Peter's Rants

Truth from a Dream

2008-07-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning from a deep dream in which the person in the dream had been searching in great darkness and confusion. The place where the person had been searching most recently was in the area of the number 4: the meaning of 4, the tetragrammaton, the name of God, YHWH, etc.

Suddenly this person turned around and began shouting with great excitement, "I see! I see! I see! I see!" I was not even able to return to the "experience" this person had just had a few seconds ago which caused this change, but there was no room for doubt that the experience had been very real and profound: everything about this person changed--their understanding, their awareness, their motivations, their character, their personality--no area was left unchanged.

After I woke up, two things became crystal clear about this. First of all it was extremely clear that seeing is a gift, an absolutely sovereign gift from God. Although this person had been searching with a great deal of angst and desperation, I could tell that there was no connection between the seeing and the seeking, in terms of "earning" the ability to see, or developing any kind of character that would be more ready or likely to see than before. Any and all character change came AFTER the seeing, and as a consequence of it. I interpret this to mean that it is always OK to pray for anyone to be able to see, because this does not involve any superiority of character or status: God is good and generous with His gifts, and it's always OK to ask Him as a good Father to give such powerful and life-changing gifts to His children.

The second thing I learned came as a result of asking: I asked "back into" the dream, What is the core change in this person that has come as a result of the seeing? The answer came in one word: Joy. The core motivation was now joy, replacing whatever had been there before, something darker and less hopeful. This person would now find it much easier to do loving and gracious things willingly, by choice, rather than from a sense of obligation, because they now had Joy in the center of the heart (where it belongs!).

final catch-up quote: Advice from a wise man

2008-06-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

Advice from a wise man: What to do with a powerful visitation

http://priorscolumn.blogspot.com/

Brother Bede Thomas Mudge, OSC

"…as we sat there waiting I had, once again very suddenly, one of the most powerful experiences of the presence of the Holy Spirit that I have ever had. I can only describe it as "weighty". It was like having a Mack Truck drive through the Church. There wasn't anything subtle about it. It was just like it says in Acts, "a mighty wind, which filled the whole place where they were sitting." The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, was the principal thing that was real in our Church at that moment. It was both unexpected and unmistakable.Well, that's what happened to me. I'm not feeling the need to have evaluations or analysis, at least at this point. But I do want to say that I think that these intuitive experiences are far more common that we often think. Manifestations of the spiritual part of our being are both real and perfectly natural, and my own belief is that they happen to most people. But living as we do in a society that values the rational over everything else, I think that lots of people completely miss these things when they happen, and those people who do notice them are usually reluctant to talk about them. After all they aren't "normal" (by which we mean rational). But they are, in fact, perfectly normal. These things happen to people, lots of people. But so often they are missed or we hide them.These little explosions of the Spiritual into our daily consciousness are, in my view, just part of what it means to be a human being. They don't make me holy and they aren't an indication that I'm special. They are just what happens because I have a spiritual part to my humanity, as every other human being does. I've learned both from the Christian tradition and from my experience that you have to be very careful about claiming anything about these happenings or making predictions based on them or telling people what they should be doing because of them. Mostly they're not for that. They are usually just moments when the veil is drawn aside and we see more of reality than we are usually open to. After all, the Holy Spirit is with us all the time…. I just happened to realize this at one particular moment.What should I do about it? I should be thankful. I should rejoice in this very nice gift that I've been given. I should be grateful for having had a moment when I became more aware of the fullness of who I am. And then I should get about the business of writing my blog, and finishing my correspondence and loving my neighbor and doing the laundry. I should work at being a Christian and a human being. That's what these things are for. And that's enough."

another quote from other blog

2008-06-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

another quote

This one is by Quaker apologist Robert Barclay and is taken from the Bill Samuel's blog entry for May 16th at

http://billsamuel.net/blog/

Here's the quote:

"If by the Spirit we can only come to the true knowledge of God; if by the Spirit we are to be led into all Truth, and so be taught of all things; then the Spirit, and not the Scriptures, is the foundation and ground of all Truth and knowledge, and the primary rule of faith and manners."

next entry from other site

2008-06-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Note on Mystical Theology from a fine review in Books & Culture:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/bookwk/080623.html

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The embrace of unitive love: Kissing God

