Matthew says: "So too, you also must be prepared, for at any hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." 24:33. We are to be ready for the coming of the Meshiach when he comes, but there is a corollary to this commandment; we are to have done everything in preparation for his coming. We are not to sit idly by and wait for his coming, but we are to do everything we can to prepare. The list of things that must be done before we meet our Maker is called a bucket list, from a movie of the same name.
How do we know what is on the bucket list? It differs for each person. Over your life you have felt a desire or duty to do things, like forgive people, make amends, see sites, read books, serve others, etc. and you have put them off. You put them off for a variety of reasons including finances, schedule, and more pressing duties and responsibilities and yet you continue to feel the need to do these things. What if you never get to do these things? Will your life seem complete? If the answer is no, that thing, that event, that duty, that undone compulsion is on your bucket list.
My passion is old things. I have a degree in history. I have spent much of my adult life trying to understand the origins of Judaism and Christianity. Now, I am busy trying to understand the underlying principles of western religion, both the Cult of Angels and the primitive Hebraic theology. I love archaeology. I love to visit ruins. My bucket list includes many trips to archaeological sites.
Number one on my bucket list for 25 years was a visit to Israel. Through many miraculous events and with the command of the Voice, I visited Israel for 16 days in 1997. The trip changed my way of looking at many things. I understood why seeing what I saw was important to my life.
Number two on my bucket list is visiting the Mayan and Toltec ruins. I want to understand a people who never were infected with the ideas of the West or East and developed a civilization without reference to those ideas. I am sure that visiting these sites will open my mind to whole new vistas not previously encountered. However right now, it is too dangerous to visit these sites, IMHO.
Number three on my bucket list is visiting the sites of the Ancient Pueblans (previously called the Anasazi). I intend to leave on an eleven day trip to see Mesa Verde, the Anasazi Cultural Center, Hovenweep, Chaco Canyon, Salmon Ruins, Aztec Ruins, and other Pueblan sites on August 27, 2010. In addition, I hope to understand why the Marranos, the remnants of the Nasoreans, came to Taos, New Mexico after the expulsion from Spain.
Number four on my bucket list is visiting Provence, Narbonne, and the Pyrenees to understand the influence of the Nasoreans and the Cathari on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth century world.
I remember when reading 1 Enoch was on the bucket list. It just seemed to be impossible to read it. Then seven years ago the Voice spoke and said that if I would understand the Essenes, I must read Enoch. I did and it changed my world view.
Everyone of you has a bucket list, even if you do not know it. Try to do at least one thing on that list this year. Plan to do them all. Make clearing that list a priority. You will not be ready for the Coming if you have not finished your bucket list.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Cheat, Lie and Steal
In our modern age, we take cheating, lying and stealing for granted. Our politicians do it. Our wholesalers and retailers do it. We tolerate it in our families. We eventually are corrupted and begin to do it ourselves. However, that is not the way that YHVH taught us nor the way that Yeshua taught us. At Leviticus 19:11, the Torah says:
You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
The word for steal is ginab which literally means to get anything by stealth. Stealing is not just taking something that does not belong to you, it is also tricking someone into giving up something that is theirs through fraud and stealth. Our elections sound like they are being stolen. Certainly, the barrage of advertising that tells less than the whole truth about a product is stealing. When we tell a woman or a man that we love them so that they will sleep with us, that also is stealing.
The word for deal falsely is kachash which literally means deceive, deny, dissemble, and lie. So this word also talks about deceit, but here the deceit is in the way that we deal with someone. When we really do not mean what we say and seek to gain an advantage by our actions, we are dealing falsely. When you say that you make a certain amount of money to get a loan for a house, when in fact you do not make enough to afford the house, that is dealing falsely. The bank that helps you, the realtor that helps you, and the loan officer that turns the blind eye also are guilty of dealing falsely. The politician that tells lies about his opponent is dealing falsely with the people.
The word for lie is shakar which literally means deceit, dissemble, and lie.
