SPIRITUAL APES: The struggle to be spiritual.

If you want to go to Heaven, you must use God’s energy to get there. If you don’t, you can use human energy
to live a perfectly meaningful life. If you believe that there is a destiny out there for all of us, although somewhat nebulous as to what that is, you must prepare now to live in another universe. Fortunately, you can begin now to prepare for the journey. Here are the sources of energy that God gives you to keep full of His energy (grace).

1. FAITH – Faith is believing when what you believe is unbelievable. Reason has to do with
   what you believe. Faith has to do with what is believable, even when everything about you
   says, “You’ve got to be kidding. ” It is the sign of contradiction. God is on our side. Read
   Psalm 46.
2. HOPE – Hope is needed to sustain us when the waves of doubt crash over our assumptions
   about what The Master promised us. Read John 20:29.
3. LOVE – Love is the energy of God produced in us, a by-product of our Faith and Hope, as a
   result of our struggle. Read I Corinthians 13:13.
4. The Struggle to Keep Centered
5. HUMILITY – If you want to live with God, prepare yourself on earth to be humble.
   Humble does not mean that you are nothing; it means you are everything with God’s energy.
   Read Philippians 2: 5-12.
6. MEANING – Where you look for meaning in life will be how fulfilled you are. Your center
   should be the most meaningful energy you can find. It should sustain you in good time and in
   bad, when your loved ones die, when there is an earthquake in Haiti when you lose your
   fortune and have to foreclose on your house, Read Matthew 5.
7. FOCUS — In terms of your center, once you choose it, you will spend the rest of your life trying to justify it and keep it from being replaced with other centers, such as MONEY, FAME, FORTUNE, and STATUS. Centers are only sustained with spiritual energy, not human. To keep in focus you need to call upon the name of The Master. The Master, who lives hidden, will answer your call. Read John
   18:24-26.
8. PRAYER — If you want to communicate with God, do so in the way The Master taught us. Read Matthew 69-13.
   The Struggle to Keep Centered
9. USE THE CORRECT PROCEDURE — Read John 14-5-12. One of the ways that The Master taught us how to go to The Father. No one approaches God as an individual or a church without going through the correct procedure. This will be the same procedure we will use in Heaven. If we don’t have this
   buffer, our minds, and souls would be fried like burnt toast. Here is the procedure:
   John 14:5-7 speaks that The Master is The Way, The Truth, and The Life and that no one
   goes to The Father except through The Master. That is why all the prayers you say end with…through Christ, Our Lord. Even when praying to the Saints or loved ones in Heaven, the procedure still holds true. No one goes to The Father except through the Son. When praying as a formal body of Christ, we use the same formula. In the doxology at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, we use the ever so deliberate words, “…through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all Honor and glory are given to you, Almighty Father, Forever and Ever. Amen.
10. SPIRITUAL READING. Read my Book, Who Does God Think He Is, Anyway? This book contains all the instances of God telling us who He is. Some are: I am the bread of life; I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Spiritual reading is the nexus between you and God. Read John 6:24 for an example.
    • THE POWER OF COMMUNITY — The body of Christ, the Church, composed of faith-filled individuals is a source of energy. The many ministries of the church are filled with those who do God’s will? The by-product of that service is energy, which will influence your spirit and produce grace. Read I Corinthians 16:1-14.
11. YOUR POWER — You have untold energy, when you link it up with The Master’s purpose. Couple that with the energy of other faith-centered persons and there is an exponential effect. When someone has entered the hospital with illness and you tell someone you will pray for them, it is linked up with all others who raise their hearts and minds to God. That prayer communicates with the Sacred and also
    with all those whom you have joined in prayer. You won’t be able to see it. They are joined with The Master to the glory of the Father. Read Ephesians 3 to find out how powerful you are linked to the Body of Christ.
12. FOOD FOR THE JOURNEY — You get energy from God by eating bread. This is no ordinary bread but one sanctified by the sacrifice of The Master on the cross to the glory of the Father. When you eat this bread, you eat the very same gift that The Master gave to the Father — love. Read Leviticus 3.
