Meditating to Heal

I sometimes worry about finances; do I have enough to last without begging from my children, or at least relying on their kindness? At my age, I also worry about the health of my aging body, my aging mind. This does not have to be, nor is it necessary. Among others, these are false gods mankind raises to unnecessary elevations of importance. God has and always will provide.

The vessel of my life is filled with God’s Love. There is no room for these false gods that try to invade my eternal countenance. My life, as with all lives, is one of the miracles that fulfills God’s law of Love, and I am born and live by and in God’s Grace. Through me God’s creation reappears allowing me to demonstrate its eternal origins, proving once again that there is no power except that of God.

The divine principles of Jesus’s teachings are to this day Life, Truth, and Love. All of these overcame and remain overcoming sin, disease, and death. Our mortal bodies suffer these consequences, but our souls, our spiritual bodies do not, for they are of God; they are eternal. Thus, I need not worry about the material resources in my final years; God provides.

As Jesus brought God back into the consciousness of mankind, so we must do today. God, Thou art my God, but only if I demonstrate this daily by living a life of Truth and Love.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

God created the heavens and the Earth and all living things in the universe. I believe, or rather I trust, that His creation is an ongoing affair. With each new living creature, be it human, animal, or flora, a new creation begins. Unfortunately, mankind has assumed that creation is all about him, not Him, He who created.

I am also not ignorant, or self-important, enough to believe that the planet Earth has the only living creatures on it. Looking at the universe, seeing the billions and billions of stars out there, I can believe that each star is another Sun and each third planet from this sun is another Earth inhabited by living, breathing creatures. And I do not mean little green men!!!

I am reminded of the story in II Kings about the pour widow who was told to take her one jar of oil and pour it into three urns, and when they were full to sell them so that she could live with her children out of debt. Demonstrating that God’s blessings are both eternally overflowing and never run out.

Jesus demonstrated this in His daily healing and teaching. Jesus demonstrated the ever-present and everlasting power, glory, and blessing of God’s Love daily in His life. I also believe that God does not limit Jesus to a three-year period two thousand years ago. I believe that special divine power, glory, and blessing are still with us. Just as with the widow and her oil, God’s Love, demonstrated through the life of Jesus, remains alive and walking with us today – healing and teaching.

This is true creation ever appearing!

©Russell Kendall Carter

 Romans 13:1: “there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

 The book of Job in the Old Testament contains a very important story of Wisdom. Job speaks directly with God and understands what position God has in his life, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee, (42:2).”

Many people believe that it is not possible for o speak directly with God; is not this what prayer is? Is not this what sharing God’s Love is? God promises us many things; our faith provides all that God intends for us. Jesus is the manifestation of the perfection and purity of mankind. When we learn and understand His parables and put them into practice for our own lives, we attain the healing power that God blesses us with. Our goal is to follow in His footsteps and bring the healing power of God to all. We do this in and with the pure Truth that Jesus taught.

The Holy Spirit is our permanent companion through Life (with a capital L). this is our everyday guide to God’s Love and nurturing presence. It is with the Holy Spirit that we live and demonstrate our perfect and eternal spirituality. This is the Truth of our existence. It is the Holy Spirit walking with us that keeps us on our holy appointed path in life. This is our permanent blessing! The Holy Spirit is our protector and guide.

I have been on the precipice of God’s eternal creation three times in my life. What I saw both thrilled and enlightened me; I did not fear. What I saw was welcoming. I longed to step through the portal to God’s perfect realm. But the Holy Spirit took my hand and walked me back to my mortal life.

The first time brought me into the world of youth swimming at a local YMCA; I ended up as a high school swimming coach. This brought me untold pleasure, allowing children to succeed in their gifted talents. The second time, at age fifty-one, God opened many doors for me to become a high school history teacher, which later turned into a final career as a community college literature professor.

Finally, after dying on an operating table, the Holy Spirit guided me back to life bringing me into the world of prayer and caring; I am now the chaplain of a local Marine Corps League. At the age of seventy-nine, the Holy Spirit is guiding me and walking with me as I address the spiritual needs of my troubled brother and sister Marines. When I am with one of these brothers or sisters, there is a spiritual glow that encompasses us. This is the promise that Jesus made when He said that whenever two or more of you meet in my name, I will be with you.

