6.       If Donald Trump gets reelected, then what do you see in the Middle East in terms of war and peace?  I asked you with my last reading about that.  Right now everyone is sort of waiting to see what happens in the US.  If Trump gets reelected, then support for Israel will be such that they have carte blanche to keep doing what they have been doing (my hypothesis).   If he does get reelected, what are the consequences for the US and the world at large?

Regardless of the political leanings of readers, I will write what I see. 

The percentage chance of Donald Trump getting elected is less than 3% in the range of possibilities.  It is so low that I’m not going to look into that time line.  We are not in that timeline or dimension.  The percentage would have to move from 3% to over 50% and the forces in our world are just not there for that to happen.  In 2012, I foresaw the Republicans winning in 2016.  It was clear. But, look how many people believed Hillary Clinton would win – a shoe in.   I’ve foreseen the 2016 winner being a 1-term president for years and there is no “change” to this.

To use a metaphor, (positive to some, negative to some) the door is being bolted shut for that to happen and the only thing that has not happened yet to make it complete is that we haven’t removed our fingers off the bolt knob as we are locking the door.

While that can come across as anti-Trump, if Hillary Clinton had won, I would be saying the same thing, only it would be about Hillary Clinton – and that the Republicans would win in 2020.  Whomever won in 2016, both candidates would have been 1-term presidents.  Also, regardless of peoples’ feelings about Donald Trump, both sides can truthfully say, that he is someone who got in the game and gave it a shot.  Many become the target when they get in the game, but getting in the game is how the game is won (and sometimes lost).  No one wins if no one gets in the game.  Those who criticize others the most need to throw their hat in, and GET IN THE GAME!  Don’t pity those who get in the game and get criticized for their level of play.  Pity those who never choose to get in any game.  It is one thing to try and then win or lose, but it is another thing to never try.

7.       I am interested in getting a glimpse into China and its future as well as how the rest of the world will be impacted by their growing role in global affairs.  Will they dominate, become part of a multi-polar world, or will they get old before they become that powerful?  Their society is ageing too, more quickly than ours.

They will change much in this century, however, it will be a natural, evolutionary change and not a radical change.  Their energy and change comes through different ways than the US and other parts of the world.  This works for them.  They are a billion people and this force is one that is strong enough through natural evolution to make changes that are right for all the people.  This means that we won’t automatically see much change unless we study the country and people in depth.  The “controlling” part of some people’s attitude will all but disappear naturally through government officials’ policy to meet the changing times — by the end of this century.  Change naturally happens when the older generations (people) die and newer generations (people) are born.

No section of people of the earth “gets old” culturally or socially from physical aging.  It is more a shifting of focus.  The physical aging process merely adds to the anchoring of the evolution energy which I speak about earlier.  They are a dominant group, but the other 6.5 billion people currently elsewhere on the planet have their own intentions on which way to go, also.  The Earth is governed by all souls living on it, and the needs of each soul to grow in our/their spiritual awareness.

We will see the individual level of activities there and have the chance to catch quick glances at different parts of their society, but these are small points to consider and like tides in the ocean – will come and go in cycles.  On the small time scale, in our lifetime, we will see them solidify their commercial base in their own country.  Trade is their best avenue.  And their desire to “control” things will only be manifested in the short time scale.

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Christ and Buddha

Years ago, I had a dream. In this dream, I saw a wheel of light with a central hub, many spokes of light reaching outward, and then the outer rim/tire encircling the whole. And I saw Christ. Christ showed me the meaning of these 3 parts. Christ was the central hub, all the different religions were the many spokes, and the outer rim/tire was all the people who believed the various and different religions.  Through the many different spokes and their connection to the hub in different places, the outer rim gained strength and purpose, thus being able to move the whole forward.

I don’t know if Christ is in dreams of others. I’d love to find out. I do know that this dream taught me the relevance and relationship that exists with the different religions and the central Spirit of Love that religions try to teach to the people.

This Spirit which I call Christ, and many others call Christ has taught me that the main question and struggle is not about what name or organized religion we adhere to, but to the Spirit that exists available to all people and which resides in all religions that teach the One God.

Many will continue to war, saying “Our One God is the real One God and your One God is not the real One God.” In effect they’re saying, “Our way of believing is the real way to believe and your way of believing is not the real way to believe.”

I’ve written of this many times trying to say, “It’s not our beliefs, but what we do with them – using them to bring peace or using them to bring war – that matters most”. The dream did not show a  one spoke wheel. What wheel would work with only one spoke? The dream showed many spokes, because the tire spread all the way around – each spoke being that which connects that portion of the whole to the center.