In the early 15th century, Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, wrote a two-volume treatise on the subject, the first scholarly study of mysticism. The title alone, On Mystical Theology, shows his view: Mysticism is theology, but more personal and experiential than the scholastic theology of the academy. Gerson defines this mystical theology as "an experiential knowledge of God that comes through the embrace of unitive love," and he offers a robustly evocative account of the mystics' writings: "They talk of a jubilation beyond the spirit, of being taken into a divine darkness, of tasting God, of embracing the bridegroom, of kissing him, of being born of God, of obeying his word, of being brought into the divine cellars, of being drunk in a torrent of delight, of running into an odor of his perfumes, of hearing his voice, and entering into the bedroom, and of finding sleep and rest in peace with him."

from a review by Nathaniel Peters

first entry from other blog

2008-06-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 23, 2008

A thought from this weekend

This weekend I heard a preacher quote from the following verses of Proverbs:"He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment." 12:11"He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty." 28:19The question (to myself) that I wrote in my journal in response to this is:"ARE YOU WORKING YOUR LAND, OR ARE YOU CHASING FANTASIES?"I see this as applying to a lot of areas of "work" beyond just literal farming...

Peace and love to all,Peter

combining blogs

2008-06-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

I think I have figured out how to combine my two blogs (that have been unnecessarily split) in here:

I will post in here the last few entries from the other blog, and then keep using this one and shut down the other one.

Peace to all,
Peter

What to do while in between worlds

2008-05-18T09:17:00.001-07:00

My friend Carl just posted about being "in-between worlds" because of his love for Christ and the church, and his love for nature and the things of earth as well.

I have a theory that much of the way we each interpret the spiritual world stems from the way we first experienced it: for Carl, his story of his initial spiritual experience as a teen confirms this: he definitely found himself "between worlds" in that original encounter, and indeed for many years afterwards.

My own first encounter with God included the awareness of the calling, "Thou art a priest forever in the order of Melchisedek." From this perspective, if I were to find myself in Carl's place I would have an agenda, an action plan, already in place--one given to me, not of my own design.

The Melchisedek intercessor performs both sides of the priestly function: he takes the needs and pains and "gifts" of the earth and brings them as an offering to God. And he takes the heavenly gifts of grace and sacrifice and redemption and healing and transformation, and presents them to the people as the expression of divine love to them.

So while I am by nature a contemplative, yet the middle ground "between worlds" does not become for me a place of speculation, but of action, being the "bridge of love" that Carl is calling for in his other post for today!

I offer this to Carl in thanks for a challenge he gave me some time back, that is, to include the drive to communicate our "mystical" or spiritual experiences in my definition of "mystical." This is some of the fruit of that: the communication or "bridge work" is inherent in the original spiritual call, and it is functioning at least to the extent that you can see here.

Thanks, Carl!
Peter

a poem written May 10, 2008

2008-05-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the glory of God?
The place of Nothingness in the cosmos
from which Everything comes?
The fullness that fills all the Emptiness?
The Oneness beyond the Void
beyond all the Particles?

Have you gone back down through
your weakest weaknesses,
your greatest losses, your
most profound and chronic lacks
down through the bottom and out
the bottomless into the
great empty black hole
where you are alone,
where you are not?

Have you seen from there
as if from afar, and tiny,
coming into the center
and filling all the empty space
the light, the point
that is greater than all it fills
and growing, the light
endlessly exploding beyond
its vast dark house,
endlessly, tirelessly filling all
dark corners and hollows
and racing beyond to create
and fill yet more new spaces?

I have, and I highly recommend it.

The Glory of God in His Church

2008-04-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

On this blog over the past few days I have been fiercely contending for the "right" to hear the word God is speaking TODAY for His Church . And I have been praying for implementation of this gift.

Well, this morning I heard that if I behold the beauty and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ--that is, if I focus on and attend to the reality that is in this verse of Scripture, 2Cor 4:6:

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

--if I pay close attention to this glory, I will see the reality of what He is passionately and singlemindedly and wholeheartedly obsessed with producing in His holy and perfect Bride, the one He is fashioning to come into union with Himself.

I am quite sure that this is true! My daily struggle is to keep seeing this, and acting on it, in relation to the everyday interactions with His people in ordinary settings. The glory of God is here! May we see what He has in mind for us, by beholding His glory in the face of Jesus Christ; may we believe in His power present to effect this transformation IN US according to His revealed will.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Love to all,
Peter

a new zeal

2008-04-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is an area where I see a great cloud of deception over the church. I pray with several folks for an hour and a half every morning for God's will to be done over the city He has sovereignly placed us in, for His Spirit to break through here and make the major changes He wants to make.

