Author: rkcdlitt

I dream the dream of two pillars,
promising greatness and safety;
one a mirrored reflection - 
reaching into the void of life;
they haunt my midnight dreams.
Often are they the backdrop
of the nightly play haunting my sleep.
Deep within my dreams, the first
is erected with the hardest stone
and the narrowest path
that broadens with each upward step.

The second calls with shallow glitter,
as firm as a sand castle spreading its call
in the winds of time;
its path is broad offering riches,
but cannot promise with its
slipping, sandy slope under foot and
its narrowing path upwards,
is God’s Eternal Covenant!

©Russell Kendall Carter

Sirach; the divine wisdom, or let us say, the Divine Wisdom of God through Jesus. Jesus demonstrated the impotence of the mortal body and the superior import of the Spirit and healing power of God. Now as then, we cast this Truth aside to seek safety in our own convictions.

Two thousand years ago, man expected the Messiah to come as a Lion of God. But history tells us He came as the Lamb of God; but did He? I say we received the Lion of God. I look at the difference Jesus has made in the world, and although His actions were of peace and Love, the effect was dynamic and vibrant. And they continue to be, if we look at His teachings as Love not just nice, neat parables that tell interesting stories with a moral.

Jesus proved the fallacies of death and the infinite Truth of the Holy Spirit and eternal Life with God. He proved the power and the safety of God within us. With God within us, we cannot be harmed by the physical world. God loves and protects us from all evil and sin.

The reality of Good (God) overshadows and overcomes what man says of life and love. God’s Divine Love always overcomes mortal frailties. The Wisdom Jesus preaches is God’s Holy Gift to us, if we would only listen with our hearts and souls, not just our ears. God can speak loudly, yet as our prayers are spoken softly to God, God’s answers are as the wisp of a spring breeze, hinting the promise of Goodness in our lives. This is why we thank the Sirach of Jesus.

©Russell Kendall Carter

It is our ignorance of God which brings forth anger, hatred, and other tumults. We all have names for God; in the Abrahamic religions, there are three: YHWH, God, and Allah. In the religion I am closer to, God has three names: God, The Christ, and The Holy Spirit. Around the world, there is a different name for God, depending on the religion. And around the world, there are as many names for God as there are religions. To all of us, we are the ones who worship the true god.

I have better names for God; names that if we all adopted there would be no unrest and conflict between us. If we call God by the names Life, Truth, and Love, we may be able to join our hands in at least one of these names for God. God is spirit! We can only pray to Him spiritually for no one sees a physical God. We worship Him in spirit and truth; we pray to Him and for us in spirit and truth. We can see Him only with our heart and soul for His majesty is to great for us to absorb.

I see God everywhere; I see Him in a mare licking the birth fluids from a foal standing on wobbly legs; I see God in little children playing together; I see God with people feeding and housing those in need. All of these times are times of expressions of Love, the name for God that I favor (I love). Images such as these bring me God’s Truth, God’s Wisdom, and God’s Love. These are the images I prefer as one person serves another.

All of the names for God offer immortality and eternal Love.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

Whether we listen or not, God speaks to us. For me, this comes during my daily prayers and meditation time. I do have to admit that most times I do not understand what is said and sometimes I don’t agree or like what is said. What I do know is that my daily periods of prayers and meditation build the faith I have that God is very active in my life. And, because I have so many physical problems related to pain, that I give myself into His care, even if the result is only an increased desire to ignore my physical problems and concentrate on my spiritual being. I do this with absolutely no reservations.

Today is Easter, the day the Bible assures us that Jesus defeat death. If this had not happened, we would have no promise of eternal life. We would have no promise of an eternity with God. This assurance means that I will not lose faith or trust that my prayers will overcome pain and loss, especially when I am praying for others. When I see others lifted by prayer, it is then that I know that God is all there is. Nothing is greater.

Today is filled with a lot of important ritualistic ceremonies in churches celebrating the reincarnation of Jesus. As important and as beautiful as these are, Jesus did not teach or live on ceremony. He lived a life demonstrating the Divine Love of God by casting out demons and healing the sick. He was scorned by men for eating with the low life and healing on the Sabbath. His life is the Divine reflection of what God wants for and by us. Let us remember this as we celebrate the grandeur of Easter Sunday.

  ©Russell Kendall Carter

There is nothing more powerful or everlasting than Life and Love. Both are truly gifts from Almighty God. Job speaks: “The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life (33:4).” I ask how a man who suffered as Job could still love God.

I now understand that true Life can only come from God. True Love can only come from God. When we open our hearts and minds to God’s presence in our lives, we gain a greater understand of God’s Life and Love. We are truly victorious over the sins and trials that plague humanity.

These are the lessons Jesus teaches us. God’s Love cannot be denied; it cannot be deprived of what it does for humanity. Love is Life and Love is joy; there is no evil with Love. Therefore, there can be no evil in Life.

God brings Life and Love to us. When we live in God’s Love and Life, we cannot sin; we cannot destroy or harm each other. Paraphrasing Job, God has made us, and the breath of the Holy Spirit brings us to everlasting Life and Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter

As a young boy in East Orange, New Jersey, I experienced many things while attending Sunday School. One of the first things I remember is having to memorize the twenty-third Psalm. If I remember correctly, it was a chore for a ten-year-old boy. Now, approximately seventy years later, I still remember not only the words, but I now understand the full meaning of these words written by David thousands of years ago. I am blessed, as are you.

