Essenes

THE ESSENES

 

Most of the “religious” factions that I have studied, well actually all, have made it quite clear. That in order to make our way back to God we must forsake this world and everything that goes along with it. I know you’re thinking that is impossible. Well it’s not. Now, if you are thinking, it means giving up all you own and living in the wild as a hermit then I would have to agree with you. But that is not what they intended when they spoke those words. Jesus conveyed this best when He said, “We are to be in this world but not of this world.”

What He is saying, what they are all saying is, we are not to allow our “egos” run our lives. We cannot let it control us and dictate every aspect of our lives. When you find yourself desiring something new, ask yourself, “Why do I desire this?” If the answer is anything other than, “…to become closer to God.” Then it is your ego dictating for you your “needs”.

There are many ways to go about this. One way in particular was demonstrated by the Essenes. This was one of those religious groups I alluded to earlier. They were a group of people whose practices were very much in line with the Hassidic Jews and the Kabbalists of their time. Their time being, the BC and AD eras. That was of course till the romans decided to eliminate them.

The Essenes had communities out in the desert and followed very strict religious beliefs and practices. They adhered to a lifestyle of virtues. The first virtue being one of Simplicity:

There must be more spiritual abundance in life.

·         Embrace the wilderness; hold to your bosom the desert experiences of your life keep them close to you. Learn from them. It is a deep and recondite irony; for only in the experience of lack do we learn the secret of abundance.

Here of course, I believe they are expressing this as a spiritual lack. Jesus had spoken of something similar, but instead of lack and abundance, he utilized light and darkness. Jesus said, “You cannot find the light until you have first experienced the darkness.”

On a spiritual level, when one experiences periods of darkness, or descents, is when “we” withdraw from God. And what they are saying here, is how can you know what spirituality is until you figure out what the ego is and its true nature. We must first come to realize that the ego is there to prod us into getting everything we can for ourselves and to hell with everyone else.

That may sound somewhat drastic, that lust part but if it came down to you getting something that you really wanted, you would do anything to get it and wouldn’t really care about the repercussions on anyone else’s lives. It is the way we are, it is human nature, if you will. Well I, personally, refer to it as the nature of the beast. This is because when people act like this, that is all they are, beasts.

Next time you find yourself in that situation, try to stop and think, why we need all this “STUFF”. We go through this life with the mistaken belief that we need to get as much as we can before we die, and to what end? Scripture states that we are not to store up things in places where they can be destroyed, but store them up in heaven. Matthew 6:19.

That is the all-important question to continually ask yourself, and eventually you will arrive at the big question of, why we are here. What is our purpose of being here on this planet?

Once you have arrived at this question, you are now able to see the light, because you have realized just how dark the world you have been living in really is.

Desert experiences we often used to describe spiritual dry spells. When one has decided to walk the spiritual path and has decided to forsake all one’s egoistic desires, it can seem like a vast wasteland or a desert when one is seeking to find God or struggling to stay on the path. The longer one spends in a desert, the stronger the temptations from worldly goods and pleasures become. We are not to shrink from our desert experiences in our lives. Ask what you can (suppose) to learn from them and then seek to apply every lesson with relentless consistency.

The only way to survive the desert is to discover the lessons it teaches – “to find the fountain of living waters.” Those who fail to find it, perhaps because they fail to look, are doomed to melt in the grip of the searing heat. (Essenes)

Everyone lives in the desert of their own choosing. Everyone is in an exile of sorts, whether it be imposed upon them or self-imposed. The only question is, whether you govern the nature of your wilderness, your exile or whether it governs you, once again alluding to the battle between good (spiritual) and evil (ego). (Essenes)

The simplicity one seeks is not escape from life or its responsibilities; it’s liberation, a progression to a better way. For whatever you have given up in the form of material possessions you have gained back in peace, tranquility, order and camaraderie.  I would like to add here, that you will also continue in your movement down the path towards God. This is truly the ultimate goal of everyone. (Essenes)

 

 

Spiritual Evolution - Ultimate Goal

Ultimate Goal

 

