10th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A SEASON OF RETREAT

 10^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(Devotionals may be best understood by reading in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

 A Light For My Path

In the 9^th Day of Lent Devotional, we discussed the fallacy of a teaching Western religions have propagated for thousands of years—only one life to live.  We are, instead, eternal beings of spirit having numerous incarnations in physical bodies for the purpose of evolving spiritually.

Each time our Soul chooses to incarnate into a physical body, it does so with the advice of our spiritual guides and guardian angels.  Every incarnation has purpose; there are no accidental births.  This purpose is carefully planned prior to incarnation.

Keep in mind that all Souls travel in the realms of spirit while we sleep.  In this manner, Souls incarnated on Earth can communicate with Souls still in spirit realms.  Most will not remember these night travels upon awakening.  However, many will wake up with a particular thought in mind.  We often use the term I’ll sleep on it … little suspecting that we unconsciously plan to seek guidance during our sleep.  I’m sure many are aware of waking up and knowing how to solve a problem on which we have been working.

Back to planning an incarnation….  Each incarnation on the plane of duality offers us the opportunity to balance the karma[i] we have accumulated.  There is an energy field called by several names:  the Collective Unconscious, the Akashic Records, or the biblical Book of Life or Book of Remembrance.  (Malachi 3:16)  All emotions, thoughts, and actions are energy … energy never disappears … instead, it is stored in this aggregate field of energy called by metaphysicians the Akashic Records.  The goal in balancing the karma we have accumulated is to transmute 51% of the negative karma (energy) into positive energy.

We balance 51% of our negative karma in several ways:  allowing our self to reap the negative seeds we have sown in prior lifetimes; providing loving, selfless service to others, and by using the Purple Transmuting Flame (God’s gift of grace)[ii] to transmute our negative energy field (karma) into the positive energy of love, compassion, and/or peace-making activities.  Heretofore, once we have balanced 51% of our negative karma, we have been allowed to step off the wheel of karma and no longer have any need to reincarnate on the plane of duality.

2013 marks the beginning of the New Golden Age in which those who so choose will ascend to higher levels of consciousness.  We are finishing up the old in preparation for the new.  It is a time of completing our Soul Contract for the present incarnation.  Although some are and will choose to end this incarnation by physical death, many more are choosing the privilege of ascending with Mother Earth to higher dimensions of consciousness, taking our physical bodies with us.  Either way, completing our Soul Contract is important.

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Every Soul will eventually ascend into the higher realms.  Some may choose to take their time and live a while longer on the plane of duality.  In that case, they will be allowed to do so.

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The Soul Contract includes the lessons we need to learn in order to grow holistically into an ascended being.  It includes the planning of the major events to take place in our future incarnation and the choice of the significant people to be involved.  While planning the Soul Contract, our Soul and its guides read our individual file within the Akashic Records of all prior lifetimes.  We carefully study our Soul’s progress to determine the most important events and lessons to be contained in the Soul Contract.

Once the Soul Contract is formulated, it is registered in the energy field of the Cosmos.  The location of the stars and planets at the time of our birth matches the Soul Contract.  Our parents intuitively choose the name that will grant us the number vibration on which we have chosen to function.  The Contract is imprinted on the palms of our hands and can be read by one proficient in doing so.   The Cosmos knows who we are and why we are incarnating.  Once here, our handwriting style will also reveal facets of our Contract.

Our Soul Contract is the Divine Plan for incarnation.  Many individuals and divine beings have assisted in the creation of our Soul Contract.  That we succeed in fulfilling this Contract is the goal and we have much help throughout our lives in doing so.

On this 10^th Day of Lent, may we “fast” from thinking our lives have no purpose … that we are here simply because our parents engaged in intercourse and a sperm fertilized an egg.

 May we “feast” upon the fact that we are dearly beloved children of Father/Mother God, evolving on planet Earth … that much Divine planning went into our incarnation on this planet.

 May we “feast” upon this verse of scripture:  “Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.  In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”  (Psalm 139:16)

 May we “feast” upon the fact that our physical birth was attended by Divine Beings, blessing us as we left behind the celestial realms with its many memories … entered the narrow birth canal to the plane of duality … and emerged on this planet to be greeted by our chosen parents.