Christ said many times, “I have followers that you don’t know about.” Does anyone think that He can’t or is not capable of being available to someone in another language, in another culture, with another name, under another symbol, in a different paradigm, in a different perspective, under a different image, wearing different clothes, in a different land, appearing as a different physical representation, unknown to “us”? Does anyone think He can’t speak to people in their own culture using their own language and understanding, presenting teachings that have One God of Love as the teachings’ central message, helping them start where they are, supporting who they are as the persons that they already are to take their own next step?

Does anyone think He can’t, in these different ways, give His message , “You’re already all you need to be, to be loved right now” ? Can He then help other religions to come about, carrying on the message – “Love one another” ?  The Bible describes the Pentecost, and says, “Each person understood the message in their own language and culture.”  Who among us thinks God cannot speak to each of us in our own way of understanding?

If anyone is wondering, look at how many religions speak the same message, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you“, or the message, “There is One God and all of us, everywhere are God’s Children.”

As one example, does anyone think it CAN’T be true, that the Christ Spirit and the Buddha Spirit are One and the same? We can know one name and person or we can know the other name and person, or we can know them both as One Spirit, and begin to learn the lessons of the one we choose or choose both, finding that when we learn the lessons of one, we have also been learning the same lessons of the other.

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“I have followers that you do not know of.” Jesus Christ

“Before Abraham was, I Am.”  Jesus Christ

“Love one another, as I love you.”  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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Why are there so many white supremacists…?

My question to you is, why are there so many white supremacists here in the USA, who profess to be “good” Christians, who continue to hate Jews and accuse us of conspiracy and part of a Synagogue of Satan? Like my parents before me, I am concerned for my children and grandchildren.  Wandering Jew

First, I want to suggest that the real issue isn’t about “white supremacists”.  Everyone who hates even a little contributes to the hatred in the world.  The real issue and therefore the real question is “Why are there so many human beings that hate?”

But, I can offer you two answers to your question as you ask it.

For all human beings – our human hatred of another does not start in a book, nor a religion or culture, nor a form of government, philosophy, organization, scientific discipline, mathematical equation, or any structure that humans have built and use.  Hatred also does not begin inside any bodily characteristic – i.e. from our DNA leading to body differences like skin color.  Hatred starts inside the hearts and minds of each of us separate individuals who of our own freewill chooses for himself and herself what to feel and think, including who and what to fear.  This has been the case for millennia after millennia of humankind’s existence on the Earth.  Both Love and Hate are choices we can make.

Within any of us who chooses hatred with any of it’s various manifesting forms, within ourselves, each of us individual human beings then chooses that identifying  marker outside of the heart, using that structure or belief system or etc., etc., to support, justify or rationalize acting on our human hatred.

We can use each human belief system, societal structure or anything that exists in the world as a tool for building humanity and our relationships or a tool for destroying humanity and our relationships. All of these items then get usurped for any person’s purposes and agendas which we can hold within our own hearts and minds.

Study the basic precepts of all the structures and systems that I’ve mentioned in the paragraphs above and you’ll discover true wisdom and opportunity to unite people lie within them all.  But, not all people choose (freewill again) to practice the wisdom or take the opportunities to unite when they take hold of the precepts.  As I’ve said, we humans can take hold of a particular belief system in order to support and justify our own feelings, beliefs and actions, as well.

***

The second reason is really the real reason.  It is this:  If we look as deep as possible within the souls, hearts and minds of every human individual, we would see such suffering and pain, that could cause any manner of insane acting out, in order to find something that would relieve one’s own tremendous suffering which can exist within anyone for millennia after millennia.  Were we willing to look at anyone’s suffering and pain (even our own,) it would bring a greater understanding to all of us, and give us good reason to disarm our own weapons aimed at someone else.

Imagine two people on opposite sides of every issue saying this same thing directed at the other, “I hate the suffering and pain which your viewpoint causes and adds to mine and others’ lives.”  In effect, this is what is happening.

Healing both sides is a slow process which comes from taking one step at a time, trying over and over working at it, but it is a process that we are involved in through every prayer we pray, every meditations, every act of mercy, every effort at forgiveness and more.  It is difficult but with God, all things are possible.  Because no law can ever stop our prayers, meditations, mercy, forgiveness, patience, loving kindness, compassion, brotherhood, courage, unity and more happening within our hearts, the process of healing for all of us will never be stopped.  God in all His forms that we believe in is committed to this, and will see it through to the completion for all life.  Our calling is not to try to be perfect but to practice each of these – mercy, understanding, loving kindness, etc – in the human experiences that we face.

