Meditating to Heal

Before I continue, allow me to say one definitive thing: God’s greatest miracle is man, continually sustained by God, bringing us the ultimate divine principle, Man is of God.

Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha all proved the power of this relationship in what we all call miracles. God gives us miracles through Life, which is through people and their everyday deeds by helping each other. God meets us daily through the Life and Love so graciously given. To me this is an outstanding miracle, considering that most humans avoid recognizing Gods in their lives.

Everything good is made by God; everything that is valueless, is not made by God. Miraculously, Man is Good. When I doubt this, I go to my time of meditation, bringing God’s Love into my heart and move beyond the inertia of mortal unreality, praying for God’s aid in changing my direction. God assures me that all is well.

In Deuteronomy, the scribe writes, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord (6:4).” And Jesus added that we love our neighbor as ourselves. In one way or another, we all pray, but the kind of prayer we all must pray is one for humanity to grow in Grace, being patient with others, doing good deeds, being meek, not overbearing, and demonstrate brotherly love, God’s Love.

Mankind has created a pathway devoid of love; most of us walk in unreal darkness through our lives; but God offers a different pathway, one illumined by Divine Love, Divine Life. God works only through this Divine Love and Life by using us humans to communicate love and healing through His Word. God never meets us outside of this Divine Love and Life.

My goal in life is to recognize that all of humanity is of one body, the Body of God’s Eternal Life and Love. Man’s greatest and most deadly disease is turning away from this principle. I pray that when I face God, I can say that I am not guilty of this sin, and, I can honestly say that I am and have been one of God’s miracles.

©Russell Kendall Carter

“people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isa 9:2).

I walk in the darkness that surrounds me as a mere mortal man. Yet I fear absolutely nothing, not even death. My only concern with deaths leaving Linda alone after our fifty-five years together, but I know she will be taken care of by our daughter, Megan.

I know that as I walk on the path laid for me by Jesus and God, I have nothing to worry about. Although I am in darkness, God lights a path, so I do not stumble. I am never deprived of the spiritual Life, Love, and intelligence needed to survive my mortal darkness. Isaiah 9:2 says it all; we are never taken from the lighted Wisdom.

Where is this Wisdom to be found? How can I, as a mere mortal, lift myself high enough to find this eternal Wisdom? The answers are simple. We don’t! God gives these to us freely; they are gifts of the Divine Love we are born to. It is our greedy, opportunistic, money-hungry society that dulls our senses to reality.

A short poem from my first day of Lent this year; it’s called Running, Running:

I know not where!

I know not why!

I am always running,

running from myself.

Knowing not that escape is naught

I fear Truth, for I am mortal;

I fear my mortal death for

I am running, running!

Not to, but from. . .

I fear opening the eyes of my soul,

for my training has been singular;

I am taught to succeed,

to attain wealth, not Truth!

Dear God, let me open my eyes

to the reality of Your Truth;

Your Life is real;

I need not fear;

no need not run. . .

when I walk to God.

This is the conundrum we face; it is the mortal, societal teaching that we must forget, for in reality, we have all we need by just opening our eyes to God’s Truth, as taught by Jesus.

©Russell Kendall Carter

Death does not shock us; it is a normal function of life. Life shocks us; the degradation, the oppression, the false promises. Death is lifeless; but we do not die in God’s world, where Love, Spirit, Truth, and particularly promise is all around us. This is the Spirit-filled life that the lessons of Jesus promise. God’s life is deathless, attainable through absolute faith and trust in The Word.

To be part of God’s Truth, our Spiritually minded existence is true eternal Life. As God created True Life, it became the original Man, eternal without end. Do not be confused about the end of mortal life; mortal life is not a part of His Holy plan. Death has no place in God’s True Life, and we attain this by walking in the Truth that Jesus taught. The lighted path of Jesus is with us always, before and after mortal life and death pass.

We see the mortal Jesus hanging from a cross, His flesh dying, as ours must; but He rose again, as we will also do, into God’s Truth and Life. Eternal Life is spiritual life. When we envelope ourselves in a moment of True Divine Consciousness, surrounded by God’s Love, we experience the presence of eternal Life and Love in God’s warm embrace.