 

I grew up in Sioux Falls, SD in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I was introduced to sports a very young age. There wasn’t much on our TV, which was black and white and only got 4 channels. I spent most of my time outside with other kids in the neighborhood. We were either down at the creek playing who knows what or down at the river (Big Sioux) catching crawdads and collecting leeches between our toes and on our legs. Or we were going to a practice of some type or another. As a child I was involved in basketball, football (tackle), softball, which eventually evolved into baseball. My dad was usually our coach. My younger brother also took part in all of the above mentioned sports with me. And every year we were playing for the city championship, regardless of the sport, and we, more often than not, won those games. Winning was a way of life for my brother and me as well as well as my dad. This involvement continued all the way through high school, which was in De Smet, SD. The winning continued on even in high school.

As you can see I was very ingrained with the whole sports thing from a very young age and I encourage my kids to get involve with sports. Although the final decision to do so or not lies ultimately with them. This goes with all aspects of their live. I usually, OK always, add that where they are today, is nothing more than the accumulation of all the decisions (conscious and/or subconscious) they have made in the past.

My life in De Smet pretty much consisted of sports girls, beer and of course cars. From a very young age up until my mid 30’s, my life was pretty much focused only on the spiritual aspects of this life. I spent an incredible amount of time and energy, and yes money, trying to get whatever I could for myself. It was always about me. I was always looking for ways to make myself feel better about myself in the eyes of others. Of course most of the time I would do this without trying to intentionally hurt anyone else, but sometimes it didn’t work out that way. Then there were times when I really didn’t care whether I hurt someone or not. For instance: I had a girlfriend in high school, but as the end my high school career drew near, I got tired of having the same girlfriend. You know, the grass is always greener on the other side, syndrome. I used the excuse that I was going into the army and heading over to Germany to get rid of her. Of course there was another girlfriend in the picture shortly after dumping her and prior to me leaving for Germany. This one said she would wait for me, which, of course, never happened. Looking back, I see now that I treated these young ladies as possession’s that could be tossed aside. I also came to the realization that I was not a nice person then. About a year or so later I came to find out that one of those girls had gotten an abortion, and told everyone it was mine. To this day, I still don’t know the whole story behind that.

I did eventually go over to Germany and spent one year there. I then came back to the U.S. and was stationed in Ft. Hood for a couple of years. During this little stint I probably could have been considered a functional alcoholic. There would be times when I would stay up drinking till 3 A.M. and get up at 6 the next morning for PT (physical training) and work till 4 in the afternoon. Then start all over again. On the weekends, I pretty much stayed inebriated. My major focus in life, as it is evident, was alcohol. To be more specific, that wonderful German bier. Not to say that cars and girls were not up there on my list of priorities, because I did go out and purchase a Chevy Z28 Camaro with T-tops. The car obviously bought with the belief I would get girls with it. So I was cruising around in my car, drinking and trying to pick up cute girls where the opportunity presented itself.

Then came the time to re-enlist. I said I would never do this, but the offered me $20k to do so if I went into the military intelligence. But before I could sign on the dotted line to get into the military intelligence I had to take some language test, which by the way, was a made up language. Apparently I scored relatively high on the test, because instead of getting one of the two languages I wanted (Spanish or Italian), I got stuck with Arabic. One of the 3 most difficult languages on the planet. So I spent the better part of the following 2+ years going to school from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon learning Arabic. It really wasn’t a bad gig. I got to live at the DLI (defense language institute), which was located on a hill side outside of Monterey, CA, on the ocean. They put us in two man air conditioned dorm rooms with carpeting. Probably some of the best and most expensive real estate in the country. I was in heaven. Girls everywhere and I was basically going school with no other responsibilities. And after 3 during the week and all weekend I could go where ever I wanted and do almost anything I wanted to. I wasn’t used to seeing women in the military, since my prior units were combat units. Needless to say I wasted most of my time drinking, cruising in my car and trying to pick up cute girls.