The harvest is ready.  Who will become a worker?

*******

“No one speaking judgement and condemnation, separation and attack speaks for God. No one speaking punishment and retribution, speaks for God. The one speaking love, forgiveness, kindness, brotherhood, acceptance, patience, tolerance and mercy – this one speaks for God.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2009-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Stereotypes are not real people, and they only exist in our own minds. Every person is a soul who is a cosmos, who is a full universe unto themselves.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2009-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We can only teach love, and all that love entails, by loving and making our love real, active and involved in our life.
We can only teach forgiveness, and all that forgiveness entails, by forgiving and making our forgiveness real, active and involved in our life.
We can only teach mercy, and all that mercy entails, by giving mercy and making this mercy real, active and involved in our life.
We can only teach…” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2009-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Refugees?

When Jesus was born, He, Joseph, and Mary became refugees fleeing into Egypt to escape the threat of being killed.  The comment has been made that neither He nor Joseph and Mary were threatening to kill anyone.

In hindsight, we can hold to this comment, now, 2000 years later, because all that history is now written. But there were people who feared this child who they knew nothing about, and considered Him a very real threat – before the history that is known to us in 2015. They didn’t know what kind of threat He would be. Many considered that he would be like all the other threats and violently seek to overthrow the government since violence was how things were accomplished back then. They knew nothing about what He was really like and what He would really do. They didn’t know what kind of person He would become in their future. Even His apostles, who walked with Him every day didn’t know. One even thought He would eventually overthrow the Romans by violent means if forced to and tried to force that to happen.

The issue isn’t just “with any of the refugees that would come into the US is there a chance they would bring death into the US,” – ignoring the truth that theirs wouldn’t compare to the violence and killing we Americans do to ourselves. Death comes from all walks of life without any help from refugees. The issue is are we going to give them a chance for life.

No one can look into the hearts of another person and tell if they are good or bad – or like reality tells us – both – like all the rest of us human beings. God alone knows all of what is in a person’s heart. Can any one of us look at a stranger standing next to us, and tell which ones are the good ones or bad ones just by looking, what choices they’ll make in their full life, what they’ll choose to contribute to the US, what their future will be?

Can we look at ourselves and know what choices we’ll make tomorrow? We tell ourselves we would never kill from hatred, but we still fear and hate. We don’t live in any circumstance close that would put us in a position to know for certain. What if we lived in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s with our fear and hate – watching our children and family members that we love, shot or gassed – murdered – right next to us? Can any of us say we would still be our calm normal selves that we are in 2015 in the US under these circumstances or would we also find a way to kill based on our hatred of what the Nazis were doing to the person we love right in front of our face?

Look how easy it is to hate and fear someone else and then justify our own fear or hate. When we hate or fear anyone, in that same moment, we have then judged them to be bad, not based on any truth we know about the real person God alone knows them to be, but based on the fear we own and the unknown of their being a stranger, and the assumptions we come up with in our minds. We are always told to fear strangers growing up. Yet, we are those strangers also, to others, that others say to fear. Do we deserve the finger pointed at us to fear, also that we say others deserve?

It is this easy to say refugees should be feared. This easy. But, could it be that we fear more that our lives would be disrupted and changed? Can we say without refugees our lives would be safe? Or without refugees, our lives would be better? or without refugees, we won’t have certain problems? We do tell ourselves this in the back of our minds, don’t we.

The question isn’t just what will they give us, but what will we give them. We fear them bringing us death, and so it becomes easy to give them something similar first, screaming our choice “No” and washing our hands of the problem. We are now walking in the shoes of those in history, which, when we see them, we say, “I would never do that if I lived 2000 years ago.” And now we have before us a wash basin which a Roman soldier brings us with the citizens screaming their choice. The next step to “end all the citizens’ problems of fear or hate” is simply to say to the soldier, “Take Him to His fate.” turn to the refugee and say “I wash my hands of you, Jesus Christ.”

It is this easy to do it again.

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“We cannot build new roads to healing in our World, by just repaving the old roads of fear, prejudice or hate.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We can only build the new roads to healing in our World, by using the materials of faith in God, patience with others, forgiveness, showing mercy, compassion and demonstrating the Oneness of  life.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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What Can I Do?

There really are very specific things we can each do when seeking how to respond to all the events  happening on the planet Earth, now.

1. Pray – when we start our efforts with the seeking of a greater communication and connection with the source of wisdom, intelligence, compassion, heart, understanding, patience, loving kindness, mercy and brotherhood – God – then we have a greater chance that our efforts will be healing, helpful, will build rather than tear down, will unite rather than create schisms, and will bring about a real and lasting result.