“There is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” I find it a blessing that at my age I am now walking on a new path of spiritual healing.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

I think back on what Revelation says about death: Hades (the grave) is simply the place of the dead. I intend for my body to be cremated and my ashes spread on fertile dirt. Will this be will my grave, my Hades? No! and No! when my body dies, I will not; life never ends; it merely changes to another form, another existence, just like being birthed from your mother’s womb – new life begins.

I think of my life facing a ton of problems; some merely went away; others still confront me. Excuse me Paul Simon, but if there are fifty ways to leave a lover, how many ways are there to leave your troubles behind? Can we sneak out the back, Jack?

The answer is Yes! When and where there is life, there is hope, and when there is hope there is life. Furthermore, where there is life, there is Life. When we turn to Life, we cast off all darkness by entering God’s realm. I turn to God and am filled with a fresh supply of courage and determination; God returns my strength to me. I am his artwork. . . but only when I accept and embrace this do I get the full benefit.

Mortal life is filled with storms. But after the storms pass, a beautiful sunrise follows, refreshing all life in nature, refreshing the beauty of God’s Creation. How many times, Lord, must I suffer the hurricane to see the sunlight; how many times? But this is speaking as a mortal; when I speak as the spiritual man God created, I no longer fear the storms for I know what lies beneath; I know God is there as my protector. So when I face life changes, I turn to God knowing that I am on the correct path – His path. 

©Russell Kendall Carter

Like you, I am God’s spiritual offspring. We share a common bond; we are all perfect works of God. I say this with an open mind of understanding and faith; but I am temporarily disappointed with my reaction to a choice made by a relative, who is also a spiritual offspring of God.

I quote from 1 Peter5: “We all need a friend to share our troubles with. Someone to listen to our fears, cares, and worries (7).” We are all perfect works of God, and this relative, I will call him Eric, is as perfect as they come. It is just that he recently made a life choice which disturbs me. He is not as spiritual as I am, so I should be prepared for differences. I am a realist and understand that there are realities, very harsh realities, that we face as mortals. We cannot avoid these!!! Mortal life is sometimes dangerous and fearful.

I overcome my disappointment and greet Eric with all the love that God gives. The Holy Spirit blesses us with an invitation to recognize God in others. This is how God’s providence and Love unfolds in our spiritual lives and aids us to navigate the misfortunes before us.

©Russell Kendall Carter

Sometimes, I am guilty of looking outside of my body for comfort. Furthermore, I am forever beginning my meditations and spiritual searching by reading the intelligence offered by modern day pseudo prophets in our man-made societies for the answers I know are not there. This may sound foolish, but I am a former professor who encouraged my students to always look for many views before reaching a conclusion. In other words, I trained them as I was trained to look for the words of other men and women for answers – wrong answers if I may say now. The only true answer we attain are through our spirituality and relationship with and for God.

I am not foolish enough to completely exclude what society says because we do live in a material world and all of its oppressive pressures. We have to face these harsh realities, not as mortal men, but as spiritual children of God. Otherwise, we will be crushed under by the depressing realities of mortal life. But when we look inside, where the presence of the Holy Spirit is, wonders open for us that we cannot truly understand by using the words of our mortal fathers and grandfathers.

When I turn to my spiritual being and accept my immortality in God’s creation, I leave my vulnerability to man’s world behind. God is Love; there is no other. I have a pure heart and trust in the words from Ezekiel, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an (sic) heart of flesh; 36:26.”

Looking inward allows me to approach our Father with honesty, promise and Love. What other way is there?

©Russell Kendall Carter

I read in Genesis 11 that the Lord punished mankind for building the tower of Babel: “⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Mankind overstepped what God allows. We are again defying God, but our speaking in tongues may not be an unfamiliar language as in Genesis but may very well be in the understanding of the common words spoken.

It is now very obvious that the teaching from Jesus of Divine Life, Truth, and Love means nothing today. Yes, we pray; we attend church; but we do not live in harmony with ourselves or with God. We are glued to the false reality of the power of money. Our leaders are corrupted by money and fail to work for the people they represent. As soon as they finish praying for the murder of little children, they rush out to bow before and lust after the money of politics.

We need to reverse this pandemic of greed and recognize the eternal life-giver. God is our creator and protector; let us speak to Him and listen for His voice in a clear language unencumbered by money. Thou shall have no other gods before me. What is so difficult to understand in this first commandment? This is much stronger than the second amendment.

