Making Yet Greater the Greatness Within; & Blasphemy- 24th December 1998 Christmas

Yule never know...

A dichotomy of faith dwells deep within the most potent of Christians, and as the more pronounced they become, the more tensions within persuasively beg resolution.

As with a dual carriageway of venous aphorisms, we live with internal contrasts that ceaselessly contest one another in presenting themselves. Our minds may double back on occasion, and gather a glimpse of still yet another truth; and we may wonder just where or who we were before we came to know this now reality.

Men and women can be quite wonderful - gloriously wonderful - manifest in a very many of ways; even these possibilities compete within the one. Though an individual is drawn out and bettered just by the perchance of it all, he is also troubled now and then fundamentally because of the irresolvables, because of the seeming contradictions - because he cannot be everything that is wonderful at the one time ... and yet he is! Then our Christ comes to us, in the midst of such internal dilemmas, and smiles upon us - confident in our being completely, and smiles.

The impulse to abbreviate our natures, and seek to homogenize ourselves down into one 'good' being, is also natural, and once again in contrast to the divinely complex configuration that we most obviously are. Yet it can be that when individuals begin to live but a caricature of their true natures, this simplification of self has sadly been at the expense of the greatness within.

Men are all too readily disabled of their passion, diffused from their most eager of interests and loves, and often cast into some second-rate pursuit that marks time but scores the heart, in all its vagary. The undermining of self is also the undermining of our Christhood, for if we are not free to love as we would most naturally - either ourselves, another or of Christ - this doubt does discredit us and dismembers all abilities.

Is there a test to find whether we hold a corrosive doubt or a productive self-questioning? Yes indeed, for a productive self-questioning always assumes much goodness, viewing both situation and self in the context of love, healing and goodness, whilst the corrosive self-doubt assumes belittlement.

Blasphemy against Father God is a belittlement of His True Greatness. It becomes an attempt to assume a false strength or quality in which we are but ungrateful, ungracious and unbecoming to that of our own condition or of others. Blasphemy is that one sin within us that can corrupt the universe and injure Heaven. It divides our own fair natures, poisons our perceptions; is the wellspring of all anxiety and doubt; accuser of our brothers and our beloved; and falsifier to the truth. It is the satanic weevil amongst the golden flax of virtue.

The irreverence which is blasphemy is unforgivable in the eyes of the godly. What a stern and pious remark - even depressing at the outset - but it is most necessary to remember, in order to answer those who would blaspheme by arguing otherwise, because the perils of this sin are too great to 'belittle' (as is the wont and way of this sin). Within the human condition we have been given the most marvelous of licenses to incredulate - except that one; if for no other reason (and yes, there are many) irreverence to Father God severs our own life-chord to Him, discharging the Holy Spirit into devil, turning our souls into dust, literally.

• Tensions and passions,

• contradictions and imperfections, contrasted by exaltations;

• colors, grades, depths, detail, and simplifications;

• obstinacies and weakness as well;

• frustrations of self and vanities of self,

• false observations and mean criticisms (accurate but unkind),

• crudities and false charity,

• brevity and long-windedness,

• acquisitiveness and dismissiveness,

• selfishnesses and masochisms too;

• distractedness and self-absorption,

• laziness and self ambition

- ALL of these characteristics live in each of us, and manifest in argument to one another, yet hold the possibility also to become quite wonderful. ALL of these conditions are transmutable, but the irreverence of blasphemy is not.

In the physical world all forms of murder, including self-murder, are blasphemous. In the insistence of death, in the denying or forfeiting of life, that life, which He has given, is offensive and insultuous to Father God. In the thought world, all annihilative projections of hate, harm, or discreditation to Father God are blasphemous. The open curse and the evil thought - these are as perilous as they are scornful. In the spiritual worlds we blaspheme when we make doubt as to our own goodness and the goodness of others, in which He does reside; and Doubt is the bedfellow to Satan - not the prick of the conscience, he is the poke of demise!

Christ as our Savior has brought us such reality of Father God - to know Him, to give thanks to Him, to wish to seek His Presence, His Comfort and His Will in all ways. The desolate world which was that before Christ's coming was disparaged with one great curse and soiled with unbelief. But we know now, and have the ability to know, that all men are the majestic and noble sons of God, and no individual should ever belittle or undermine this fact.

We have the abilities to make yet greater the greatness within, and work too, in time, those aspects which are tedious to us.

• If we can simplify we can also deduce,
• if we know detail we can discern,
• if we are obstinate we can stand strong,
• if we are weak we can be humble as well,
• by our frustrations we are motivated to work harder,
• by our vanities we are also so motivated towards self-betterment,
• with our false observations we can learn that all is transitory and ever changing, and not to look to appearances but esoterically to divine yet further,
• our mean criticisms can recognize our own smugness when it appears, and disarm it;
• our crudities can give us our ease with commune;
• our false charity and insincerities can teach us true propriety, discipline and kindness (for one will still grow into another - slowly, slowly it will grow).
• Our brevity may become frugality,
• our long-windedness may help us to have patience without,
• our acquisitiveness is the babe of the ego,
• our dismissiveness can be discrimination as well,
• and our selfishness can adjust into self-is-ness (being arterial, not dictatorial).
• Our masochisms can learn shiatsu, lessen down into a firm massage of self without the exaggerated overkill,
• our distractiveness can bring us to curiosities yet to be found,
• our self-absorption can offer us the concentration to apply intent, study and reflection;
• our laziness can teach us proper rest,
• whilst our urge for self ambition can be turned universal and transmuted into higher purpose.
• Our imperfections become a point of reference,
• our tensions continually reaffirm our reality of existence,
• our passions encourage the gods with motivation,
• and our contradictions ensure we do not anesthetize into but a static membrane.

All the while, if a man is faithful to God firstly, then he shall find his way with help in all aspects that he genuinely seeks. This is assured and good for all time.The stories within the soul livingly remind us of all that we are, incorporated in Christ. They are nourishing to our beings, particularly those tales of inner truth that have a jubilant and victoriously happy depiction! Cyclically in the seasons, the spiritual worlds unfurl their treasured stories once again. All about us this birthday is exclaimed in happy resonance, as this becomes the celebration for all men, and their associated kingdoms - as the young God heroically shoulders Humanity up to meet the Father, as the Christ within us all, comes of age.