2. Meditate – when we meditate on the highest spiritual ideals within ourselves – Loving kindness, Peace for souls, cooperation, etc., this reconnects us to our own better parts of ourselves. This also helps to raise the consciousness level available in the world, especially when millions (and there are millions) of others are also praying and meditating for the higher level expressions of Mankind’s presence in this planet.

3. Work on myself, so that I’m not reacting automatically adding to the polarization, anger, blanket accusations, prejudicial statements and hate-filled rhetoric.  Acting responsibly is the ability to respond from a place better than that place where the problem was created.  This doesn’t happen automatically, though.

4. Join with others – when we join others with like hearts and minds, our efforts expand and become stronger in exponential ways. “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20.  Joining with others strengthens our sense of belonging to a community, it strengthens our own resolve to keep on keeping on, and it strengthens the community as a whole.

Joining with others can also help us feel that we’re not alone in having feelings of great concern for dangerous issues and that we don’t have to face these challenges alone.

5. Pray again.

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Either Hatred or Brotherhood in the World

Our generation in life is in the unique position of seeing many examples of humanity’s expressing hatred. Several generations before us witnessed slavery. The immediate generation before us witnessed the Holocaust in Europe. And today’s generation witnesses terrorism in the world.

In each of these examples, someone can easily say that religion or a particular religion is at the center of these horrors or has brought them about. But this belief is equal to saying that the world is black and white. The world is not black and white.

When slavery existed, Christianity and the Bible were used by many to justify slavery. When Hitler came to power, he said the problem with Germany, Europe and the world was with the Jews. And today, people say the cause of problems is with Islam.

But, hatred and the spreading of that hatred was at the heart of these acts of horror inflicted upon human beings. Religion was an easy target to blame, an easy cloak to hide behind, and an easy tool to usurp to justify and rationalize hatred and the spreading of this hatred.

People who have always used religion in these ways, seek to demonstrate and bring forth their hatred to incite more hatred, so that hatred will grow in the world. As human beings we have the choice of whether we will create hatred inside our hearts and minds first and foremost. After it exists in the heart is when we, as individuals, look for what will justify and rationalize it. Those that choose to hate, then, will join together with others that choose to hate.

The world is not black and white. It is also the billions of colors in between black and white. Christianity did not create slavery, but the tenets of Christianity were manipulated by many to justify the agenda of slavery. The Jewish race was not the problem in Germany, Europe or the world. But, beliefs about the Jewish people were manipulated by many to justify their agenda. Islam is not a religion of hatred, but those that hate have manipulated its tenets – as other religions have been manipulated – to serve and spread the agenda of hatred – calling to others who also hate to join in hatred.

Bringing more hate into the world, by choosing to hate any group will not heal the world of hatred. Changing what is in our own hearts and minds will – because brotherhood, compassion and recognizing Oneness of Life can also spread from person to person in the same way that hatred might. It will always depend on what we – as individuals – choose to bring forth into the world each day we’re here.

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“God will never take away our freewill to choose our own path through life, even if it’s a horrible path.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God is not going to hate the people we hate and be bitter towards the people we’re bitter towards.  If we choose hatred and bitterness, we do so without God being with us.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“For others, pray not against others’ freewill, against others’ right to choose for their own lives. Instead, pray that God’s presence, love, and energy, be with them, surround them and bless them, more and more every day, so they might draw from God when the time comes that they decide their own life.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Politics and Religion and Bears – Oh, My!

How many of you reading this blog, think that everyone else reading this blog thinks, feels, and votes politically, the same way that you do? are probably in the same camp? are with you on your side? How many? Go ahead and raise your hands. Okay… 1… 2 … 5… 12…

Now step back – how many of any group of us believe that everyone else reading this blog – or in any group we belong to, church we go to, school we attend or organization we are involved with – believe the same way we do about politics, political parties and our elected officials? Of course the answer is “No one thinks that everyone believes, thinks, feels and VOTES – all of these – the same way we do. Similar – sometimes yes, but exactly the same?  God, no.

The diversity of feelings, thoughts, beliefs about politics, political parties, and voting is truly, truly diverse, even among like-minded people.

Yet, we all gather together and attend our own church together. We all gather together and attend school, go to work, support organizations, and read this blog (well, maybe not gathered together to read the blog.)  We all still gather together in our groups, and families, and jobs and etc. etc.  Usually, we gather together, because we don’t talk politics and religion.

(Speaking politically about the different political parties, or different churches or different religions, I say, if you want to rant and rave, and rage against the political and religious machines, go ahead.)