When we learn the way of God, truly learn, and practice it, we recognize the perfect spirituality of man in God’s Creation. The shining light that led the Israelites through the wilderness still shines for us, to lead us from our homemade wilderness of greed and apathy. Let us call out the Spirit of God in a language all can understand and allow the Spirit to strengthen us with God’s blessings.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

“I have a dream. . . that one day. . . !” These are famous words from a famous speech, words that are just as true today. I am a dreamer; I dream of a day when all of God’s children, regardless of color or sexual orientation, can live together in respect and love. I am a dreamer because I envision this daily in my periods of meditation. This is God’s will!

To be a dreamer is not just wishing for the unreachable dream. It is seeing the world that God created as He created it. This is a world of Love, Life, and Truth! We love as God intended, without hatred or prejudice, living an eternal spiritual life. We all are created of God from the Holy Spirit that always dwells within us all.

Being a seeker, I love walking with my back to the wind. The glorious breeze on my back is the Holy Spirit, clearing the air for me to breathe. I ponder some of the great questions of life on my strolls through and around God’s kingdom. I look at the wild flowers grow all over and wonder how they thrive without man pruning and watering. Then I remember that this is an outpouring of God’s Love. Jesus said to look at the tiny mustard seed and see how glorious it grows as a tree. This is the height of God’s Love and Grace.

I look at these two things and wonder why man does not step up and perform the same wonders. We are God’s greatest creation and yet the fruits of God’s Love are forgotten as we toil away in our mundane mortal lives, for getting that no matter where we are on our individual journey, God is there leading the way, comforting us when we fall. I ama seeker meaning that I am in the thrust of finding God in each direction I look for I know that the Holy Spirit is there allowing me to experience the beauty and grace of God’s Creation.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

What a terrible word with a terrible connotation. Sin can have many meanings and many connotations. Even in the Bible, the words used for sin have a half dozen meanings from restlessness to transgression. Personally, I like the word alienation. That is, being alienated from the will of God. Although we are led to believe otherwise, none of these are really punishable by mortals, which is why I like alienation from God. This is a spiritual lapse of faith that God has the best for us.

We are born of the Spirit of God filled with His Life, His Truth, and of course, Love. There is no room in this package called spiritual man for sin. We are perfect creatures created by God. When we believe in sin, we deny the perfection of being created by a perfect God. God made us superior to evil, and if we follow this fact to its obvious conclusion, we attain the Wisdom that God graciously gives us.

God holds our hand as we navigate Life. For this, He has called us righteous, virtuous. Living the spiritual life as created by God, we are eternal, otherwise we are carnally condemned to ultimate death. Jesus walked the earth, healing and raising the dead; this is proof of God’s eternal life for us all. Jesus demonstrated that we are perfect creations of God and therefore incapable of this practice called sin.

As a mortal man, I find this very difficult to accept, but. . . when I am deep in my meditation time, communing with God and living in His realm as He lives in me, nothing but a life of perfection without sin is a very comfortable and welcome existence. As a mortal man, I know I am capable of this alienation, but as a perfect creation of God, I am truly a spiritual man incapable of sin.

©Russell Kendall Carter             

Many men and women who were persecuted by the ever-increasing Christian movement in the second and third centuries moved to the desert to study, pray, and live the Christian life of prayer as Jesus taught, not as Rome was demanding. In their time, the new church excluded them and, in many cases, condemned them for not following what was demanded. They left to have freedom in their beliefs and practices.

Jesus introduced a power mankind had never experienced, a power that transcended all knowledge and understanding, but it was also a power that was overflowing with Love, Truth, and Grace, concepts the new church wanted to control. These orphans of the church, and to some extend those of us seemingly abandoned by the church, could not accept the nature and quality of God that the new church professed. The strictures demanded came from the depths of mortal, not spiritual, belief.

It is no different today! Many long-established churches are too concerned with holding onto ancient creeds and confessions that mean little to modern, particularly young, people today. The leaders are more concerned with over-valued church buildings than they are with the concerns and welfare of the people. Is not this what Jesus live for, a move away from religion more concerned with power than Truth?

Jesus asks us to go into a private room to pray and meditate, away from the strictures of the stale religions. We have a one-on-one relationship with God. We receive the Christ from our individual devotion to God, to Life, Truth, and Love that only God possesses.

I condemn not the churches! They do much good for their communities, but they can do so much more. I can count on one hand the number of times I have felt God within me while attending church. But when I am out of all types of buildings, including my home, I encounter God wherever I am. God is not found confined to buildings. To me, when I leave my abode and experience God’s creation, I am in my proverbial desert, constantly praying for I am surrounded by God’s Truth, Love, and Life.

©Russell Kendall Carter