©Russell Kendall Carter

“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5).

The Psalms are filled with knowledge and encouragement. Verse 5, above, gives me enough strength to fight through troubles and live a useful life. I know I am well protected. I thirst for God’s presence in my life; I thirst for the living God. “In God have I put my trust . . . that I may walk before God in the light of the living (Ps 56).

All throughout the Bible, both New Testament and Old, there are a multitude of accounts of man, led by God, overcoming and triumphing over our materialistic, short-sighted world. In all instances, it is the Spirit of God that prevails. Our leaders remind us that the darkness we walk in, that is – normal life, is reality; but I say it is only reality of we forget that God is the true light of Life.

Where many people look at society and see the promise of goodness, I see the darkness of man’s greed; I see the presence of jealousy, disease, and oppression. These are not in God’s world; these phantoms of society are missing Truth, Love, and, let’s face it, eternal Life: what’s the old saying? “You can’t take it with you.” When my mortal body dies and I enter God’s pure realm, I need not prepare with false promises for the death of the body is natural.

I believe that God is Good.! (That’s period, exclamation point!) His Grace and Mercy cover us as a warm blanket on a winter’s night. Arise, shine, for God’s Glory is upon us (Isaiah). We call the works of God miracles; and they are miracles in our daily lives as humans; but for God, they are merely the natural gifts a parent gives a child who is loved. And we are loved!

As Jesus lifted people from mortal death, so we are lifted into the spiritual realm of God when our bodies are no longer necessary. We are blessed as God’s children of Love and Truth. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (Isa 9:2).” Life is, like Christ, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”

© Russell Kendall Carter

Until we strip off our self-made disguises, we cannot recognize the true greatness of God. Man must look beyond any false promises of society to see the true reality of life, God’s Life, the Life that is eternal. We need to walk on the lighted path shown us, and we must act as true children of God and gaze upon the realm of God of which we are truly a part.

Jesus promises, “. . . 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.” I believe this: do you? We can when we accept that God is the home of Truth, Life, and Love. God is not the provider of sin, sickness, and death. His realm is eternity, where all of these do not and cannot exist. God’s realm is perfect; there can be no downsides.

We live in this world of God only. What we call our soul is a permanent part of God and is, therefore, perfect without sin, disease, or death. Jesus proved this! I pray to strip off the disguise I wear; I am not anxious to leave this world, but I do understand that I can live in this world and remain a part of Gods perfect world. Every step I take to the Goodness God provides means that I am becoming more His child than a child of the world. Stepping away from material things brings me closer the God’s True Spirit.

And yet! I am only a mere mortal, subject to all the frailties that are part of this luggage I carry. But with the guidance of my forebearers I am able to be a strong part of God’s Spirituality. It is this that keeps me sane and healthy in my opinionated seventy-nine-year-old well-abused body. God has kept me in this world for a purpose; it is not in my realm of responsibilities and knowledge to understand, only to live and do what I can to share His Goodness and spirituality with all. I take seriously Jesus’s request as written in Matthew: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

©Russell Kendall Carter

Isaiah writes in chapter 9: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (2).”      

This is what the Divine Power of God is. We are presently walking in darkness, which surrounds us in most aspects of our lives. The spiritual reality is that God as the Divine Principle of all that is joins, Truth, and Love is our main core of existence. The darkness that surrounds us is man-created and therefore is not perfect. God lovingly lifts us from this darkness. We must recognize this to truly survive.

Evil in our corrupted world vanishes as the morning mist disappears when the Sun rises. Evil vanishes to the promises and realities of God’s Life, Truth, and Love. God gave this power to us as Jesus showed us His what is authority of sin, sickness, and death can be like. Only God’s reality is Divine and eternal.

God calls us to be courageous and confront sin and evil in our lives. To do so, we must be fully present in our lives to defeat the evil surrounding us. We are called to take risks, make sacrifices, and to do all that is necessary to fulfill Jesus’s call to let our lights shine before men, glorifying our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

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