It’s just that I’m reminded that Jesus never once spoke out against the Roman government or Roman officials, who were ruling the area. Jesus never spoke out against any government or government officials.  Nor did he speak out against the Roman religion or the Samaritan religion or the Gentiles’ religions. Christ never spoke out against the established forces and religions of the day.

What Jesus called the Romans was “Brothers”, as in “We are all brothers and sisters.”  Jesus had Roman followers.  John the Baptist did the same – he called the Romans brothers and had many Romans, even soldiers, come to be baptized – and they stayed Roman soldiers afterwards.  John’s instructions to the Romans were be honest with each other – don’t mistreat one another. Do your jobs with respect for others.

Jesus’ directive was “Follow Me.” And we follow someone by walking on the path they walk on. Jesus walked the path of Loving kindness. He walked the path of knowing everyone was His brother and sister. He walked the path of understanding, patience, forgiveness, tolerance, and mercy. He walked the path of helping one another. He walked the path of brotherhood.

Jesus never condemned, criticized or spoke out against anyone, …

except hypocrites and those that buried the people with religious condemnation “from above.”

Jesus never condemned other religions, but we do. Jesus never condemned other political affiliations, but we do. Christ never spoke out against anyone who was different or from a culture or group that was different from his own. He never spoke out against Gays, Lesbians, or Transgendered and they existed then. Jesus never condemned prostitutes, alcoholics, or any subgroup or subculture in society, but we do. Christ never condemned other ethnic groups, immigrants, “illegal aliens,” people from other nations….

but we do.

Jesus Christ never condemned any other group – except hypocrites – those that said one thing but lived another – those that easily condemned others with their message “if you’re not like me, you’re evil” or “wrong” or “condemned” or etc…., or “if you don’t live as I think you should, believing as I think you should, you’re WRONG!”… or “if you don’t live as I tell you to, you’re condemned in the eyes of God.”  How many of us have heard these messages expressed?  How many of us have been on the receiving end of these messages?  (Have any of us said these messages?)

Jesus Christ opened His arms for everyone, every culture, every subculture, every group, every subgroup, every organization, every political party, every religion, every everything, saying ‘Follow me on this path of Love, Kindness, Understanding, Patience, Mercy, and Forgiveness.’ ‘Follow me on this path I walk of Charity, of Brotherhood, of Tolerance, of Compassion, or Cooperation, of Humbleness, and Long-Suffering.’ ‘Follow me on this path I walk of knowing and seeing everyone being equal and deserving of God’s Infinite Love in the Infinite Eyes of God, and of everyone being brothers and sisters – children to Our Creator Father/Mother God – the God of all and the source of all Love, all Compassion, all Mercy, all Patience, all Forgiveness, all Acceptance and all Kindness.’

Jesus opened His arms for everyone that wants Love, Kindness, Mercy, Forgiveness, Tolerance, etc, and He still does. His only request is that we then share these things with each other, ….

and, I guess, patience and long-suffering with those that do speak “condemnation” (which I will admit absolutely takes God’s help to do, sometimes.)

*******

“No one speaking judgement and condemnation, speaks for God.  No one speaking punishment and retribution, speaks for God.  The one speaking love, forgiveness, understanding, kindness, brotherhood, patience and mercy – this one speaks for God.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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For Religious Reasons

In our nation’s past and present, the phrase “for religious reasons” has been used by people for many reasons.  Some of these reasons are obvious, some dubious and some confusing.  In essence, what is being stated is:  “I use my beliefs in God to do this/that, or not do this/that.”

The issues I offer here in acting or not acting “for religious reasons” are (1.) Do we want to use our religious beliefs to decide our actions?  and (2.)  Do our actions really reflect our religious beliefs?  These are legitimate questions to examine within ourselves.  And they absolutely must be examined deeply, earnestly, honestly and in full light for ourselves.

Why must they be examined this way?

Because the statement “for religious reasons” has been used for many harmful and destructive acts.  “For religious reasons” has been used to justify slavery.  “For religious reasons” has been used by people to justify segregation.  “For religious reasons” has been used by people to justify judging, condemning, lynching, the Spanish Inquisition, burning people at the stake, stoning people, drowning people, and been used by people to demonstrate prejudice and hatred against so many minorities.

Throughout the world’s history, “for religious reasons” has been used to bring about horrendous atrocities, killing and wars.  And today in our world, “for religious reasons” is used to justify murder and killing still.

“For religious reasons” does get used by people to justify whatever prejudice or hatred anyone has within their hearts towards any group.  Of course, we can take this further and say that if “for religious reasons” weren’t available, “some other reasons” would be used to justify an agenda of prejudice and hatred.