This pattern continued till I met my wife to be at Ft. Stewart in Georgia. Still did a lot of drinking, but didn’t have to chase women anymore. My wife and I were wed in Minnesota and our honeymoon at that time consisted of an overnight stay at our motel. We had to fly back to Georgia so my wife of one day could deploy to the Middle East 9 days later to take part in desert storm. I spent the first 9 months or so by myself while my wife served her country in the Middle East. I know you are wondering why I didn’t deploy to the Middle East as well. I was fortunate to receive my honorable discharge 4 months prior to the deployment took place. Upon her return to the good ‘ole US of A, I moved back to Georgia where we stayed until her honorable discharge. While living in Georgia and working a couple of different jobs, I decided I wanted to become a chiropractor (for the money, at least I thought so at the time). We then moved to Davenport, IA, where we lived for 6+ years while I completed my doctorate degree in chiropractic. After moving several times (due to a multitude of reasons) we finally wound up in the gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota, where we currently reside. The reason I went through a brief history of my life was to show you that I, like most people, was only concerned about one thing and one thing only. And that, of course, was me. I drank because it made me feel good and forget my troubles. I went out with women because they made me feel good. I also married my absolutely wonderful wife, not only because I love her dearly and still do to this day, but because she made me feel good when I was with her. I was completely dominated by my ego. Always chasing the almighty dollar and all the “things” I could get with it. I, like most people, was looking for happiness in all the wrong places. I was fortunate, however; to find true love and to this day am extremely grateful for that. I had finally come to the realization that true happiness must come from within.

My question to you now is this: What is your ultimate goal in life? Are you inspired or motivated? What is the driving force behind the decisions you make throughout the course of a day, month or year? When a person is motivated they are listening to and following the guidance of the ego. When a person is inspired they are in touch with “the universe”. They do what they are doing from an altruistic perspective. In other words, they do it because it is the right thing to do and because it will benefit them in any way shape or form. These and many more topics will be addressed as we move forward toward the ultimate goal. You can take what you like and leave what you don’t. All I as is that you read with an open mind and even more importantly, an open heart. Please leave the brain and its best friend out of it, if at all possible.

What I have learned, in my short but eventful life, is this: Where I am today and what I am today is an accumulation of the choices that I have made in the past, as alluded to earlier. No ifs, ands or buts about it. I was like the majority of the people in this country. This thing that happened to me because of so and so. That person did this to ruin this and that in my life. It is everyone else’s fault for all the bad things that happen to me throughout my life. It cannot be mine because I didn’t want those bad things to happen. What it all boils down to is the quality of our current life is equal to the quality of our past choices. There is, however; another factor that must be considered as well, and that is the intent behind our choices. People do a multitude of good “things” throughout the course of their lives, but if the bottom line is to increase ones material gains and boost their ego, then we truly move nowhere nearer our ultimate goal.