So if I see this (cessationism and all its evil crones) as a major enemy hidden in the church here, and I am committed to pray for the needed breakthrough,then LOGICALLY (wonderful word/concept when it is not being used to support oppression) I will be eager to join the fight at the place where I most clearly see the greatest need. And the "not-carnal-but-mighty-through-God" weapons I have available for use in this fight include entirely non-cessationist active gifts in prophecy and discernment of spirits, tongues and interpretation and faith--along with a well-practiced willingness to work together with others who are anointed and gifted with compatible gifts to use for the edifying of the church.

So here goes! I am not going to stay under the bushel basket any longer. May God shed His light through this willing vessel as through many others everywhere--the establishment of His Kingdom depends on it!

Peter

A new rant against cessationism

2008-04-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

I have had occasion lately to respond to a cessationist blog with all the "fire" of my conviction, and fully backed up by my house-church "pastor" (for lack of a more relevant title). I will post on here the full blast of what I have written, whether the precious cessationist brother in question ever gets the chance to read this or not.

Peace to all,
Peter

I reject cessationism as contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the entire New Testament: every one of the Gospels, the book of Acts, every one of the Epistles and the book of Revelation. Cessationism is an illogical, unspiritual, unscriptural, restrictive, false, unwarranted, ungodly, ungenerous, ungracious, reactionary, uninspired, humanly devised system of thought based on extrabiblical sources, a total lack of scriptural or historical or experiential evidence, and (most especially) faulty reasoning. It true basis is not the pseudo-intellectual logical syllogisms it is usually couched in, but a profound fear and terror of the reality of the spiritual world in which we all live and move and have our being, as the Scriptures attest, and of which Jesus Christ is the supreme Lord, prophet, priest, king, apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. An unwillingness to dispense (administer) each and all of these gifts (without exception or limitation) to His New Testament believers and followers, members of His church, His bride, due to some perceived fear that to do so would somehow diminish His sovereignty, His uniqueness, the completeness and significance of His ministry, is entirely foreign both to the character of Jesus as revealed in the New Testament—in the entire Bible—and to the literal and spiritual intent of His own words and those of the anointed writers of the Holy Scriptures. Cessationism stands in direct contradiction to clear Biblical statements about how the world operates, the spiritual basis of all reality, the nature of divine life and of human life, the operation of faith, hope, and love in the life of the church, and the epistemological foundations of communication with God that underlie the entire Bible. Cessationism is doctrinally and spiritually closest to the heresy of deism, which holds that God started things off and then left for vacation and let everything continue on its own, without His active participation, based merely on principles He set in motion from the beginning: cessationism holds that God spoke everything that ever needed to be said through Jesus, finished the task through the early apostles and writers of the New Testament canon, and then put some duct tape on His mouth and has refused to say anything since then for fear of contradicting the content and character of what He has finished saying long ago. Cessationism puts far too heavy a weight on the office of pastor/preacher (HINT: IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE PASTOR IS NOT THE PROPHET. THE PASTOR IS NOT THE PROPHET. THE PASTOR IS NOT THE PROPHET.) and far too little power, privilege and responsibility on believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit of God and able to hear from Him and move by His Spirit to fulfill His will in their lives—including the key task of spreading the kerygma, the Good News of His death and resurrection, His victory over sin and death, which cannot be fully and effectively proclaimed without the present active power of the Holy Spirit in anointing the words of the messengers, in convicting the hearts of the hearers, and in confirming the message with signs following, as the Scripture tells us. Cessationism, in an attempt to honor what Jesus Christ has done for us in His sacrificial atonement to free us from our sins, severely restricts the scope of His activity by His Spirit in His church today, which (according to what He said) is the intended purpose of what He has done for us in the atonement.

May God by His Holy Spirit enlighten the minds of those in bondage to the darkness of this form of deception, and fill them with the enlightenment of the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus and as it is available to them by His current inspiration and revelation. May the man-made walls, boundaries, definitions, and restrictions be torn down and replaced by the protection and safety promised to the disciples of Jesus as they move forward in the power of His Spirit to fulfill the commission to heal, save, deliver, and restore suffering and lost souls to the salvation He has paid such a dear price to provide for them. May our minds, which can be such excellent servants of spiritual truth, but such oppressive masters, be subject to the Holy Spirit as He fulfills His promised ministry of leading us into all truth.

still here

2007-11-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to see that this blog is still here. I would like to post a bit more on here again, after a year and a half off!

ttyl, Peter

poem for today

2006-09-02T05:10:00.000-07:00

O God, You are beyond
Light, Life, Breath, Food, Love
Light beyond light, all who see long to see You
Life beyond life, all who live long to live in You
Breath beyond breath, all who breathe long to breathe You
Food beyond food, all who eat long to eat of You
Love beyond love, all who love long to love You
O God, I love to see and live and breathe and eat and love,
But with all these I am not satisfied,
And all these I willingly leave behind
To see and live and breathe and eat and love You
O God

insights and disclaimer

2006-07-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those who have shown interest in what I have been sharing in here. I remember when I first heard messages like this--and others on themes like the seven feasts of Israel (grouped into three festival seasons, sometimes known as the three feasts) and the Song of Solomon. I was completely taken by the experience of revelation, and I remember thinking that I had found a secret to all the patterns of the universe in the threefold pattern I have been describing--applicable to the three parts of a plant seed, the inner and outer workings of atoms, the physics of the cosmos--as well as the Trinity and the pattern of the human being as spirit/soul/body. I was overjoyed at the insight and very happy inside--perhaps like the feeling someone has who experiences one of Ken Wilber's unitive insights, or enlightenment in other forms (as in Kill the Buddha).
It was great fun! I became an evangelist and tried to bring my brother and my closest friends into the neo-gnostic fold of those who understood these things.
I have to put in a disclaimer here, since the reality that "knowledge is power" unfortunately applies to spiritual knowledge as well, and this kind of insight can be and has been misused to support exclusivism and a cult mentality. This was done with these insights like this: the three rooms of the Tabernacle were related to three levels of spiritual experience--the outer court was a basic salvation experience; the Holy Place was a baptism in the Spirit with the corresponding gifts of insight and power; the Holy of Holies was reserved for the few who would attain spiritual perfection and immortality in this life. Similarly with the three feasts of Israel: those who could see this or who were hearing it preached were of course among the special "in" group who were going to make it to the spiritual big-time and who were of course far superior to the "ordinary Christians" of the lower ranks of spiritual experience. I remember clearly that one of the early teachers of thisgroup said that "What the mystics of the early and medieval church attained to [union with God, perfection] as individual saints, we are going to attain to as a corporate group for the first time in the history of the church." In this way the reality of the open heavens and free access to God proclaimed in the Bible was twisted into a closed message of exclusivism and elitism.
So I want to state that by writing this out for the group here, I am officially renouncing the exclusivism of these revelations and doing what I can to open them out to "Whosoever will," that is, whosoever has any interest in going in to the presence of God and getting to know Him there.I do believe that each of the pieces of furniture in the House of God has deep spiritual meaning, and I know where I belong, where my "favorite" place is (if I can use that word): the incense altar, the place of daily surrender and intercession. That's where I go and spend my time and energy whenever I have any--my default location, my spiritual position of choice.
Blessings and love to all,
Peter