    The Struggle to Keep Centered
13. LISTENING OR SINGING SACRED MUSIC — Prayer is lifting the heart and mind to God. We do this through a variety of ways. Don’t forget singing and listening to music that puts you in the presence of God. Read Psalm 104 about the glories of creation. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1357448/gregorian_chant_et_lux_in_tenebris/
14. REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS — Forgiveness of sins does not mean you won’t sin
    again. In the context of committing to a center, and then straying off course, it means you
15. RE-CENTER. You can count on a lifetime of being forgiven for your sins. Repentance means you take steps not to do this action or have this approach to life, and then you recommit to your center. Read Luke 24:47. Repentance is making all things new. The new part means you know you will eventually wobble off center, but realize that it is with God’s help that you can come home again and again.
16. JUST STAYING ON THE ROAD — If you are committed to living the spiritual life with The Master, it is not an easy road to follow. Read Matthew 11:28-30. Just because your road is rocky doesn’t mean you are on the wrong road. Your road, like that of The Master, is the only one you can travel. If you are
    centered on what is true and authentic, your journey might not be easy, but The Master walks with you.
17. PARABLES –Read Matthew 13 and 20 to find out what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The Master doesn’t give us an existential explanation of Heaven, but one of the audience would understand. Each age looks at the Scriptures based upon the assumptions they have gathered through experience and interpretation, despite what some people say about the Bible never changes. In fact, the message does not change but what that message means does change through each age, through each individual, sin-prone people interpreting a holy message. Not that is a conundrum, but quite consistent with our humanity.
18. A DEDICATED WAY OF LIFE — You might want to dedicate your whole life to becoming a disciple of The Master. You can do it in two ways: as a member of the clergy, or as a dedicated member of the laity. Laity can have a prescribed set of expectations to perform to be part of a specialized group. As an example, go to http://www.trappist.net, and look up Lay Cistercians. They are laity who learn the spiritual
    principles laid out by St. Benedict of Nurcia and interpreted by the Cistercians using their charisms and practices. It is a very strict, and demanding way of life for the laity. Other oblates may be found
    at: http://www.saintmeinrad.edu. More and more religious orders are attracting lay associate members.
    The Struggle to Keep Centered
19. ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT — This is not for everyone. In fact, it doesn’t make sense. Listening to the Sacred in front of a piece of bread? How lacking in reason. For those who believe that
    this is the transubstantiated form of The Master, the assumptions are mind-boggling. Read John 6:51. For those with Faith, no answer is necessary; for those without Faith, no answer is possible.
20. SEEING THE MASTER IN OTHERS — Read Matthew 25:37-44. Doing service in the name of The Master produces God’s energy in yourself, and through you, to others.
21. HAVE IN YOU THE MIND OF CHRIST JESUS — Read Philippians 2:5-12. It is the attitude of mind that produces continuous energy to keep you centered. You never arrive at Heaven in this life, but you will know you are on the correct path when you have experienced the following:

• When you can see The Master in those who
  wrong you;
• When you can see God’s love in the midst
  of a Hurricane Katrina or a Haiti earthquake;
• When you can see God in the delicate shades
  of an evening sunset;
• When you can see God’s love in the faces of
  convicted criminals;
  198 The Struggle to Keep Centered
• When you can see God’s majesty in the beauty
  of the Crab Nebula;
• When you can see God’s presence in the
  the pulsating heartbeat of an unborn fetus;
• When you can look at a piece of bread in
  the Eucharist and see The Master;
• When you can see the sunset paint
  unbelievable colors on the trees and then think
  how good God is;
• When you can see God in routine tasks at
  work or the office;
• When you can see what is invisible beneath
  visible reality and find God;
• When you can see God’s love in those with
  whom you disagree, such as pro-life proponents,
  gay and lesbian lifestyles, proponents of
  free sexual gratification without a relationship,
  and those who are anti-God;
• When you can look back in time to Galaxy
  Cluster MACS J0707 as seen by the Hubble
  telescope as sense God’s invisible hand;
• When you can see God’s presence as a grand
  daughter plays on the swing set with her mom
  and dad;
• When you can touch God by touching your
  being a responsible caregiver for parents;
• When you can touch the face of God by
  touching the face of your autistic or mentally/
  physically challenged child;
• When you can touch the warmth of the Sun on
  your skin and it reminds you of the grace of
  God wrapping you in love;
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• When you can feel the chill of the Winter
  season and think of who protects us from
  having cold hearts;
• When you hear someone denying
  everything you believe about God and allow
  they to choose their belief;
• When you can taste the blessings of the Lord
  before each meal you eat;
• When you feed the hungry food for the spirit;
• When you can think about God in the midst of
  a hurricane or earthquake without blaming Him
  for a natural calamity;
• When the standard you use to measure others
  in the one you, yourself use to measure your
  behavior;
• When you can look upon the Church and see
  its imperfections, the sinfulness of its people,
  and the seeming dichotomy between what
  they say and what they do;
• When you can see the Ideal is the Real and still
  keep your spiritual sanity;
• When you can fight for your spiritual heritage
  in the midst of bureaucratic bungling;
• When you can clearly see what is evil and
  resist its temptation;
• When you can pray to God unconditionally
  without expecting anything in return;
• When you can glorify the Father through the
  Son, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, you
  will have learned how to live with the struggles
  of this lifetime and prepare yourself to
  live…Forever.