The intent of the Divine Author of this mitzvot was to foreclose all forms of lying. Our laws foreclose many of the same forms of lying, but we tolerate lying in our society. We tolerate the lie and even teach the lie. My daughter-in-law tells her child who is neither overly precocious nor slow that he is the brightest child in the world and can do anything he wants. When he discovers that he is not the brightest or the most talented, what will he think. Rather than attack his mother, he will conclude that fudging on the truth is alright.
Lies bite. They eventually come back to haunt. They can cause great harm. What is the value of the testimony of a witness who regularly fudges on the truth. And what is the value of a government that hides behind the word classified to keep its lies from being found out.
The society that existed before the Flood was a society like ours. It did the same crimes that we do. Finally, it was destroyed and if we do not change, we will fall as well.
Perhaps the greatest liars are the evangelical ministers who claim that the teach the bible and yet leave out the Torah. It is no surprise that 1/3, about 100,000,000 of our fellow citizens have refused to be part of churches which do not live up to their own standards.
My advice, stop cheating, lying and stealing.
You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
The word for steal is ginab which literally means to get anything by stealth. Stealing is not just taking something that does not belong to you, it is also tricking someone into giving up something that is theirs through fraud and stealth. Our elections sound like they are being stolen. Certainly, the barrage of advertising that tells less than the whole truth about a product is stealing. When we tell a woman or a man that we love them so that they will sleep with us, that also is stealing.
The word for deal falsely is kachash which literally means deceive, deny, dissemble, and lie. So this word also talks about deceit, but here the deceit is in the way that we deal with someone. When we really do not mean what we say and seek to gain an advantage by our actions, we are dealing falsely. When you say that you make a certain amount of money to get a loan for a house, when in fact you do not make enough to afford the house, that is dealing falsely. The bank that helps you, the realtor that helps you, and the loan officer that turns the blind eye also are guilty of dealing falsely. The politician that tells lies about his opponent is dealing falsely with the people.
The word for lie is shakar which literally means deceit, dissemble, and lie.
The intent of the Divine Author of this mitzvot was to foreclose all forms of lying. Our laws foreclose many of the same forms of lying, but we tolerate lying in our society. We tolerate the lie and even teach the lie. My daughter-in-law tells her child who is neither overly precocious nor slow that he is the brightest child in the world and can do anything he wants. When he discovers that he is not the brightest or the most talented, what will he think. Rather than attack his mother, he will conclude that fudging on the truth is alright.
Lies bite. They eventually come back to haunt. They can cause great harm. What is the value of the testimony of a witness who regularly fudges on the truth. And what is the value of a government that hides behind the word classified to keep its lies from being found out.
The society that existed before the Flood was a society like ours. It did the same crimes that we do. Finally, it was destroyed and if we do not change, we will fall as well.
Perhaps the greatest liars are the evangelical ministers who claim that the teach the bible and yet leave out the Torah. It is no surprise that 1/3, about 100,000,000 of our fellow citizens have refused to be part of churches which do not live up to their own standards.
My advice, stop cheating, lying and stealing.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Laws of Prayer
As you already know, sometimes what I say here is controversial. It is controversial because I do not speak the opinion of a religious organization, but rather what I see from my high mountain. Prayer is a universal activity, even among so-called atheists. Its laws are therefore universally true. Let us look at those laws and try to make some sense out of what happens.
William James, the father of religious psychology, argues in his Varieties of Religious Experience that we should not center on the why of an event as much as the event itself. We know little of why electrons move to cause electricity. We know little about how a plant actually metabolizes photons. They do. We use it. Likewise, prayer is a thing we do not understand, but it works, it has worked for millenia and will continue to work for millenia to come. However, we can deduce from observation and conversation its laws and some of our holy works tell us succinctly why prayer works, if we can read between the lines.
First of all, I want to say that I believe in El, the True G-d, and in many additional divine beings. While El is self-sufficient and unconcerned with this multiverse, many of the beings that live in this multiverse are dependent on prayer for sustenance. The draw energy and life from prayer. How that works is a mystery no less than how photons are changed into plant food through the mystery of photosynthesis. I agree with Neil Gaiman in American Gods, a 'god' is sustained by prayer. So that is the quid of the equation. Let us look at how we get the quo of the equation.