You are probably wondering at this point what I mean by ultimate goal. Well, I would like you to think about it. Is it to amass fortunes, to be a nice person overall, to have a prestigious job, continually increase your public status, etc., etc…? All of these can be a means to an end or they can just be an end. In my opinion, if a person does not use the abundance (yes all of it) in their lives to aid those who lack, then those people are moving away from the ultimate goal. The way I see it, we are all trying to find our way back to whence we originated. That of course being our Creator. We can, however, use those things to build a bridge back to our Creator. There are multiple opportunities out there, every day to do the right thing and take those steps up the spiritual ladder. No matter how small the steps are, the point is we continually move in the right direction. That direction being toward our ultimate goal, God. God provides us with every tool we shall ever need or want to flourish and build that bridge. But we can just as easily use those tools provided to us to dig a hole and anchor ourselves in the world of materialistic desires, mired in egoism. There is no such thing as staying in one place throughout ones existence. We either advance or retreat and the choices we make decide which path you will take. Spiritual or egoistic.  People who amass fortunes, I’m not saying that is a bad thing, have a choice to make every day. Is all that money in their account going to be used to increase their already vast fortunes? Or are they going to use the abundance they have accumulated to benefit others? I mean seriously; how much is enough? I have heard many a people say that once they have accumulated X amount of dollars, they are going to retire. And yet when that objective is reached they decide it is not enough and go on accumulating. I have heard some very wealthy people talk about those that don’t have what they have is due to their “lack” mentality. They say that there is abundance in the universe and you can never out give it (true enough). And yet these people put away money to retire on when they finally, if ever, decide to truly retire. These people talking about never out giving the universe are using this law with pure egoistic desires and this is what I was talking about previously. If the intent behind the giving is because you will receive more for doing so, then this is building more attachments to the things of this world and following the advice of one’s ego. Scripture states that we are not to store up goods here on earth where they can be stolen and moth eaten, but to store up goods in heaven where nothing of this world can touch it. For where your treasure so will your heart be (Matthew 6:19). These people are called motivated individuals. But what if they were inspired (in spirit)? Now these individuals would be working and amassing fortunes for the sole purpose of using that fortune for the aid of others. One difference between doing inspired work and motivated work is that when a person is doing inspired work they really have no need to retire. Why would they retire from such work? When we do inspired work, we never get tired of doing it, and the work never makes us tired. Case in point; Mother Theresa. Motivated people on the other hand can work themselves into exhaustion and often do. I would also like to point out that the motivated people believe that everything they have come by is by them and them alone. Whereas the inspired people know and don’t care that they are just doing God’s work for Him. They are only His instruments. On top of all that you can rest assured that when you are doing God’s work for Him, you will always be taken care of. Besides if one quits doing inspired work, one would have to step out of spirit, become uninspired. To put it clearly, why would anyone want to disconnect from God? Remember the ultimate goal? Can you see what I mean? If we were doing work that God has chosen for us to do and we were in-His-spirit, why stop? EVER?!

To help you get a grip on this maybe you should ask yourself the question of, “Who am I”? And I do not mean your name, lineage, job title or placement in life. But who are you really? Scriptures state that our bodies are nothing more than temporary dwellings for our souls.

Spiritual Evolution

SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION

The evangelical Christian pastors/reverends fill their churches with people that are eager to find God. They spend their time preaching that everyone needs to find God through Jesus. This is great, as long as you find Him. I really don’t think it matters how you do it as long as you find your way back to God. But they all tell their followings that all you have to do is say “the prayer” and believe on Jesus as your savior, and you will find your way back to God. This is OK as well, and I believe somewhat necessary in some cases. Many need something to believe in and believing in God and the only way to find your way back to Him is to say a specific prayer and believe in Jesus as your savior is far better than not believing at all.

This reminds of the gnostic teachings where they describe someone who is new on the spiritual path as being in their spiritual infancy. Eventually everyone advances to the next stage but this is to be done in steps, so to speak. For one who is in spiritual infancy must be fed spiritual “milk” or formula if you will and one who is more mature can be fed spiritual “food” or solids if you will.

Allow me if you will to expand on this a little and let you know what I believe. I believe that we are all here on earth to find our way back to our Father, and everything that shows up in our lives are things put there as tools to help us learn, grow and eventually reach our ultimate goal. Finding our home once again and reunite with our Father.

Things happen in our lives for a reason; you hear people say that all of the time, “everything happens for a reason”. Have you ever stopped to ask the question “why”?  What is the reason? Well the next time you hear somebody say that ask them if they know the reason why that particular incident took place. I believe that the reason “things” happen to us, is for the sake of guidance and learning and a chance to advance, spiritually speaking of course. If we are unable to learn from a problem or a particular incident that arises, then similar situations/problems will continue to arise until we are able to learn and advance through the utilization of the particular incident. As well as correct the underlying cause of the situation.

So, how did I arrive at this theory? Well …… everything that is going on currently in your life and everything that has happened in the past is nothing more than an accumulation of every decision (conscious or not) you have made in the past. You have nobody to blame but yourself or more correctly, your past decisions for what you are and your current state of affairs in your life. For instance, let’s say, God forbid, the car you were driving was hit by someone driving a car at an intersection. The other person failed to stop at a stop sign and was legally at fault. But it was your decision to pull out into the intersection under the assumption that the other person would stop, and not pay any attention to what they were doing while you pulled into the intersection. So you can see, it was a number of decisions (most likely, subconscious) by both parties involved that resulted in the above said accident.