The Struggle to Keep Centered
Are you afraid to die? There is one struggle that all spiritual persons face.

Be they ministers, rabbis, priests, or imams. It is the
fundamental core struggle of faith that, like all things
human on this earth, corrupts unless refreshed. This
is the temptation that comes to someone when they
face all this spirituality, all the belief of years of faithful
practice, all the Bible studies, all the good they
have done, and ask the question, “Is there really a
Heaven after I did, or is it just like turning off the lights?”
Some spiritual writers call it the “dark night of the
soul”.You may wish to read it in the mystical literature
of St. John of the Cross. http://www.ourladys
warriors.org/saints/darknite.htm This is the very real
struggle of not only Faith but of Hope, that words spoken
to us by The Master, are true. In classic myth form (like
the stories of Ulysses, Jason, Beowulf, Hercules, Samson,
and Christ) the hero has trials and seemingly loses all, only to
resurrect from the dead and achieve ultimate victory over
life’s struggles. Was religion invented by humans? Of
course, it was. The difference is that these humans were instruments
from God to lead us to enlightenment and give
us Hope. Death, like birth, is only a natural milestone.
The Struggle to Keep Centered
Are you afraid to live?
In my book, You Know You Are Going to Die, Now
What? I write about what happens when you know
that you are going to die. What is singular about this
book is, that it doesn’t matter if you know you are going
to die in the next three weeks, or whenever. The
preparation is exactly the same. You prepare for death
by preparing for life. It doesn’t make any difference
when the world will end, the preparation is the same.
it does not make any difference if you have incurable
cancer or have AIDS. The preparation is the same.
Read Matthew 11:34-40. You should love God with
your WHOLE heart, with ALL your soul, and with ALL
your mind. Because we are just tenants in this world, we
are not able to love with ALL of our hearts, but we can
struggle to do so. Therein lies the secret of spirituality.
You treasure the moment and find ways to take your
experiences and relationships with you to Heaven. In
the book, I speak about packing for the trip, the most
important one you will ever make. You will take this trip
by yourself, the same way you came into this world, but
you won’t be able to make it without help from others.
The Struggle to Keep Centered
Are you afraid to die?
It is normal to have doubts about what The Master
told us.
It was 1:30 a.m. on a Friday. I woke up in a panic, thinking
that I was dying. Where does that come from? Three
years earlier I did die with cardiac arrest. I went to the
Emergency Room at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and
they checked me out from head to toe. No problems,
except one–I was afraid I was going to die and that there
was no afterlife. This is the dark night of the soul, spoken
of in hushed words by the Mystics. It is the panic attack
of the soul, not the body. One result of this experience
was, I was not able to go to sleep without medication.
That lasted for thirty days until my spiritual universe
once again took over the mental and physical universes.
This is the struggle of faith and there is only one cure–
Hope. I hope you noticed that Hope is capitalized. It
means Hope in the spiritual sense. This is God’s Hope,
not ours. You and I merely tap into God’s pure energy
to help us. Hope is the anchor on the boat of Faith. The
more I focused on my center, my core, the more I reached
an equilibrium or balance between what is and what will
be. It is not an easy struggle, but God’s grace is sufficient.
Final Learning Points

1. Once you have discovered your center, you
   will spend the rest of your life trying to keep it
   from wandering away.