First, 1 John 5:14-15 sets forth an important law of prayer:
"And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked for is ours."
So, the first law of prayer is praying in accordance with the Will of the Universe. I do not put the divine name of a being there because all evidence shows that the many beings in the universe that are elemental in character can do things when they grant prayer. How do we harmonize with the Universe, that is, how do we know what to prayer for. It is this corollary to the first law that causes all the problem. We do not. Those who are sensitive may sense the will of the Universe, but they do not know the will of the Universe. Why is it important to know the will of the Universe? Because the laws of chance are alterable. Scientific studies have watched mind control change the normal chance on a set of dice. It works at many levels. Those things that are in the will of the Universe when prayed for can change the normal laws of chance so that it is less likely or more likely that an event will occur. Sensitive people can sense the movements of chance and effect them. Prayer is a force that effects chance. For example, there is a 20% chance of rain. A person who is sensitive and has other sensitivity to the laws of prayer can actually increase the chance of rain to one hundred percent. We call that weather working. It is reputed that saints have this power.
The next law of prayer is a mental condition called faith. Faith comes in three varieties. When some event has always happened in a given way in our lives, we have faith from observation that it will occur again. This subjective belief is a form of faith. But there is a higher form of faith, which allows the person who believes in it to use the power for prayer. When an unusual event occurs, that is, when we ask for something in prayer and it happens, we try to recall that event and what we were doing at the time and replicate it. If we successfully replicate the event, the laws of prayer will allow the result to be the same. This level of faith creates a template in the soul which can be used for many things in the science of prayer. Constant use of prayer, that is, directed prayer, increases ones ability to pray meaningfully. The last form of faith is a result of becoming sensitive to the will of the universe and praying not only for ones own needs, but the needs of others, and using the second level to hone ones ability to saintly levels thus increasing the chance of success just as a athlete by training increases his chances of success in the games.
The third law of prayer involves multiple parties of prayers. When more than one person who has learned to pray prays, then the combined power of prayer increases exponentially, rather than arithmetically. So the power of two people praying is three, the power of three people praying is five, and so forth. That is why orders of prayers, monks and nuns, are more successful at prayer than ordinary people.
The fourth law of prayer is concentration. The concept of visualization is helps to concentrate ones intentions. Likewise, statues, pictures, congregation meetings, drugs, and other concentration devices can be used to concentrate on the object of the prayer.
Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, the being that one prays to makes a difference. Today, prayers are more likely prayed to Allah, Jesus, Buddha, and Mary than any other divine being. Naturally, as they have a surplus of power, they can alter chance more effectively and cause events to happen regularly so that the believers can benefit. However, determined cults of believers in Horus, Isis, Jupiter, Mithras, or Cernunnos, the Hag, whatever, can also be effective in altering chance and gaining results with prayer. For the atheist, even strong faith in the wisdom of man can effect things.
All prayer works. Most prayer is not useful because most people are selfish. Learning to pray is an art form. Because our prayers are heard, sometimes we raise conflict between the various beings who can ingest the energy of prayer and we will be more or less successful. One good piece of advice is to hitch your prayer life to a popular 'god' or in the alternative, find a 'god' who agrees with you regularly and hitch your wagon to them. All divine beings set forth rules for their aid and you will have to pay for it not only in prayer, but by helping others whose prayers they are answering. For instance, if you god is Mammon, the god of money, you may have to give some of your money to another as part of the requirements of getting aid from your god. Not all gods are as formal as YHWH who has set forth his rules in the Torah, but all gods require aid on earth for them to achieve the ends which gets them fed.
While I may have offended many, truth is truth. Keep praying. It works.
William James, the father of religious psychology, argues in his Varieties of Religious Experience that we should not center on the why of an event as much as the event itself. We know little of why electrons move to cause electricity. We know little about how a plant actually metabolizes photons. They do. We use it. Likewise, prayer is a thing we do not understand, but it works, it has worked for millenia and will continue to work for millenia to come. However, we can deduce from observation and conversation its laws and some of our holy works tell us succinctly why prayer works, if we can read between the lines.