Some spiritual interpretations

2006-07-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Here's what I promised to this group:"I'll stop here with this promise: The seven pieces of furniture in the original Tabernacle all take on special meaning in this scheme of things, and I will take the time to explain these (again, 'briefly') if anyone shows interest in this line of investigation."
It's incredible to me how many things conspire to get in the way of fulfilling a promise like this, but I do love this stuff and I love you guys and I have a strong desire to do this. I want to begin by mentioning that this scheme is built on the original pattern of the Tabernacle which Moses received on the mountain top. The later Temples had a lot of additions, such as the ones in the recent readings in Chronicles, but they followed the same basic pattern as the Tabernacle of Moses.
Here's how this works (the spiritual interpretation of the pattern): The three rooms of this Tabernacle/Temple are seen as the three component parts of an individual person. The outer court is the physical part (body)--the person in relation to the outer world. The Holy Place is the human, emotional, mental, volitional part (soul)--the person in relation to his/her individual self (and other individuals from the basis of this self). The Holy of Holies is the spiritual, intuitive, metaphysical part (spirit)--the person in relation to God and heavenly realities.The activity of the Tabernacle/Temple is worship, and the means of worship, so common in many places in those days (and, some would say, at that stage of human religious development) and so offensive to so many people today, is the sacrifice of animals to atone for sin, and taking the blood into the presence of God as an offering. There are many kinds of offerings and a whole series of feast days throughout the year (based on the agricultural year)--and of course all of these have interesting and sometimes intense spiritual meaning as well. But these go beyond what I am talking about here.
We do not offer sacrifices like these nowadays, and I do not believe that the reason is that we have evolved into a higher form of consciousness than the Hebrew people had. The reason is that Jesus came to fulfill all of these types, and the spiritual meanings that I am talking about are the application of these types to the ministry of Jesus to us in New Testament times. In fact, that is the definition of the Old/New Testaments: the old covenant given to Moses and the new covenant in Jesus. It would be possible for some teachers to treat all these things without reference to Jesus, but that would not make any sense to me because the fulfillment of these types or 'pictures' in Him is what makes this study in any way relevant to us today.
The work of the priests is to offer the sacrifices according to the Law of Moses, so these pieces of furniture are used by the priest to do that. In the outer court are two pieces of furniture. The brass laver or washstand has a place to wash the hands and feet, signifying the outer cleansing needed to partake of the holy things. Jesus fulfilled this at the Last Supper when he took up the towel and basin to wash the feet of his followers. The big brass altar is the altar of sacrifice where the animals were killed and burned and their blood caught in a brass basin to offer to God, signifying the need for atonement according to the law of God: "The soul that sins shall die." Jesus fulfilled this in our place by being slaughtered on the cross as an atonement for our sins. One of the best places to see and feel the spritual meaning of this is in Julian.
The Holy Place has three pieces of furniture. The table of showbread has sacred loaves of bread offered to God. This is a type of the emotions, the feelings, the fulfillment of the joys of life: Jesus is the bread of life. The golden candlestick (menorah) lights up the Holy Place since the curtains otherwise keep this room dark. This symbolizes the mind, the understanding, the spiritual enlightenment or gnosis that gives us understanding beyond the natural light of the outer court: Jesus is the Light of the World. The altar of incense is a type of the choice, the will, the free offering of self through prayer and surrender that is acceptable to God: Jesus told us that no one took his life from him but that he offered it freely, and in Gethsemane he said "Not my will but Yours be done." On the cross He said, "Into Your hands I commit my spirit." The altar of incense on some occasions is taken into the Holy of Holies into the presence of God. An interesting side noteon the activities of the Holy Place is the assertion of the author of the Cloud of Unknowing that we cannot experience the presence of God through the mind (light) or the emotions (bread) but through 'a naked intent of the will toward God,' the voluntary submission of our will to His, symbolized by the incense altar. I just thought of one application of this that is quite current: Bear has been speculating about why so few people in churches respond to serious inquiry about bible scholarship. The answer according to this pattern would be that such interest is torally voluntary--as Ken Wilber has said, the number of saints that experience union with God seems to be very small--and no amount of coercion or persuasion can compel anyone to have that interest. I believe that it is a sovereign work of God. I also believe that it is available to "whosoever will"--but who and where are they? In a sense we may never know, but I like to look for other seekers to be able to enjoy fellowship in worship.
In the Holy of Holies are the final two pieces of furniture for a total of seven. The Ark of the Covenant (with the two seraphim guarding it) has in it the tables of the Law, Aaron's rod that budded, and a supernaturally preserved sample of the manna in the wilderness. These symbolize the inner spiritual faculties of the person, the miraculous healing powers, the inner nourishment of the Word (the hidden manna), and the Law written on our hearts--the spiritual faculty of the conscience. Notice that these three, the contents of the Ark, are spiritual counterparts of the faculties of the soul in the Holy place. Jesus moved by the Spirit in all these ways when he walked on earth, and he has offered us the ability to do the same, though so few of us take him up on the offer. The Mercy Seat is of pure gold and is the place where God manifest himself directly to our spiritual perception. Here is the Throne of God, Jesus at the right hand, the Spirit communicating directlyto us...the end point of the whole process.
One important note is that the blood of the sacrifice is carried in all the way to the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, signifying that the blood of Jesus gives us access to the unmerited mercy of God.
I did not look any of this up to write this today--it all came from my memory, so some of it may be off a little. I am very intersted in any response you may have. My conscious motive is to feed and nourish your spirit and draw you closer to the experience of the glory of God.
Love, Peter

Update June 21: "Church?"