Psalm 23 gives us a strong, solid foundation upon which to build our future and our faith. The Truth is in the power of Divine Love. David not only asks for but recognizes that God’s eternal Love and protection always are with us. Sin, disease, and death have no reality for our eternal lives. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. . .” with God as our companion, and Jesus as our example, eternal life is our gift.

I do not build my hopes on false notions. I know that as a mortal man, I am subject to disease and death, but as a child of God, my spiritual being, which is the only eternal being that God created, cannot die. There are so many indicators in the Old Testament of the promise of Jesus, and there are so many parables in the New Testament of the promise of eternal life that I cannot believe that the life I enjoy and suffer on this planet Earth is the true reality. We serve no purpose for God in only eighty years, or longer. one hundred years. God wants us serve others during our existence; God wants us to share our blessings with others. This is the message; this is the life of Jesus. I try to do the same.

©Russell Kendall Carter

We are vain people; let’s face it, we put ourselves above others all the time. This is contrary to what Jesus taught. Paul writes in Ecclesiastes, “The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth, with gain. This also is vanity (5:10).” This also applies to the lover of self. The more we love ourselves, the less we care for others.

I want this to change! I want our society to change from a bunch of me firsts, to a group of caring, benevolent helpers. I want our society to change from one of acquisition to one of giving to those in need. Our inability to recognize and love those who have been cast aside by society leads to our inability to recognize God within us.

We are a group of self-loving individuals who put our own needs above others; we subconsciously look for others to praise us and what we have accomplished. Jesus never asks his disciples to praise Him. Jesus does not ask us to praise Him; we are to follow Him; we are to emulate Him. We are to love our neighbors, no matter where they live.

The Bible and most religions use the term belovedness. This is the act of being loved by others, being desired by others. We cannot expect to be beloved unless we love others, unless we become less egotistical. Jesus teaches to love others as ourselves; but to love ourselves, we have to love others. This is a two-way street. We cannot have one without the other.

We cannot break down the walls of jealousy and self-centeredness, until we shut down our self-worth, our vanity, and recognize God as the Creator of all people and all things. Jesus hung on a cross for us! We can never be as selfless as that. All His mortal life, He was a servant to all of us. We are all made in the image of Go. Jesus’ humbleness is a beacon for all. We can look to His sacrifice and His example as way for us to lose our own vanity.

 © Russell Kendall Carter

The Psalmist writes: “Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation (62:1).” As I meditate on this simple statement, I am transported to a new dimension. I am encouraged to put aside the failures of the flesh and accept the desire to seek safety with the Spirit of God. I am not alone; with me are all those who realize that the only Truth is God’s. God speaks: embrace those you call enemies in love, compassion, and warmth, for all time until you stop seeing an enemy but a brother, another loving child of our loving God.

As humans, we are broken in all our mortal, human beliefs; we endlessly, search for God. Where is He with all the sick and suffering people? Why does He stay hidden from us? I pray and He is silent. I worry because I cannot answer people who say God does not exist and ask where is God when I suffer. Believing and trusting is God is not easy.

My only answer is that God does not cause man to suffer; we are good enough doing that to ourselves. It is written that God made man in His image and likeness. If God is perfect, how can we truly be anything less?

Every step to do good to our fellow man and all of God’s creation, be it animal or the environment, is a departure from our self-made, cruel, and brutal world. When we do good, as God wishes, we step closer to the Goodness, the Spirituality of God. We walk in the presence of Divine Principle, Divine Love, Divine Truth, and Divine Life, which is everlasting. We recognize our life as part of the infinite ability and love of the Holy Spirit. We are blessed to be part of God’s infinite plan.

©Russell Kendall Carter

The Gospel of John (4) gives us an inspiring story of Jesus with a Samaritan woman at the well. This is one story that demonstrates Jesus’s aim to bringing all people to God’s True Table. The line that lifts me most (14) is, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” This bring to life for me His fourth Beatitude: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).”
But the question arises of how we can take these two words of Jesus and apply them to our lives in the twenty-first century, with wars and massive deprivation around our small, isolated planet. I always feel alone when I ponder on this. Then I feel a presence within, and walking beside me, and comforting me, and giving me the realization that I am always in companionship with God.

Evil has not and will not win; tragedy will not win; and even death will not win; for in God’s creation, everything is real, God’s real, not ours.

©Russell Kendall Carter

My GPS is given by God; or perhaps I merely follow God’s GPS; I do not know. God is many things; God is all! God is the Divine Spirit; God is Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, and Mind. God is all Wisdom! All these attributes belong to God! They combine to give us the Divine Principle of our lives. Nothing is outside of God.

There is no goodness in the world except God’s Goodness. The Psalmist writes, “Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation (Ps 62).” By the goodness of God, I am a spiritual disciple bringing His Truth to those need of His comforting hand. I look through the mortal imperfections of mankind to see the reality of God’s creation. It is glorious! Mankind is glorious!

I accept mankind as God’s Holy Creation; I offer God’s Truth and Love. Prayerfully, I bring God’s comfort and Life in my visits. Through Jesus’s defeat over death, there are no material suppositions preventing the spiritual healing of all in need.

These are gifts from God, freely given to all who listen. Let us pray for the acceptance of these gifts and the will to use them as God wishes us to do.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter