Hi everyone, Happy Thursday's Child on Sunday. I didn't intentionally decide to write this today but it seemed appropriate since this coming Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States, and after I was freshening up on The Feast in the Prodigal Son story and the Prodigal God book, I didn't completely agree with how it was described in the book. I had listened to a couple of videos on the teachings of Edgar Casey, The Sleeping Prophet. He has very similar teachings to Paramahansa Yogananda, so my brain wasn't exactly ready write since I still needed to put my thoughts in order. The Christian community focuses on the feast as something to we can look forward to after we die. I'm sure there are some mainstream Protestant churches that will talk about experiencing God in a joyous, bliss-like, feast state of mind, but having been in a few denominations the norm is, with that story, to see us as wandering away from God, having hardship, saying to ourselves "yikes this sucks" and coming back to God asking forgiveness. I've also been in more Pentecostal type churches that are more comfortable with experiencing God than just superficially teaching about God in a history format.
Yoganada and Edgar Casey teach experiencing God now. Have a meditation time. Be still and know that I am God. The feast is now. The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Within. We never seem to make time to sit and meditate. I've also heard not everybody is suited to sit cross legged for 10 minutes or longer. Some of us will start to focus on our legs hurting. A chair is ok, as long as the back is straight. I like to sit on the steps in our pool. Whatever allows you to let your mind drift off and dismiss the thoughts that arise is the way that works best for you.
My partner in life Andrea started reading a book by Richard Rohr called Preparing For Christmas Daily Meditations For Advent. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan Priest in New Mexico. He also has similar teachings to Yogananda and Edgar Casey. He's a good example of a modern Christian who teaches outside the mainstream Christian cookie cutter dogma. When I read the first one the heading is "Come Lord Jesus." It talks about how people, even Christians, are living in emptiness waiting for Jesus. In Advent we're focusing on the baby Jesus when we should be looking at why Jesus came in the first place. For us to experience the The Kingdom within. We're taught to live through drudgery and suffering and in the end we'll experience The Feast.
One of the videos of Edgar Casey that I listened to this week talked about starting your day reading Psalm 23, Psalm 19, Psalm 32 and a couple of others. Not to just read them, but read them slowly. Let the words sink in. Think about how God takes care of us like a shepherd takes care of his sheep. Though we walk all day in a world that has a lot of ungodliness in it, He because God gives us strength when we focus on Him.
My hope is that you'll start today recognizing God in the good things that happen as you go about your day to day activities, and also the struggles that help you to see the lessons you're learning that turn your thoughts to God to give you strength through those struggles.
Enjoy the feast of the blessings of God. If you're in the United States and you recognize Thanksgiving, have a thankful Thursday. No matter where you are lets all try to remember to be thankful daily for all God gives us, even the struggles that teach us and lead us back to His Feast.
I think we'll talk more about Richard Rohr's book as well as the act of salvation that I mentioned last week. Salvation will probably be the next Thursday's Child on the first week of December, unless I get distracted with something else God shows me has a higher priority. 😊😊
Have a great week and Keep Searching,
Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment