How to - make a handy dandy face covering

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Lenten Reflections, Day Thirty nine, What would love have me do?

New Lenten Reflections has been posted for day thirty nine, "What would love have me do?" You can access it by clicking here.

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Lenten Reflections, Day Thirty nine, Sixth Saturday of Lent, "What would Love have me do?"

Day Thirty nine, Sixth Saturday of Lent

What would Love have me do?

John 11: 45-57

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” 

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 


He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 

So from that day on they planned to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples. 

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

According to John, Jesus is in deep shit. The Jews have enough trouble with the Roman occupation and don’t need one of their own stirring up more trouble leading to the Romans cracking down on them even more. So the boss of the Jews, Caiaphas, decides that it's better to kill Jesus to shut Him up than to give reason to the Romans to impose even stricter control over them.

Jesus, according to John, high tails it out of town. But with Passover coming the question arises as to whether He will  come back for the ritual celebration or not?

Caiaphas and his buddies put out the hit order that if Jesus were to show His face back in town, people should let them know so they could arrange to have Jesus arrested and have Him killed..

Things have not changed with human nature in 2,000 years. Those in power are still willing to sacrifice a few poor, oppressed, and easily victimized people to maintain their power and control. It’s not so much a matter of sacrificing a few for the good of the country as it is the powerful being able to stay in power. This is the dynamic of national war making and the dynamic of mob control of corrupt and lucrative enterprises.

As we have been studying this Lenten season, this scenario is a major dynamic of the world of the ego which seeks power at others expense. Once this scenario unfolds we have created a world of fear and attack. Jesus is operating in quite a different world, the world of the Spirit, which is the world of Love. The world of the Spirit, though, cannot be entered when one is still in the world of the ego. The world of the ego must be renounced and given up.

Only when we are liberated from the conditioning and socialization of the world of the ego, are we free to enter into the world of the Spirit. Jesus’ life is a demonstration of this “truth” but few people apprehend it.

We always have a choice. We can choose the world of the ego or the world of the Spirit. That choice becomes manifest when we answer the question, “What would Love have me do?”

New Lenten Reflection available on Flipgrid, "Love The Divine Spark Within."

Today's Lenten Reflection, "Love the Divine Spark Within" is available on Flipgrid by clicking here.

You can access all the Lenten Reflections made available so far by clicking here.

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Lenten Reflections, Day Thirty eight, Sixth Friday of Lent, Love the Divine Spark

Day Thirty eight, Sixth Friday of Lent

Love the Divine Spark within others and ourselves.

John 10: 31-42

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” 

The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” 

Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’— and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God's Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 

Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 

And many believed in him there.

Another wonderful story from John about Jesus which describes how Jesus taught that the Divine Spark was within Him just as it was within them, and they were enraged, calling His teaching blasphemy and tried to arrest Him and wanted to stone Him.

What were they so angry about? They believed in a judgmental God who punished people for sinning, making mistakes, and Jesus was teaching a different God who loved everyone and, in fact, they were all part of the Oneness of God. Jesus taught that they needed to join together and appreciate the inherent worth and dignity of every person instead of judging, dividing, separating, attacking, and excluding.

Jesus was undermining the whole rationale for their religion and lives. Jesus was a big threat to their view of life and their positions in it. They wanted to exclude the threat by silencing Him and what better way than by killing Him?

In the world of the ego, you can kill the body, but you can’t kill the Spirit because the Spirit lives on and is eternal. 2020 years later we still remember what Jesus taught and remembering, apply His teaching to our lives. We are to love the Divine spark within one another and ourselves.

In the Lenten season we are reminded to give up the things of the ego and focus on the things of the Spirit which is Love. Jesus tells the people who accuse Him and hate Him, “Even if you don’t like me, look at the things my state of consciousness has done, and believe that it is the Love of God which is within me and I am in the Love of God.” Some who were threatened by this wanted HIm gone, but then He went across the Jordan and some came to learn from Him further and they believed Him.

Where do you stand? Do you want Jesus silenced so you can enjoy the things of the ego or do you believe in the path of the Spirit where we all are part of the Love of God?

Lenten Reflections, Day Thirty seven, Sixth Thursday of Lent, Becoming vicious and violent

Day Thirty seven, Sixth Thursday of Lent

Suggesting giving up the ego makes people vicious and violent.

John 8: 51-59

“Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” 

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” 

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 

Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 

So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Now that’s a funny story. It makes me laugh. People don’t understand the metaphysical psychology of Jesus at all. They take Him literally and don’t perceive, let alone understand, His mystical teaching.

Jesus tells His audience that whoever gets off the path of the ego and onto the path of the Spirit will not die. The physical body will die, but the Spirit will live on forever.

The audience calls Jesus crazy. They say He has a demon in Him. They attack Jesus claiming that He is saying He is better than Abraham. Jesus laughs and tells them they misunderstand what He is saying. He says that if a person says that they do not have a divine spirit they are a liar. He, Himself, is not a liar so He cannot deny that the Divine Essence is not within Himself.

Jesus only ticks them off more and they are about to stone Him but Jesus went and hid, and then left the temple.

Every person has inherent worth and dignity. Peace Pilgrim called it a “Divine Spark.” In A Course In Miracles it is called our “natural inheritance.”

Jesus is describing a metaphysical psychology of the path of the spirit not the literal perception kof things on the path of the ego. The audience didn’t get it then and few people get it today. In order to understand Jesus, the student must shift from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit and giving up the things of the ego, which is what Lent is about, fills most people with terror and they become vicious and violent.

Flipgrid, topic eleven, The big mistake still being made is available."

Topic eleven in Flipgrid, Lenten Reflections, "The big mistake still being made," is available by clicking here.

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