  [iii]

Angels of the World Mother oversee the birth of a child … as the time for birth draws near, angels are ever-present with mother and child.

 

Ascended Lady Master Kwan Yin explains:

 “I am called the Mother of Mercy; there is no one who can be more gentle than I.  Like Mother Mary, I too have stood in the rooms where bodies first came forth from the wombs of your mothers.  I too touched the top of your heads.  I too blessed you; not only in this embodiment, but all the embodiments since I have been secluded from the peoples of Earth by the maya [negativity] of human creation; praying with all the mercy and compassion of My heart that each one of you might fulfill your Divine Plan.  I have loved you regardless of mistakes, not only in this life, but in those that have gone before.” [iv]

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Regardless of physical plane circumstances, we were born enfolded by divine love!

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[i]   Karma = the seeds we have sown, but not yet reaped in accordance with the Universal Law “We Reap What We Sow.”

[ii]   https://pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/the-purple-transmuting-flame-a-means-of-grace-for-the-21st-century/

https://pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/the-purple-transmuting-flame/

[iii]   Painting drawn from Geoffrey Hodson’s book, Kingdom of the Gods.

[iv]   A.D.K. Luk, The Law & Teachings of Divine Beings, Book III.

9th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

9^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(Devotionals may be best understood by reading in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light for my Path

In the 8^th Day of Lent devotional, we learned that the unpardonable sin (missing the mark) is persisting in the belief that Mother/Father God can and does create something of disharmony or dis-ease.

 The unpardonable sin does not mean God will NOT forgive us … it is unpardonable because as long as we believe God inflicted a dis-ease on us or God caused the earthquake that killed our family member, we close the door to the true gift of God:  unconditional, everlasting parental love that is “Incapable” of causing us a mini-second of distress.  Blaming God for the disharmony in our lives is missing the mark in our search for truth.   WE are the only ones who can open our minds to truth … until we do so, we continue to miss the mark, to commit the unpardonable sin by placing the responsibility for disharmony on God.

Why is humanity so prone to committing the unpardonable sin … to blaming God for the pain in our lives … to believing God is punishing us?

The answer takes us back to the predominant Western religions’ teaching that we have only one life to live.  This teaching fails to recognize humanity as eternal spirit beings.  With only one life to live, we are forced to reason that this one life begins at the time of conception in our physical mother’s womb and ends when we leave our own physical body.  This means that eternity “begins” at death and proceeds into an unending future of “walking the streets of gold” with no real purpose or being punished in the fires of hell.[i]

First of all, the definition of eternity is having no beginning and no end.  Second, how barren of purpose is having only one life to live?  No wonder people ask:  “What is the meaning of life?  We are born … live a few decades, then die … never to live again.  No wonder people blame God for everything that happens!  With this belief, we have very little input and can only explain to ourselves, “This is life.”   No wonder the mental hospitals are full.  No wonder people commit suicide or kill each other.  Only one life to live has no lasting purpose.   We simply come … stay for a few years … and leave.

Why have we so readily accepted this nonsensical teaching?  It totally removes any sense of enduring personal power and meaning … any sense of individual sovereignty … any sense of having an integral role in the Cosmic Divine Plan.  Many question whether or not God has a Divine Plan.

We say, “But I don’t remember living before.”  Others refuse to accept more than one life to live because they do not want to live again.  The extremely tragic outcome of not accepting the Truth of eternal life during which we incarnate into a wide variety of circumstances is that humanity is left with no way to explain life or ourselves and we unknowingly persist in committing the unpardonable sin.  We blame God for our pain because we can fathom no other reason. 

Sadly, many read the Bible … do not see the word reincarnation in the entire book … and decide:  we have only one life to live because the Bible tells us no differently.  This is the trouble with reading the Bible on a surface level …  or, on the literal level of the English words … and not digging beneath the surface for Truth.[ii]

Knowing the Truth that we are eternal beings of spirit will allow us to view God in a very different light and to gain a framework in which to begin understanding ourselves as integral parts of the Whole of Creation.  It will afford us the understanding we need to never again commit the unpardonable sin.

On this 9^th Day of Lent, may we “fast” from accepting the lie that we have only one life to live. 

 May we “feast” on observing our self and determine how often we use “only one life to live” as an explanation.  Note how often we hear this phrase in TV shows, in advertisements, and in social/religious venues. 

 May we “feast” on becoming alert to how we are affected subliminally by this message—repetition of any lie results in humanity finally believing it … unless we are alert to what is happening.  May we “feast” on waking up!

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[i]   You might like to read this article:  “Hell As A Place For Some To Spend Eternity Is Not Biblical.”

https://pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/hell-as-a-place-for-some-to-spend-eternity-is-not-biblical/

[ii]   For those of you interested, I suggest reading “Reincarnation in the Bible, Part 1” at:  https://pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/reincarnation-in-the-bible-part-1/

 And, “Reincarnation in the Bible, Part 2” at:  https://pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/reincarnation-in-the-bible-part-2/

8th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

8^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(Devotionals may be best understood by reading in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light for my Path

In the 7^th Day of Lent devotional, we learn that instead of being fallen sinners, we are child gods who used our God-given gift of freewill choice to experiment with life on the plane of duality—experiencing both good—walking with God and evil—pretending to be separated from God.

We learned that Charles Fillmore’s metaphysical interpretation of the Hebrew word for “sin” = missing the mark.  “Sin is a departure from the law of our being.” [i]

Creator God created humanity to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” [ii]  Metaphysically, the creatures of land and sea signify the various states of mind within human consciousness.  “Any failure on our part to exercise this dominion [or authority] is falling short, or a ‘sin.’”  In other words, when we fail to deal beneficially with feelings of resentment, despair, disappointment, confinement … any negative emotion, we neglect to exercise dominion over our emotions.

The distinction between “feeling” negative emotions and maintaining “dominion” over them is important.  It is natural for human beings living on the plane of duality to experience times of depression, disappointment, etc. over persons or events in our lives.  We fall short or miss the mark when we neglect to exercise our “God-given authority” over our emotions (creatures of the sea), thoughts (creatures of the air), and personal habits (creatures of the land).  To repress, and leave unattended, any negative emotion, thought, or habit is to sow seeds of dis-ease for our self that we will reap at some point in time.  Energy never disappears; it seeks expression in one form or another.

When we exercise authority over our pet dog, for example, we closely observe the dog to make sure he is properly cared for … is not hurt … is loved.  We notice when the dog needs to go outside or is hungry and we fulfill that need.

The same will be true when exercising dominion over our self.  Do we take note when we feel weary … hungry … thirsty … stressed … lonely … or unloved, etc.?  Sadly, humans will many times ignore their own less-than-personally-fulfilling lifestyles.  We pride ourselves in not “being a wimp” … tell ourselves “big boys don’t cry” … demand of ourselves to “suck it up and go on”—all as if being tough on ourselves is the healthy way of life.  Often, we do not love self enough to see that our needs are met.  In fact, we are taught that to do so is to be self-centered, selfish.  Yet, to fail to exercise dominion over our self may result in dis-ease of the body … accidents … even the residual effects of not exercising dominion over self in a prior lifetime, such as incarnating with a predisposition for a particular dis-ease or malformation of a physical body part.

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We can NEVER know why another individual incarnates with a handicap, so it is best not to speculate.  There are a multitude of positive and self-sacrificing reasons for choosing a handicap.  Bottom-line:  the reason is NEVER God’s punishment.  For whatever reason, the Soul has chosen to do so as a means of service to others; to teach self a lesson, such as patience; or in order to reap what was sown in a prior lifetime.  The Soul Contract is created in an atmosphere of unconditional love and with the assistance of our spirit guides.  As we learned in Day 7 of Lent, Universal Law states that for every action there will be a re-action.  This re-action will come at the perfect time, which may be lifetimes later when our Soul has evolved spiritually enough to successfully deal with it.  We are NEVER given more than we can successfully handle in any one incarnation.

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 What is the “unpardonable sin?”  According to Charles Fillmore, it is the belief that Mother/Father God is the creator of disease or inharmony of any nature. 

Wow!  We’ve been taught to believe in a God that places curses on humanity … that lacks the capacity to forgive us unless Jesus allows himself to be crucified for our sins—in other words, we been taught that God requires a blood sacrifice, thus implying that God is a violent God.

This belief that God is the creator of dis-ease or inharmony is called the unpardonable or eternal sin because it is abiding.  For as long as humanity abides in the belief that God causes us to suffer, we close our mind against the inflow of God’s gifts of health, peace, and harmony.   WE close the door to pardon, not God.

 Humanity’s sins are forgiven when we cease to sin [i.e. believe God causes us to suffer] and open our mind to the fact that we are heir only to the good. [iii]

On this 8^th day of Lent, may we “fast” from blaming God for our suffering … from believing that our loving Mother/Father God could create lack of harmony in any form.

 May we “feast” upon the fact that God created us and gave us dominion over all of our emotions, thoughts, and lifestyle habits.   He created Universal Laws that are neutral until we give them positive or negative influence in our lives by the choices we make.

 May we “feast” upon the fact that Mother/Father God indwells us … always loving us unconditionally … while we experiment with living on the plane of duality … and patiently waits until we are ready to return to the Gates of Eden—until we return home.  And then ……. There is a feast of celebration!

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[i]   Unity’s Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, page 620.

[ii]   Genesis 1:26.

 [iii]   Unity’s Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, page 620.

7th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

7^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals may be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light for my Path

As we read through the Old Testament, two things become clear:  Earth humans have made mistakes during our many incarnations on the plane of duality – and – there has never been a time when Celestial Beings and our galactic family were not watching over and attempting to guide us.  We have experienced lifetimes in which we were very receptive to Divine Guidance and lifetimes in which we choose to walk alone.

A part of our learning process on the plane of duality is that we experience the polar opposites:  good – walking with God, and evil – walking in feigned separation from God.  The goals are twofold:  that we learn from our mistakes and that we truly comprehend the Laws that rule this Universe.

Religions have taught us that we are sinners and speak that word with such severe condemnation that many become emotionally and intellectually immobile with fear of the punishment that surely must come.  According to the particular religion, there are prescribed formulas of behavior for seeking forgiveness of sins.  Either way, we end up thinking less of our self … we accept the condemnation and seldom question it.

The metaphysical meaning of the Hebrew word for “sin” is “missing the mark, falling short of the divine law.[i]   In other words, we made a mistake.  Making a mistake is normal during the learning process.  In school, we may make a mistake on an exam and thus, make a lower grade than we had hoped; but, the teacher does not hold a grudge against us or condemn us to punishment.  We disappointed our self by making the mistake and we—on our own volition—may determine to make fewer mistakes on the next exam.  The pace of our scholastic growth is in our hands alone.   Teachers and parents may offer guidance, but we alone make the decision to improve … to learn from our mistakes.  No one can force us to learn.

The metaphysical definition of sin goes on to define divine law – “The divine law is the law of God, the law of Being; it is the underlying principle of every [one’s] being and of the universe.  Sin is a departure from the law of our being.” [ii]

Divine or Universal Law tells us how God’s Creation works.  When we behave in ways that are contrary to these Universal Laws, we have sinned, missed the mark, made a mistake.

Let’s go back to our school house example.  Universal Law states that for every action there will be a reaction.   So when we use our God-given gift of freewill[iii] to choose not to study for an exam, we set in motion a matching reaction—making a low grade on the exam.   The goal of experiencing the unfolding of this Universal Law is that we learn how the Universal Law operates.  There is no Divine judgment or condemnation to punishment.  Mother/Father God simply allows us to experience the results of our choice.

Another Universal Law is “we reap what we sow.”  When we plant a pansy seed, we expect to enjoy a lovely pansy.  It would never occur to us to consider planting a pansy seed and expect a rose bush.  Yet, we may speak harshly to another individual, then feel shock when someone speaks harshly to us.  We forget that we planted a “speak-to-me-harshly seed.”

We find Jesus quoting this Universal Law in Matthew 26:52 while he is being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus speaks to one of those with him:  “Put your sword back in its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

 Even though it may be several lifetimes later, all freewill choices of a negative or hurtful nature that we make in this lifetime invokes the Universal Law:  we reap what we sow.  It is never God punishing us … it is always the Universal Law returning the harvest that our actions dictated.  God has no need to forgive us … instead, Mother/Father God continues to love us unconditionally while we learn how Divine/Universal Law works.

On this 7^th day of Lent, may we “fast” from thinking of ourselves as sinners needing God’s forgiveness. 

 May we “feast” on ourselves as students of the Universal/Divine Law.  Sure, we make mistakes, but that is okay.  The goal is to learn from those mistakes so that we grow in our understanding of how Universal Laws unfold in our lives and in all of Creation.  The Law itself is neutral; we determine by our freewill choices how it will manifest in our lives. 

 May we “feast” on the fact that Mother/Father God is never punishing us.  Instead, our Mother/Father God stands by loving us unconditionally while we learn to walk as the child gods that we are!

 May we “feast” upon the knowledge that those of us learning on the plane of duality chose the more difficult and rapid way to advance on our pathway to becoming adult gods and goddesses.  Our spirit brothers and sisters who never incarnated on the plane of duality behold us in amazement.  We have developed a Soul stamina they admire and for which they honor us!

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[i]   Unity’s Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, page 620.

[ii]   Ibid.

[iii]   I stress our “God-given gift of freewill” because when God granted us the right to choose, He also gave us permission to make whatever choice we so desired.  There is no need for God to forgive us for making a poor choice.  The goal is to learn from that choice.

6th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

6^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals may be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light for my Path

Earth humans made a freewill choice to leave the higher realms of what we have symbolically called the Garden of Eden.  We did this for a purpose.

All of creation evolves into ever higher states of being.  Humankind—born as child gods—is gradually developing the qualities and talents that will allow us to become gods and goddesses … to become co-creators with the Source of all that is.  That all Souls eventually evolve into adult gods and goddesses is Universal/Cosmic Divine Law.

The biblical myth of Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil explains how some Souls recognized that they could evolve more quickly by encountering the challenges of living on a plane of duality.  It is easy—when living in a dimension of love and light—to be content with life as it is.  There are no spurs to urge us on … we can remain infant gods indefinitely.

For those Souls who possess the curiosity and feel the urge, speeding up the evolutionary process is attractive.

A serpent, or snake, is a symbol of the kundalini (or serpent) energy coiled in our root chakra at the base of the spine.  This serpent energy remains dormant until we intend to consciously engage in exercises that stimulate spiritual awakening.  As the kundalini rises from our root chakra upward through our other chakras, the urge to far greater wisdom is stirred.

Thus, Eve’s communication with the serpent takes on meaning far different than our religions have taught.

“Now the serpent was more subtle [we are often not aware of the kundalini beginning its journey upward] than all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made.  And the serpent said to the woman, ‘Truly had God said you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’  And the woman said to the serpent.  ‘We may eat of the fruit of all the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  [The kundalini can be extremely dangerous energy if we strive to have it rise prematurely and without first purifying our energy field.  It is best to allow it to rise of its own accord when the time is right.  A 2^nd meaning of lest you die is the fact that while we sojourn on the plane of duality, we tend to go to sleep to the higher planes … we forget much that we actually know … in other words, we die.]

And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die; for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods, knowing good and evil.  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was delightful to look at, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and she also gave to her husband with her; and he did eat.  Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.”  (Genesis 3:1-7a)

Adam and Eve—signifying the multitude of Souls who requested to experiment with life on a plane of duality—have been granted permission to do so.  The ensuing biblical description of life on the plane of duality was not Mother/Father God placing a curse upon Earth humans, but an explanation of the challenges we would all face.  Our Mother/Father God allowed us to make our freewill choice and provided a plane of duality on which we could evolve through encountering and overcoming challenges that would often create pain in our lives.

“And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife coats of skin, and clothed them.”  [God provided the physical bodies we have needed to live on the plane of duality.]  “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So the Lord God drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the path to the tree of life.”  (Genesis 3:21-24)

Earth humans’ experiment with living on the plane of duality was declared temporary by the symbolic surrounding of the tree of life with a flaming sword.  Mother/Father God had no intention of allowing a plane of duality to exist forever.

Our experiment living on the plane of duality ended in December 2012.  We are now finishing up the residual loose ends of duality and preparing to use our co-creator skills to create a New Earth.

On this 6^th day of Lent, may we “fast” from viewing ourselves as fallen sinners provoking the punishment of God.

 May we “feast” on the realization that our Souls chose to experiment living and evolving spiritually on the plane of duality … that we are not on Earth as a result of succumbing to temptation, but by choice in order to evolve more rapidly in developing our innate co-creator skills.

5th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

5^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals can be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light For My Path

On Day 3, I stated that the Bible is the story of our Soul’s journey on the plane of duality … a journey that is nearing its end at the Gates of the Garden of Eden.

Our eternal Souls have traveled for thousands of lifetimes.  We have lived in many nations on this planet … we have incarnated within the various races … lived many lifetimes as a male … lived many lifetimes as a female.  Our Souls have experienced being poor and being rich … succeeding in the eyes of Earth humans and failing in the eyes of Earth humans.  There are few, if any, life situations in which our Soul has not sought to live and learn.

Mother/Father God had granted us the gift of freewill choice and the opportunity to grow spiritually by experiencing the challenges of the plane of duality.  Our Souls have take advantage of this opportunity by incarnating in as many different life situations as possible.

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 Looking back at Genesis 1:27, we may be startled at what we learn.  “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  Mother/Father God first created us in his image—we were androgynous spirit beings—child gods. 

 During the initial stage of our Soul’s sojourn in the Garden of Eden, we were androgynous beings of spirit—we displayed a balance of masculine qualities and feminine qualities.  As spirit beings, we were feminine: loving and nurturing –   and – masculine: assertive and ambitious.

As our Souls continued to involute into a denser vibration, we have the symbolic story of the 2^nd creation in Genesis 2.  In order to live in a denser environment, we mutated from a spirit being to a more physical being.  Genesis 2 relates this involution as “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”   Living in a denser environment and physical body changed things … Adam (signifying our Soul) lost his androgynous nature.

Notice that in Genesis 2:18-22, our Mother Father God decided “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”  God proceeded to create the animals, birds, and other creatures of the Earth.  “But for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.  So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”  This is the symbolic story of humankind’s involution into the separation of sexes into male and female physical bodies.

 The separation of sexes had a huge impact on our Soul’s journey back to the Gates of Eden.  As is evident in the biblical stories and in the historical account of Earth humans, males and females crippled themselves by adopting very different personality characteristics. Males assumed the aggressive, domineering role in most cultures on the planet; women accepted a much more passive role.  Male and female became unequal in our own eyes.

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 Two thousand years ago, Jesus incarnated with the Soul Mission of preparing Earth humans for a return to the Garden of Eden.  Much balancing needed to take place regarding the separation of sexes.  Jesus set an example regarding the equality of male and female by his treatment of women.  He also set an example of an androgynous human being by demonstrating the highly intuitive, compassionate feminine qualities and the masculine assertive, ambitious creativity.

The pathway back to androgyne has been a long, circuitous one.  It has also been one that highlighted the various stages of the journey.

On the Soul level, our Souls have simply loved each other.  No problem.

On the physical level, two Souls that love each other may choose to incarnate in the same sex body.  Or a Soul that has incarnated into the physical as a male for numerous times will need to incarnate as a female in order to achieve a balance of the male/female qualities … the same is true for Souls that have incarnated numerous times as a female.  As a result, to love the same sex can be very natural.  Love stems from the Soul level.

Because most Earth humans have been taught “you have only one life to live,” we have filled this “one” life with a tremendous assortment of dos and don’ts.

Acceptance of our Soul’s eternal journey allows us to recognize the various stages of growth that we all experience.  Each one of us is living through the evolutionary process that is required for our Soul to return home—to the Garden of Eden. 

During this 2013 Lenten Season, may we “fast” from negative feelings, judgments, and discrimination of gays, straights, bi-sexuals, and transgenders.

 May we “feast” upon knowing and understanding that each one of us is walking the path—with all of its various stages—back to our own androgynous being.  May we “feast” upon enhancing those qualities that allow us to re-gain androgyne.[i]

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[i]   The fear and fascination with which our planetary society often approaches anyone different from “us” can be caused by subconscious Soul memories of incarnations when we were walking that identical stage of our own  journey back to the symbolic Garden of Eden.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” … and during our own evolutionary journey.  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

4th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

4^th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals can be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

 

A Light for my Path

Living on the plane of duality (3^rd dimension) has not been easy.  We forgot so much that we took for granted while living in the Garden of Eden (5^th dimension).

A most important fact that we seem to have almost totally forgotten is that we are eternal beings of spirit.  We may change residential locations from one dimension to another, but our Soul is eternal.

Living on the plane of duality, with our dense physical bodies made of dust, it appears to us that when an individual Soul returns to the world of spirit, he/she dies.  We grieve because we think we will never see that individual again.  We have forgotten about life on other dimensions and feel that we cannot be sure there is life after the Soul departs the plane of duality.  We hope … but, we also reason that we cannot be absolutely sure.  The phrase “one life to live” has permeated our society … some religions teach “only one life to live.”  This unknown factor … this facet of life that we have forgotten … creates fear of death.  We have forgotten we are eternal spirit beings.

Believing that we have only one life to live leaves us with no way to explain so much about ourselves … about God.  We approach life with an “I have this one opportunity to get it right” attitude that can lead to feelings of defeatism, pessimism … or … a me-first type of compulsive behavior.  If we were born into less than optimal circumstances, we may wonder, “What did I do to deserve this?”  We wonder why God allowed this or that to happen … God becomes the only avenue onto which we can place ultimate blame … Why is God punishing me? … What did I do?  In short, our concept of life can take on characteristics that create concerns for survival, true personal fulfillment, and a longing to be loved unconditionally.

We can easily begin to believe “[I] am dust, and to dust [I] shall return.”  (Genesis 3:19)

The thought of living many lives puzzles some.  We say, “But, I don’t recall living before.”  And we truly may not remember because the personality we think of as “me” has not experienced a prior lifetime.  The personality named James … or Judy … or Max has not lived before.

What we have forgotten is that our Soul is who we truly are … our Soul is simply living a lifetime in the physical vehicle we call James … or Judy … or Max.

Our Soul is eternal and knows no death … it is the part of us that is spirit, created in the image of Mother/Father God.  (Genesis 1)

 Our personality/physical body is temporary … it is the part of us that is dust and has heretofore returned to dust upon death.  (Genesis 3)

On this 4^th day of Lent, may we fast from thinking of ourselves as having only one life to live.

 May we feast on the truth that we are our Souls and eternal spirit beings—child gods—who may take on a variety of personalities/physical bodies during eternity.

3rd DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

3rd DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals can be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light for my Path

 In my ASH WEDNESDAY devotional, I asked why we have considered ourselves to be dust.  It is important to pursue this question a little farther.

In Genesis 1:26, we see Mother/Father God creating humankind in our image.  We were initially created as spirit beings, as God is Spirit.

In Genesis 2:7, we find a 2^nd creation story:  “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”   Now, we are physical beings, breathing the breath of God while living in the Garden of Eden.

 In Genesis 2:16, we read God’s instructions:  “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”  God granted us freewill choice.

In Genesis 3, the symbolic story of our freewill choice to experience living on the plane of duality where we will acquire knowledge of good and evil … of Light and darkness … of positive and negative energies.  This choice required that we leave our home in paradise—the Garden of Eden—because there is no duality in the higher dimensions of reality.  Once we left the Garden, God explains:  “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  (Genesis 3:19)

Mother/Father God granted us the gift of freewill choice … we used that freewill choice to request permission to experience living on the plane of duality.  God honors that freewill choice and allows Earth humans to leave their home in paradise.  In order to do so, we involuted into denser physical beings that were suited to living on the plane of duality.  We became dust and subject to death.  Our physical bodies return to dust once the soul has vacated.  Still, we have been spirit beings having the physical experience.

 The good news is that this is not the end of the story.  The Bible is the story of humankind’s evolutionary soul journey back to Garden of Eden … back to the New Earth.

 Mother/Father God was not punishing humankind by honoring our freewill choice to experiment with life on the plane of duality.  It has been an experiment that we all agreed to; it was never intended to last forever.  We asked permission to evolve spiritually by experiencing the challenges of evil (life in which we believe ourselves to be separate from God) and learning to always choose the good (to recognize God as indwelling us and to be an outer expression of that indwelling God).  Our soul’s goal was to speed up our spiritual evolution.

We never intended to lose our way back to the Garden.  We did not intend to forget that Mother/Father God dwells within each of us.   Yet, somehow we did.

 During the Lenten Season of 2013, we have the opportunity to fast from thoughts and feelings of separation from God – and – to feast upon the knowledge that the kingdom of God is within us … that our I AM PRESENCE continues to be the breath we breathe, our life force.

 

 

2nd DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A DAY OF RETREAT

2nd DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals can be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

A Light for my Path

My use of the word fasting seems to cause confusion among some.  True, our society tends to think of fasting as doing without food in order to achieve some predetermined goal, like cleansing the physical body or enhancing a political movement.

During the Season of Lent, most think in terms of giving up something for a temporary period of time, like giving up or fasting from candy, colas, or smoking.

I would like to suggest that as we fast for the New Golden Age, we raise the fasting level above the physical.  Georgiana Tree West, in her Foreword to Charles Fillmore’s book, Keep A True Lent, explains this higher level of fasting.

“When we withdraw our attention, interest, and support from the false and the unworthy, this is true fasting.  When we give that same attention, interest, and support to the enduring good, we are feasting on the things of the Spirit, and this is true prayer.  When we have truly fasted in the Christ way we have increased our ability to respond to God’s good will.”

True fasting, and feasting, entails transforming ourselves … growing in the Christed Consciousness. 

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For this 2^nd day of Lent, I offer an excellent, beautiful explanation and meditation by Patricia Cota-Robles entitled “Raising Consciousness.”

EXPLANATION:  I AM or the I AM PRESENCE is the name of our Mother/Father God as told to Moses in Exodus 3:13-15.  Because the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21), the I AM PRESENCE = God within us.  Patricia Cota-Robles refers to the I AM PRESENCE in her meditation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtdFwmoGPtk

 

1st DAY OF LENT – A 40 DAYS FAST/FEAST FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

A TIME OF RETREAT

1st DAY OF LENT – A 40 DAYS FAST/FEAST FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

(These devotionals can be best understood by reading them in order)

Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.

 

A Light for my Path

ASH WEDNESDAY

For centuries, Christians have celebrated the 40 days of Lent by focusing on Jesus and his ministry.  We have ignored Jesus’ teaching:  “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”  (John 14:12)   Jesus also makes plain in the Gospel of John that it is our Father/Mother God who speaks through him.  Jesus does not speak for himself.

The reason all those who believe in our Father/Mother God, who dwells within each of us, can do the works that Jesus did is because we, like Jesus, can learn to be expressions of the kingdom of God within us in our daily lives.

We are to learn to live our lives as Sons and Daughters of God.  Jesus, our elder brother, reveals the Path to us.

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As we move into the New Golden Age, one of the first things we are to comprehend on a deep level is that we are Sons and Daughters of Father/Mother God. 

Jesus responded to the Jews preparing to stone him: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?'”  (John 10:34)

He is quoting Psalm 82:6 … “I say, ‘You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you.”

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…. So God created humankind in his image.”  (Genesis 1:26-27)  If we were created in Father/Mother God’s image and likeness, then the only thing we can be is child gods!

So why do we think we are dust?  Why do we so readily accept the religious teachings that we are sinners?

As the Psalmist lamented: “I say, ‘You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.”  (Psalm 82:6-7)

The Psalmist explains why we think we are dust in verse 5: “They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk in darkness….”

We have allowed religions to tell us we are nothing but dust, sinners who must repent.  Yes, many of us do walk in darkness … the darkness of not understanding the message of Jesus—“You are gods.”

Ash Wednesday – A Day of Turning Around

Repentance means to turn around … to change the focus of our attention.  May this Ash Wednesday be the beginning of our dedication to understanding exactly who we are.   Who did Jesus teach us we are?

Heretofore, religions have taught us to look outside of ourselves for God.  God has been proclaimed as separate from us.

On this Ash Wednesday, may we turn around and look within ourselves—for there is where we find God.

“Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, Look, here it is! or There it is!  For in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.’”  (Luke 17:20-21)

Jesus makes plain that the kingdom of God is not something outside of ourselves that can be seen or located.  It is within us!

May the Lenten Season of 2013 be a period of 40 days during which we look within for God … get to know the Father/Mother God who lives within us … begin to learn how to live as Jesus lived—as an expression of God within us.