There are many that are willing to hide behind and abuse religion to justify their inner desire to continue the pain and suffering of others.  As time passes, more and more, we will see those that espouse “for religious reasons”, and that they are not espousing the love that religions were, and still are, meant to foster.  They espouse instead the separation and prejudice that has been in their hearts all along.

So, examine deeply, honestly and earnestly how best to use the statement, “for religious reasons”.  It is very easy for us to use our religions beliefs in God to justify not helping those that need help, but whom we’ve judged, and therefore, decide not to help.  It’s very easy to act in some way, siting “for religious reasons”, when there is a deeper agenda hiding within us.  It takes self-honesty to act from our beliefs in a way that can truly serve and help our world.

Yet, how do we then tell if we, ourselves, are acting righteously with regards to our own beliefs?

Follow what Christ said, when asked how will you know the ones that are followers of Christ, “by demonstration of the fruits of the spirit”.  Forgiveness, loving kindness, mercy, patience, understanding, humility, cooperation, faith, charity, unselfishness, joy, etc. – these are the fruits of the spirit.  These are the actions of followers of religious beliefs based on God’s love.

Christ’s two commandments were Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.  When asked who is our neighbor, He told of the Good Samaritan.

When we use “For religious reasons”, we cannot avoid demonstrating the truth of where we are at.  While we may tell ourselves one thing about our statement, others may see what we choose not to see about ourselves.

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“Everyone has their own different ideas about how to proceed with spiritual growth… even God.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2013, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Science vs. Religion – the Human Spirit

The Human Spirit Transcends Science: Science is a great tool of and for mankind.  Like any tool, it is useful in certain situation, but worthless in others.  A hammer is great for driving nails. But If I need to drive a screw into a piece of wood, the hammer is not a useful tool. In fact, it makes the job harder, or even impossible.
Our Western, rational world has a tendency to apply science like a hammer to a screw. If we put it in perspective, it’s a great tool.  However, some applications just do not fit.
An example would be to prove my mother loved me – or didn’t love me. Science is not the appropriate tool for this question.  It cannot measure love.  It doesn’t mean that some will not try to apply this tool inappropriately. Science can look at externals, such as what my mother did for me. Then propose a proof of love based on those externals.  But we can match those actions of hers using other people, or even machines. But they won’t have love as their motive. The person might be paid to do some of these duties. The machine has no ability to love.  Yet they “replicate” my mother’s loving actions toward me.
A favorable view of science can morph into worship at the altar of science. That does not bode well for humanity.  Just as money can be a great tool or resource, so can science. But love of money elevates it to an idol we worship.  We can fall into the same trap in our view of science.
Another pitfall is applying science “correctly”, but immorally.  The Nazi experiments on humans are repulsive to any who haven’t killed their conscience.  It was a “proper” use of science as a tool, but totally unacceptable when we consider values.
Is there a lesson here?  Yes.  Recognize the spiritual nature of humanity.  That requires that we acknowledge human values that transcend science.   With that perspective, we can identify the situations where science can be a help.  More importantly, we can identify where it can be misapplied. Treat science like a tool, not a god.  “Have no false gods before me…”  B.B.

Thank you, B.B.  I’m going to add a few additional points to what you’ve said, if you don’t mind.

First, the scientific understanding we have today, is not the scientific understanding we had 50 years ago or 50 years before that. Look at what we’ve learned through scientific discovery in the last 50 years. Look at what science has discovered in the 50 years before that … and before that… and before that… on into millenniums in the past.

Now, tell me what we’re going to scientifically discover in the next 50 years, and the 50 years after that, and after that and on and on into millenniums into the future. Science cannot tell us what we’ll discover, because it hasn’t been discovered. Using science, there’s no way to identify the next 50 years of scientific discovery much less millenniums beyond that.

To do this we must leap beyond the scientific understanding of today. This is the purpose of spiritual and religious thought. Spiritual and religious thought and it’s tenants cannot be proved or disproved using today’s science.   But, inadvertently and on purpose, religion and spiritual thought have given us information about things that we can strive towards – namely motivation to search for ‘the truth’ that is beyond our scientific understanding.  In effect, it hasn’t waited for science to catch up and instead seeks to show us where we’re going.

Using science, we can make conjectures coming from what’s being worked on yesterday and today, and projecting forward with common sense and experience telling us – as we seek, so we shall find – as we seek answers and discovery using science, we will find answers and discovery using science.

Unfortunately, for science, it’s also true that what we do not seek, we will not find.   I mention this in regard to the behavior among many people to ridicule and dismiss scientific research into non-physical phenomenon like spirituality, paranormal, etc.  Instead offering non-scientific based prejudices instead of scientific data.