We must learn from the things that get thrown at us throughout our lives, or as in the above case life can be very traumatic and expensive. But, the lessons most people think they have to learn are associated with the materialistic aspects in one’s life, which is fine, but usually the material wealth one obtains, the further from God they move. This is because they believe, mistakenly, that everything they have done and or acquired during one’s existence, they have done on their own. When in truth, nothing is done or gained without God. The true lessons one is to learn while here on this earth are the spiritual ones. In the incident above, the individual hit by the other car, may have to learn that life can end at any moment and one is to live in the now and not worry about the past and/or future. True there are other reasons that appear to be very obvious to us, but in reality they are nothing more than mere distractions. I say distractions, because anything that is related to the physical world is nothing more than just that, distractions. They distract us from our true purpose of being here, which is spiritual. The vast majority of us here on earth get so wrapped up in these physical, materialistic aspects of this life and start accumulating goods and money. Too what end? We need to remember that we are children of God. We are not what our egos (our little selves) would like us to believe, which are human beings that have occasional spiritual experiences. We are truly spiritual beings that are experiencing a brief human existence. Our ego wants us to believe that we need to grab, or at least try to grab all the wealth and worldly goods we can before we die. When the truth of the matter is we are an eternal soul searching for the path that leads back to our Father. And the only way we are going to find our way back to the path and subsequently back to our Father, is by proving to Him that He is our number one priority. We must do this by putting Him 1^st, above everything in our lives. God will take care of all of our needs, in this world, once we learn how to truly and sincerely put Him 1^st above all else. I believe that when God gives people abundance in their lives it is for the reason to assist others, that have very little or nothing, through this abundance from Him. Jesus explains this to a young man who asked him what he must do to gain eternal life. He tells him that if he wishes to enter into life he is to keep the commandments. The young man then asks Jesus, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness; honor your father and your mother and love your neighbor as yourself.”  The young man told Jesus, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus replied, “If you wish to be perfect go, sell what you have and give the proceeds to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.” Upon hearing this, the young man turned away a left sad, because he had many possessions.

This is the 2^nd time Jesus tells us we are to be perfect if we are to get back to heaven. The 1^st time (Matthew 5:48), he tells us, “So be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus is not only telling us we are to be perfect, but he is also indicating how we are to do this. In order to be perfect we are to follow all of the commandments and we are to sell all that we have in order to help those who have nothing and we are to follow him (Jesus). Now to give all that we have away is not feasible in this day in age, but this by no means implies we can live in excess. We are to be comfortable but not get attached to the material “things” in our lives. We are to take care of those that are less fortunate than ourselves, which is the same as loving your neighbor as yourself. This means that if we were hungry and needed food and we had the ability to get some for ourselves, we would get some. Hence, when we know of someone who is in need, whatever the need, we are to help that someone fulfill their need, if we are capable. Now a need (food, shelter and clothing) is not to be confused with a desire rooted in a materialistic/egoistic nature. In other words, something we want that will make us look better or feel better about ourselves.

I believe God gives people excess in life in order to give them the chance to do the right thing and love our neighbors as ourselves. And if people were to give the vast majority of their wealth away, the good Lord would just replace that which was given away. This way God is using an individual to carry out His work here on earth. When a person starts to do these things for their fellow mankind, their focus changes from the Me-Me attitude, and becomes attitude of giving. Not just any giving either, it is an altruistic giving, giving without expecting anything in return.

Back to the pastors/reverends of the Christians; they do an excellent job of putting people in the seats of their mega churches and introducing people to God and Jesus. They tell them stories of heaven and their Father who dwells there, but do little in the way of showing them how to get back to Him. Be that as it may this is an important step in finding one’s way back to God. This is where I began my journey.

