Life and Love

shrine

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

Psalm 23

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

Vanity

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 Infinite Ability of the Spirit  

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

Whosoever Drinketh the Water

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

Theism, a Part of my GPS

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

 

I Judge Not

When speaking of God’s children, we speak of all women and all men who are blessed with the Kingdom of God within them. You and I are two of these children, and we are perfect in God’s eyes. Let us be perfect in each other’s eyes.

But as humans, we judge one another, finding flaws that do not exist in God’s Kingdom. Simply put, we are not abnormal; we are perfectly normal models of God’s Holy Creation. The fact is we are spiritually harmonious with God’s Truth and Life. In God’s Creation, His Spiritual facts are the only Truths; all else is unreal and only confuse our human minds.

My intelligence comes from God’s Eternal Wisdom; you are blessed with this also. In our community of God’s children, we speak to Truth; we cannot replace God’s Truth with human desire for power; we are poor no more with the Spirit of God within us.

We do not and cannot judge one another as children of God’s Holy Creation. Since God is perfect and man is the divine image and likeness of God, true man in reality has only the substance of good in him, not evil. God’s Love gives to all, might, immortality, and goodness, which shines through all trials and hardships. 

©Russell Kendall Carter

God Leads Me

I awaken each morning thanking God for another day, but I sometimes wonder if I am good enough. As with all of us, I am a perfect spiritual creation of God, but as a mortal, I know that I am not a perfect man and pray that what I do pleases Her. Mother Wisdom leads me in a direction that is many times confusing, due to my imperfect mortal mind. The new direction is different and confusing, but God leads me to His perfection allowing me to continue in my personal quest.

I know that God does not work on man’s timetable, causing us to think that he does not listen to us. One of the lessons of Jesus’ parables is to rest and patiently wait for the light of resurrection to prove to us the unprovable. My soul rises in God’s Wisdom and my heart cries out in gratitude and pleasure that my purpose is true.

As a mortal I am subjected to sadness, anger, and pain. I look to God for ways to avoid being beaten down by these human feelings. I meditate on God’s works that I can see, the kindness and love all around, the beauty of nature. But most important, I meditate on those works of God that I cannot see; and my spirit rises with God’s leadership; I am blessed. Join me!

©Russell Kendall Carter

Jesus’ Authority

Jesus teaches that there is no authority but that of God; and God’s Divine Truth, Divine Love, and Divine Life gave Jesus the authority to heal the sick, cure the disabled, and overcome death. Wherever He walked, He proved that the human body is frail and imperfect, but the infinite power of God is what True Life is.

My body will die, but my immortal soul will enjoy everlasting life. My mortal life is filled with discord; I am forever trying to seek comfort from pain and other trials that haunt me. However, deep within me, I know that because my trials are those of the mortal body, I am comforted by the mystery of Christ.

I am sure that due to my constant struggles, as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus did, I would probably fail to recognize Jesus walking beside us. This is due to the eternal mystery of the Divine. I lack, but try to achieve, the Divine insight to view God’s true reality.

I listen for the words of God; I await His presence within allowing me to sparkle; I long to be His servant; and I know that He in turn wants to be part of my life. Therefore, I leave a door open for Him to enter and be with me. Then I hear His words, spoken by the Holy Spirit, the sister of Jesus. I embrace His wondrous authority over all mortal things and feel His lovingkindness. Through Jesus, I am overjoyed and protected by the replete authority of God. My reality is only in God’s presence. This is Jesus’ authority, holy in all its being.

©Russell Kendall Carter

Spiritual God

Divine Principle:

Spirit, Life, Truth, Love,

All in one God.

Wisdom and Being –

Eternal Life,

our true God.

Spiritual, Immortal.

 

My faith in Truth;

my faith in God;

my faith in Spirit,

grows with God’s Wisdom,

more faith in living,

no faith in dying, for

God is eternal.

 

God’s Wisdom and Light,

gifts to me of knowledge and joy;

I look to things which are not seen,

for those I see are not eternal.

I look to

the invisible God of Spirit.

©Russell Kendall Carter