2006-06-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I have a very different view of the Scriptural obligation ot "assemble yourselves together" than the common one I have heard for so long: "Go to church regularly (and pay your tithes there) or you're being unfaithful." I see that Jesus is assembling together His Body to function as He has given us gifts--"and so much the more as you see the day approaching." Jesus identifies himself as the woman who has lost a coin, or the shepherd who has lost one lamb--intensely concerned for the one lost in order to fill the complement of the whole group. He wants us "assembled", that is, each one in place, doing what He has assigned and blessed each one of us to do. I believe that sometimes this means going to 'church', and sometimes not.
I have had help in seeing this from Bruce Gibson, a powerful praying friend who does not go to church, and this has been confirmed in my own prayer times. My wife just bought me a book by George Barna called Revolution on this topic, and I have just started looking into some of the writings of Brian McLaren and others on the "emerging church."
I don't know what exactly I am looking for, but I know (intimately) a lot of things that it is not, and I know that Jesus delights in expressing His presence and character in ways and places where we are not looking for Him.

Update on Inner Profile--June 14

2006-06-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of posts to add in to here to keep up to date. Later, when my computer-literate daughter is on the scene, I will get her to help me add in a personal profile with my self-portrait, as I have been threatening to do.
On June 14 I wrote:
I see the brilliance of Jesus, a bright light filling all my field of vision, the life-giving power behind everything that is and each living being that lives. I am drawn to the holy, pure, peacemaking, loving, reconciling Presence of His power, the radiance of His being. I long to remain in His Presence and contemplate the endless wonders of divine, uncreated life that I see here. The source of all life is also the source of all harmony and peace, as the Bible says: "In his presence are pleasures evermore."
At the same time, and in the same vision, I sense a militant fierceness of holiness such as Jesus showed when He cleansed the holy temple of the corrupt moneychangers. His purity and righteousness ("The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit") excludes all pettiness, strife, prejudice, hatred, bigotry, injustice of any kind--and He expresses His perfect love in ways that are not tolerant of opposition to His agenda to bless and rule creation from within by the love He poured out upon us in His redemptive sacrifice. His holy, merciful love is not tolerant of evil, of that which is unkind and cruel and destructive ("Satan's work is to steal and kill and destroy"), of that which is false and deceptive ("He is a liar and the father of lies")--of that which is unlike Him.

Hello!!

2006-06-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

Peter’s Rants
06 June 2006

This seems to be the best time to start this blog, since I do appear to have a bit more free time than usual—though what we call free time has a way of disappearing very quickly, and we find ourselves busier than during our regular work times!
I have been encouraged by a number of friends and ‘Net friends to begin this blog and say what I have to say—including Bear and Bull from lectio divina, and a number of others. I think today is the day of the Julian meeting in Atlanta, which is a bit far away for me to get to….
Rather than do a whole lot of personal introduction stuff here, I want to just say that I am Peter, called prophetpeter in a LiveJournal account that no one seems to be reading any more, and that I hope to make this blog a kind of corollary to my personal journal, which has never had a lot to do with the details of my personal life, but which has always been more of a place for spiritual reflections about the Bible and Jesus and prayer and mystical experiences and life in general. I admire the writing style of Bear and Bull and Bear’s friend Carl, and I hope to be able to link to them and have an ongoing dialogue with them and others with similar interests.
I do have some autobiographical material which I have sent to the folks at lectio divina—a bit of a chronicle of my spiritual journey—and I expect that I will put some of that in here before long. At this point I want to follow the advice of an old German proverb which says, “Be sure to keep the main thing the main thing,” and to talk about what I find to be the most important of topics.
Simply put, that would be this: the centrality of Jesus in the spiritual universe.
In my searching I have looked in many places for a spiritual center, what Carl calls a viewpoint to speak from, and I have discovered that Jesus is that center in a unique way. There are no rivals that I have found worthy of my affection or devotion in the way that he has done and continues to do. Jesus is the center of my conscious life and, as far as I am tuned in to it, my unconscious, subconscious, etc. as well.
Jesus is my friend, my lover, my healer, my master, my light, my hope, my constant companion, my conscience, my judge, my future...in a word, Jesus is my life.
This has myriad consequences socially, spiritually, personally, etc.—it determines my spiritual practice, for instance, and my stance in communicating about spiritual realities with other seekers. I wholeheartedly desire to be a “pagan-friendly Christian” (to use another term of Carl’s), and I find this completely consistent with my central focus.
I need to go now, and get back to this later—and I need to figure out the mechanics of how to get this blog thing up and running. I invite all comments and questions, as always, because I truly desire to be and remain open.
Blessings and love to all,
Peter