Everybody for the most part has heard of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This is just a theory, and in my beliefs is a flawed one at that. Why did the chimps and ape stop evolving? But that is another story in and of itself. The true theory of evolution, in my mind, is the spiritual evolution. This spiritual evolution is a perpetual one that will continue until everyone has reached full maturation. I believe we get to keep on coming back here and continue our learning process until it finally sinks in why we are put here on the earth. Then start nullifying our egos and begin our journey back home to God.

The evangelical Christian belief, that all one has to do is to say “the prayer and believe in Jesus as one’s savior, and you get back to heaven, seems a tad simplistic and easy to me. But if that is what you want to believe it is perfectly fine. There is no right or wrong when it comes to spiritual evolution, only choices that either brings us closer or further away from God.

Jesus alludes to the fact that we are reincarnated in Matthew 11:14 where he says, “And if you are willing to accept it: he is Elijah, the one who is to come.”  And again in Matthew 17:12, “…, but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.” Jesus was referring to John the Baptist in both of these passages. He is saying that John the Baptist was indeed Elijah, thus implying there is in fact reincarnation. With that being said, it makes perfect sense to me; the reason ware here is to learn to find our way back home, to God. The reason we keep coming back here, is because we get attached to the worldly way of life and all the sensations associated with it. I have finally come to the realization that the money and all of the material goods of this world truly mean nothing. They are nothing more than distractions and deterrents that try to keep me from my return to God. I am not implying that the “things” keep me coming back, but the ego’s attachment to those things.

Scriptures tell us that our hearts lie with our treasures and if that is anywhere other than God, we are moving away from Him. How does one know where your heart truly lies, all one has to do is stop and think about what you think about most during the course of any given day, and that is where your true heart lies. The ego wants us to believe that accumulating things (money, fancy cars, big houses, relationships, etc…) is the reason we are here. The ego wants; needs, us to believe this, because once we come to the understanding that these things truly needless and worthless, it signifies the beginning of the end of the ego (our smaller selves). This also signifies the beginning of our journey back to whence we came.

Jesus says, in Matthew 6:19, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is also will your heart be.” He then goes on to state in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon being material things and/or money, which implies one can either live a material (worldly) oriented life or a spiritual one. You cannot live both. A camel has a better chance of fitting through the eye of a needle than a wealthy (worldly) person getting into heaven (Matthew 19:24).

There is a popular saying out there that says, “Let go and let God.” There are many people that utilize this saying and yet they truly don’t understand the true power that lies behind those words. To see if you are the type of person capable of doing exactly what is stated above, all you have to is think back in the last few days and recall if there were any situations or incidents in your life where you were worried or concerned about what had or was going to happen. If you are a worrier or if you are one of the many individuals that utilizes a planner, then more than likely you the type of individual who would have a difficult time letting go and letting God. In other words, you think that you have to do everything yourself without the assistance of God.

The worrying is a sure fire sign that you won’t or are incapable of trusting God with the situations and incidents that arise in your life. And you think that you have to do it all, but are not sure how you are going to get it done or even if you are capable of doing so. The person with the planner is a very goal oriented person, which can be a good thing, when the goals are not materialistic and self-reliant. They usually are successful and are storing up treasures here on earth. The first thing, storing up treasures here on earth, we have already addressed as well as the heart thing (Matthew 6:21). The other thing with this is that they believe everything that they accomplish, is done solely by them. And lastly, they forget what their ultimate goal is. I am always amazed at the reaction of people when I ask them what their ultimate goal is, and the vast majority of the time I will get, “To get to heaven.” Then I will ask them, “Why be afraid of dying, because one cannot get to heaven if one is still on earth, right?” We all have to die, that is a given, but to have as an ultimate goal of reaching heaven when we do die and not be taking the steps everyday necessary to achieve this goal, sounds somewhat strange to me. Especially from those individuals who plan everything out.