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It is a fact of science that no matter how much a white person studies and learns about the black race, he isn’t a black person and cannot fully know the black experience. And no matter how much a black person studies and learns about the white race, they aren’t white and can never fully know the white experience. We cannot be what we are not and our knowing of the other is limited.  Science is not meant to be treated as a religion, even though many have turned it into their religion. Religious thought is not gained through scientific method but many assign it to be “science.”

The day will come that science will discover many things that have heretofore been in the realm of the spiritual and religious. Scientific study has discovered the realm of other universes and other dimensions.  It has already discovered that everything that exists, exists as vibration. Atoms are merely vibrational focuses which create certain behaviors, including the behavior that leads humans to experience “matter.” Metaphysically, it is believed that Christ’s ability to heal comes from His being the highest level of vibration of God Consciousness and His touch brought the ill into this higher vibration, changing their physical bodies in the process – like a tuning fork.

But, does scientific discovery of heretofore spiritual aspects mean that there is no God and there never was? Of course not.  To say this is what it means is like the guy in the Patent Office in early 1900 saying, “We might as well close the patent office because everything has already been invented.”  (That’s actually true – someone did say that.)  These things are not the end of discovery or belief in God, they’re the beginning.

Quite literally, we are in the dark ages still with regards to what we think is true and what we have no clue about, if we compared what we know today to what we don’t know yet to be discovered tomorrow.

As humans, we tend to consider the God that we think exists, in terms that we can understand with our mind. We’ve built religions around understandings of the mind. This is usually based on the belief that we CAN understand God with our mind – the part of us that analyzes and comes to rational understandings (based on what we understand up to that moment.) This can only mean that our understanding of God is based on what we understand in our own mind – not God’s mind – our own. So, there are limits to our understanding through both scientific thought and religious thought.

But, even so, where is the heart in this analysis? The heart isn’t a part of the analysis of the practical mind. The heart as we’ve all experienced, seems to laugh at the mind at times, because our hearts many times defy logic and analysis, reasoning and practicality.

Yet, our experience is that the heart is where Love exists. And while there may be a few that say Love is only a chemical reaction in the brain, those same people, don’t tell their children “I only love you because the chemicals in my brain go that way. Take away the chemicals and I won’t love you anymore.” Imagine what would happen inside a child’s heart if we did say that to our children.

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I’ve given practical and rational discourse on science and religion. This comes from a mental understanding of the topic. Yet, if we didn’t also have caring and compassion and love and kindness in our hearts, we wouldn’t care what people believed or what conflicts arise from beliefs. The motivation for writing this discourse as well as the motivation for all the searching and believing comes from the heart – the desire to help people understand and possibly feel that we are all in this together.

We are brothers and sisters seeking the same thing – to know ourselves, to love, to learn ultimate truths, to know what is beyond our current knowing and beyond ourselves – to answer the question – “Is scientific understanding all we are or are we more than just analysis in the mind? Are we also Love embodied and as Love embodied, a part of God, the ultimate limitless Love, – a God who possibly exists way beyond our limited scientific understanding which we have today?”

For us to hold to this belief, we must hold to something other than logic and reasoning, we must hold to that which is from the heart – which helps motivate us to open up our minds to possibilities infinite in size and scope. This is so we can answer the question, “Is Love real?”

Imagine if scientific study discovered that Love is real.  For science to do this, it must leap beyond the confines of the physical world, because when it does, it will discover much more than just that.

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“Imagine a world without science – only religion with no science – a world where science was not pursued or allowed. What kind of world would we have?
Now, imagine a different world – one without Religion – a world only of science, unlimited science with no religion – where religious beliefs were not pursued or allowed. What would that world be like?
Now imagine a world with both science and religion where both were pursued and allowed.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1998-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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The Conflict between Science and Religion and Religion and Religion

America is very big on religions. In fact, sometimes it’s as if we turn everything into a religion when the opportunity arises. Instead of saying “I don’t understand how it could be true, but I’m open to it being possible” so many of us say, “It’s not part of my beliefs – what I’ve gotten from sources (including religions), therefore it’s not true.” What religions am I referring to? I’m referring to everything that enters the mind of Man -including the religion of politics, the religion of science, the religion of medicine, the religion of technology, psychology, philosophy, and even mathematics!  (Yes, I’m even including Atheism – but that’s easy to see.)