2. Individuals struggle with keeping themselves
   centered. So do churches. Read I Corinthians
3. St. Paul is telling the church at Corinth that
   they should not harbor people who live public
   lives of incest. The church, according to St.
   Paul should expel from the body of believers
   those who do not repent and change their
   habits. It sounds harsh in the light of the freethinking
   theologies of niceness and relativism
   of our Twenty-First Century. It is. The core
   message passed on to the Corinthians is one of
   refocusing on the message of The Master.
4. There is a high cost to belief in The Master.
   It means you are not the center of the universe.
   The price to believe like the early, Apostolic
   Church is high, but so are the benefits. The
   principles of behavior come from the tradition
   of the Law, interpreted by The Master, not
   from the morality that makes you feel good.
   Not everyone can take it. Church
   denominations have split apart over this.
   The example in question is the split between the
   Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church,
   The USA.
5. You are not the center of your spiritual
   universe.
6. Our default is our animal self. As a human,
   we have the ability to reason, but we still keep
   those animal tendencies. That is why we do
   dumb things, which professing to believe in
   God. That goodness is for forgiveness of sins
   and repentance.
7. The whole purpose of this series of thoughts
   is to allow you to explore the struggles that
   we all have as we believe our way to Heaven.
   It is not easy, but it is possible with grace
   from God.
8. We don’t just get on that big conveyor belt of
   life when we choose a center for our lives. It
   takes work. To see God, we must be disposed to wait.
   Read Matthew 11:25-27.
9. You can lose your faith if you don’t sustain it.
   How can you sustain it? Read Acts 11:17-34.
10. You can know all there is to know about the
    Scriptures, be able to quote chapter and verse,
    and still miss the point of the message from
    The Master. The whole person must be
    involved–body, mind, and spirit. Read I
    Corinthians 13:1-13. The greatest of the three
    things that last is love. Love is what Heaven
    is all about. You need Faith for salvation; you
    need Hope to sustain you in the dark times,
    when Faith falters; you need Love to pull you
    from the darkness into the light of service.
    Final Learning Points
11. If you are spiritual, you live in a foreign land.
    You must struggle to keep your ice from
    melting. you must constantly mow your lawn,
    or the weeds of your animal past from covering
    up your path.
12. Faith in The Master helps to keep you
    anchored. Hope is the virtue that our
    destiny will not end in darkness and produces
    grace to help keep us centered. We have
    Love with The Master because he has
    made us adopted sons and daughters of the
    Father.
13. Don’t try to prove the reality of one universe
    with the tools of another one. What is true
    in one universe must be true in all of them.
14. The real depth and strength of the whole Bible
    is to prepare us to win the struggles we must
    face in this life, so that we can inherit the
    Kingdom of Heaven. The stories of Genesis
    and the remaining Torah confirm that we
    humans don’t do what we should to get to
    Heaven.
15. Once you accept that there is a center outside
    of yourself, you are not of this world. You are
    a pilgrim in a foreign land. You must be on
    guard against the culture in which you live.
    You must struggle not accept what is popular
    and convenient as your center.
    206 Final Learning Points
16. Living in three universes is a chore. Read
    Matthew 5: 1-12 for what God expects us to
    do. The expectations of God are fierce but
    possible. They are not possible in three
    universes. Only the energy from God, The
    Spirit, can compel us forward and propel us
    towards our destiny.
17. The struggles you have with living in the
    The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is the effect of
    the original sin of Adam and Eve. Read Romans 5.
18. The following items are struggles all of us face
    while we live on this earth. They become
    tolerable because of our faith community. They
    become possible through the energy we receive
    from The Father through the Son by means of
    the Holy Spirit. Too theoretical? Try this. You
    are to be masters of your body, says St. Paul.
    Read Romans 6:12-19.
19. Whenever you read the words sin or flesh, it
    refers to living in just two universes. You are a
    bad person, you just missed the mark.
20. You have an inward struggle. Read Romans
    7:14-25. The reason you need constant
    refueling, constant reformation, constant
    renewal, constant forgiveness, constant
    repentance, constant prayer, constant
    attendance at the Eucharist is due to this
    struggle. Another word for making all things
    new is, re-centering yourself.