This brings me back to the evangelical preachers/pastors. After getting all those people into their “churches”, instead of preaching from an egoistic stand point, that God will provide them with all their egoistic goals if they just believe and pray, they need to teach their congregations from the spiritual stand point. One where God allows us to make our own decisions in life, but also allows us to live out the necessary consequences. This is a necessity of free will. God does not create anything bad; we create situations that we do not like with our not so good choices. Then we turn and ask God to get us out of the situation because we are uncomfortable with the outcomes of our choices. They need to teach their congregations that they need to align their will with that of the Creator. They need to preach about the unimportance of the material world and the importance of loving your neighbor as yourself, taking care of people who are less fortunate than them. Direct them to the path that leads back to God, and once they get them there, keep them on the path. But from what I have seen and heard from the pastors on TV and the evangelical churches around my home they have not found the path yet themselves. This is evident from the cars they drive, the clothes they wear and the houses they live in; all of these indicating that they have no idea, and no intention, of living a spiritual way of life. Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus say anything about being wealthy is a good thing or that is what we should strive for. Jesus abhorred wealth and everything to do with it, to the point of preaching against it. As I stated earlier, it is a good starting point, but like any starting point in life, we must continue to advance or run the risk of having our spirituality stagnate. Life cannot be lived in neutral, nor can we coast through it. We are either moving closer to God or away from Him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Our Father interpretation: Who art in heaven

This is one that people often misunderstand. They believe heaven to be a "material" place. To me this is absurd. We are not the bodies we are living in. These bodies, as the new testament points out, are like tents and our souls inhabit these tents. Our are souls/spirits are what we truly are. For this reason, heaven is not a materialistic place of the fabled milk and honey. Heaven is the term used to describe our ultimate goal in life. That being to find our way back to God, our Father. Everyone who believes in God, knows He is everywhere (omnipresent). With that being said, "who art in heaven," would imply that everywhere is heaven, right? God is not a physical being, I know he could manifest as one but that is not the point. When the bible states we are mad in His image, it is referring to the spiritual us, our souls. And for us to find our way back to God we must 1st realize this and then live our lives accordingly. For no one will make it back to God by living a materialistic life, for it is contrary to what God is and what heaven represents.

Matthew 5:48 (spiritual not human)
Matthew 6:21
Matthew 6:24
2Corinthians 5:1

The Our Father interpretation: Our Father

Our Father:  To me this means we are all God's children. We are all one family. This means we are to treat everyone as if they were a part of our own family. This is to include unconditional love. Jesus says we are "One", which is in reference to us spiritually. Jesus never taught anything pertaining to the material world, it's goods or values. Those who say that He did are mistaken. Jesus abhorred money and material things because He knows that the things of this world detract from the spiritual and only keep us from finding and following the path that leads back to our heavenly Father. Many believe that what they are teaching the same things that Jesus taught, but if their teachings involve improving ones social status or material well being, they are in fact teaching the opposite. We need to focus on the fact that we all come from the same origins, that being our Father in heaven. And we will all return to Him one day. But if we fail to put God first and see others as our brothers and sisters, then the path we need to find and follow back to God is nowhere in sight. The world today needs to realize this or the pains we are headed for are going to be severe.
Matthew 6:19
Matthew 22:37-40
Matthew 6:33 (these things=spiritual)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog on living a daily spiritual life. My name is Dave and I do not profess to be an expert on any of that which I am going to talk about here on this blog site or on my website (aspiritualdailylife.com). I am a person, not unlike most people out there, trying to figure out how to live my life in a spiritual way, and on a daily basis. On the surface this appeared to be quite easy and straight forward, but since I have started this undertaking, I have found it to be quite trying. This is due to the fact that I am so entrenched in my worldly ways and habits that they have become second nature and usually happen without any notice from my conscious self. I have found in order for this to be an on going success I am going to have to constantly monitor my thoughts and actions. Which can be an arduous task at best.

In the blog post to follow I hope to disseminate information that I have attained from a vast resource base that I have accumulated over the years. Most of the information I will be doling out will be things I have read and heard, but with my views and opinions added in. None of the things that I write are solely from my mind or thought process, but things that I feel are important and need to be disseminated to the general public.