First of all, I want to say that I believe in El, the True G-d, and in many additional divine beings. While El is self-sufficient and unconcerned with this multiverse, many of the beings that live in this multiverse are dependent on prayer for sustenance. The draw energy and life from prayer. How that works is a mystery no less than how photons are changed into plant food through the mystery of photosynthesis. I agree with Neil Gaiman in American Gods, a 'god' is sustained by prayer. So that is the quid of the equation. Let us look at how we get the quo of the equation.
First, 1 John 5:14-15 sets forth an important law of prayer:
"And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked for is ours."
So, the first law of prayer is praying in accordance with the Will of the Universe. I do not put the divine name of a being there because all evidence shows that the many beings in the universe that are elemental in character can do things when they grant prayer. How do we harmonize with the Universe, that is, how do we know what to prayer for. It is this corollary to the first law that causes all the problem. We do not. Those who are sensitive may sense the will of the Universe, but they do not know the will of the Universe. Why is it important to know the will of the Universe? Because the laws of chance are alterable. Scientific studies have watched mind control change the normal chance on a set of dice. It works at many levels. Those things that are in the will of the Universe when prayed for can change the normal laws of chance so that it is less likely or more likely that an event will occur. Sensitive people can sense the movements of chance and effect them. Prayer is a force that effects chance. For example, there is a 20% chance of rain. A person who is sensitive and has other sensitivity to the laws of prayer can actually increase the chance of rain to one hundred percent. We call that weather working. It is reputed that saints have this power.
The next law of prayer is a mental condition called faith. Faith comes in three varieties. When some event has always happened in a given way in our lives, we have faith from observation that it will occur again. This subjective belief is a form of faith. But there is a higher form of faith, which allows the person who believes in it to use the power for prayer. When an unusual event occurs, that is, when we ask for something in prayer and it happens, we try to recall that event and what we were doing at the time and replicate it. If we successfully replicate the event, the laws of prayer will allow the result to be the same. This level of faith creates a template in the soul which can be used for many things in the science of prayer. Constant use of prayer, that is, directed prayer, increases ones ability to pray meaningfully. The last form of faith is a result of becoming sensitive to the will of the universe and praying not only for ones own needs, but the needs of others, and using the second level to hone ones ability to saintly levels thus increasing the chance of success just as a athlete by training increases his chances of success in the games.
The third law of prayer involves multiple parties of prayers. When more than one person who has learned to pray prays, then the combined power of prayer increases exponentially, rather than arithmetically. So the power of two people praying is three, the power of three people praying is five, and so forth. That is why orders of prayers, monks and nuns, are more successful at prayer than ordinary people.
The fourth law of prayer is concentration. The concept of visualization is helps to concentrate ones intentions. Likewise, statues, pictures, congregation meetings, drugs, and other concentration devices can be used to concentrate on the object of the prayer.
Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, the being that one prays to makes a difference. Today, prayers are more likely prayed to Allah, Jesus, Buddha, and Mary than any other divine being. Naturally, as they have a surplus of power, they can alter chance more effectively and cause events to happen regularly so that the believers can benefit. However, determined cults of believers in Horus, Isis, Jupiter, Mithras, or Cernunnos, the Hag, whatever, can also be effective in altering chance and gaining results with prayer. For the atheist, even strong faith in the wisdom of man can effect things.
All prayer works. Most prayer is not useful because most people are selfish. Learning to pray is an art form. Because our prayers are heard, sometimes we raise conflict between the various beings who can ingest the energy of prayer and we will be more or less successful. One good piece of advice is to hitch your prayer life to a popular 'god' or in the alternative, find a 'god' who agrees with you regularly and hitch your wagon to them. All divine beings set forth rules for their aid and you will have to pay for it not only in prayer, but by helping others whose prayers they are answering. For instance, if you god is Mammon, the god of money, you may have to give some of your money to another as part of the requirements of getting aid from your god. Not all gods are as formal as YHWH who has set forth his rules in the Torah, but all gods require aid on earth for them to achieve the ends which gets them fed.
While I may have offended many, truth is truth. Keep praying. It works.
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