Have you heard someone say either of these – the equivalent of words that mean “It’s not part of the science that I know of, therefore I don’t believe it.” or “It’s not part of the medical knowledge that I know of, therefore there’s no way it can be possible.”  I have.  Then, all we have to do is exchange the words ‘science’ for ‘religion’ and vice versa, and we recognize the comment.

In fact, at times we’ve even heard the equivalent of “You believing differently than this is you being gullible, misguided, delusional, or outright fraudulent.”

This is widespread, and it shows that the person saying something to this effect has turned their beliefs and knowledge into a religion.

We’ve heard so often when people have said the equivalent to “It’s not part of my religious beliefs, therefore I don’t believe it-therefore you shouldn’t either, because only my beliefs are the truth.” We see examples of this in the U.S. and all around the world.

We also have people who have turned science, medicine and all the rest into religions, as well. Yet, it’s not just a current happening. This very process has been part of mankind for millennium.

Instead of considering that it’s our own knowledge and understanding that falls short, we tend to carry out the religious ritual of pointing to others saying the equivalent to “You’re wrong to believe differently than me. My knowledge may as well be sacred.”

Since this is very easy to see when looking at history, we don’t think of it as being a current process in our society. But, it’s happening now just as often as it ever has been. It’s just that we don’t think to put it in the context of science, medicine, technology or the rest, during today’s time. Too bad, because these have been religions for a long time. It always been the heretics of these “religions” that put forth the idea that “there is something beyond what we believe is true.”  (Heretics like the Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein who pursued what others believed wasn’t true, and oh, yeah – Jesus Christ.)

Yet, bridging what we know and what we don’t know has been a tremendously difficult bridge to build. Why? Because both sides of the bridge have held strongly to that which we know or believe to be possible only, and fought hard against that which we don’t know and don’t believe being possible.

It is rare that people speaking for religions ever make the comment “My beliefs are beliefs, not necessarily proven facts.” It is rare that science or medicine or even technology ever make the comment, “We’ve found this small part to be true, but we don’t know if it could also be false or if anything else in opposition to this or outside this paradigm that we’ve never conceptualized is true or not.”

It is rare that people entrenched in their beliefs say, “I don’t know how my beliefs can mesh with opposing beliefs, opposing knowledge, factual science, but I’m open to both being true somehow.” It’s rare when people representing science and medicine say, “I don’t know how things we haven’t proven may possibly be true, but I’m open to they being possible.”

Instead, we get, people saying “Science is the truth and anything else is a delusion.” We get, people saying “This medical information is true and anything else is fraud.” We get people saying, “My religious beliefs are true, and I won’t consider anything else possible.”

The Saving Grace

The world doesn’t revolve around any persons or groups who may be stuck in their own religion whether it’s traditional religions, Scientific, Medical, Technological or any other belief or knowledge system. The Earth is inhabited by more heretics than fanatics – more open minded people than close-minded people.  These heretics are saying, “There’s more than what you espouse to be true.  You have no belief or knowledge that is omniscient and complete. ”  Thank God.

PS.  Can you see how Politics has become a religion?  How about how “beliefs about money” has become a Religion?

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“Whoever believes the world will be saved by technology, doesn’t remember Atlantis.” (The Rainbow Cards, 2014, ©, Jodie Senkyrik)

“With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

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Have you noticed?

Have you noticed that some people consider science to be their religion, and some people consider their religion to be their science.  Think about it.

Imagine a world, if there was no such thing as science – only religion.  No scientific knowledge or anything that would come from science.  What world would exist, if there was no science of any kind and only religion existed?  And no one challenged these religions?  I know what kind of world I think would exist.  Try to imagine what the world would be like with no science anywhere.

Now, imagine a different world, where there was no such thing as religion.  None whatsoever.  No spiritual beliefs, no belief in a higher power, no belief in a greater consciousness – no beliefs in anything religious or spiritual, and only science existed.  Science alone existed in the consciousnesses of all the people.  And no one ever thought any way except the scientific way.  Try to imagine what this world would be like.

To me, both of these worlds would be so imbalanced that life on either of these worlds would be far, far behind where we are now in our world.  These two worlds would be woefully incomplete and missing SO MUCH!

Now, imagine a world where science and religion both existed.  This is a world where each one may struggle against the other, but each touches and reaches a part inside us, that must be touched or reached.  Each offers something to the contribution of all of life.  In turn, each contributes to society and the growth of life in this world.  Where will they both meet?  Only inside the individual – inside the individual’s choice of finding answers for themselves.  Only within ourselves.

Although there is friction between science and religion, remember, without friction, we would not be able to use two legs and two feet to grip the road beneath us helping us to climb to the mountain tops and see far, far into the distance beyond our own vision.