21. Sin has many meanings, depending on who
    taught you its meaning. Here is a meaning you
    might not know. An archer commits sin when
    he aims for the bulls-eye and misses the whole
    target. He is a bad archer? What should he do?
    Make a recommitment to excellence and try
    again. Will this archer make the bull’s eye every
    time he shoots? No. Does he want to make a
    bull’s eye every time he shoots? If he has a
    passion for excellence, you bet. What does this
    story tell you about sin and our personal
    reformation?
22. Sin is a complex idea to grasp because it has so
    many layers. In the struggle between sin and
    grace, it means your animal past missed the
    mark and was born into a sinful condition
    (original sin), a sinful past into which it is easy
    to fall back at any time. That is why good
    priests sometimes do abusive things to the
    young, ministers defraud their congregations,
    and teachers abuse their students. There is a
    very thin line between animality and
    spirituality. Only two of us reached perfection.
    Read Galatians 5:13-26.
23. “If we say we have no sin in us, we are
    deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the
    truth, but if we acknowledge our sins…then
    God will forgive us.” Read 1 John 1:8-10.
24. How does sin fit into the struggles we all
    have? How does hope complement faith? Are
    faith, hope, and love dead words or dynamic
    principles of energy? How can we activate the
    energy of God? How can we have in our minds
    the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5)?
    These are the challenges of those who take up
    their crosses daily and live out their lives in a
    foreign country.
25. The Bible is the story of how people struggled
    to overcome obstacles to keep their
    relationship with The Father intact. Even
    though there are inconsistencies in the
    Scriptures, a revealed truth transcends the
    the limited information we have at this time in our
    study of what is historically correct, or
    time frames that are out of whack.
26. When our beloved President John F. Kennedy
    was killed in Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald,
    many people focused on various conspiracy
    theories floating around about who shot him
    and how many shots were fired? When all
    you focus on are conspiracies, that is all
    you will see. Likewise, when you track the
    Scriptures as conspiracies of a group of old
    men to perpetuate the myth of Christ, all you
    will see people scurrying around making
    up stories of how the resurrection really happened.
    Read I Corinthians 15.
27. The archetypal sin of Adam and Eve was to try
    to make themselves God. That is another way
    of saying that they, not God, were their own
    centers. We bear the effects of this original sin
    in our behavior, to this very day. It is a way to
    explain why good people do such foolish and
    sinful things. We wobble down the path of
    righteousness careening from side through the
    years. Without forgiveness, we would be lost.
    Without grace, we would not be able to call
    God, the Father.
28. Pride keeps us from acknowledging The
    Master is Lord. Like Adam and Eve, even
    today, we want to make up our own rules and
    justify our actions as meaningful and
    wonderful. We have Scripture to keep us
    anchored in righteousness. Read Galatians 5.
29. Don’t judge others, as to their motivations and
    suitability to be saved. Remember, if you are
    spiritual, you play in God’s playground, not
    yours. Romans 10:13 tells us “…for everyone
    who calls upon the name of the Lord will be
    saved.” You are not the Lord, are you?
30. All of us struggle to see, to hear, to talk to,
    to taste, and to touch God. All of this assumes
    that you believe God is real and exists now.
    Humans are not made for this world alone,
    although we accomplished our search for
    meaning and enlightenment here on earth.
31. The cost of discipleship is high. First, your
    the purpose is not fulfilled in this life, but the
    means to reach your goal depends on the
    meaning you discover in this life. Next, what
    you do now is critically important for your
    future.
32. There is a reason why the first commandment
    from God is the admonition that there can be
    only one god. This archetypal sin is with us
    today. The effects of this original sin permeate
    the secular society in which we live. Not was it the
    sin of Adam and Eve, but we must struggle
    mightily to keep ourselves from being our own
    center. Isn’t it ironic that the first sin of Adam
    and Eve was that of pride in wanting to be
    god, but the second reconciliation was with
    The Master and was one of humility (see
    Philippians 2; 5-12).
33. Be careful about what you focus on, you may get
    what you want. In the struggle to be spiritual,
    you have the holiness and wholeness of God on
    the one hand and the sinfulness of the whole
    human race on the other. The four marks of the
    authentic church are One, Holy, Catholic,
    and Apostolic. Holy, in this context, means
    God, The Master, and The Spirit are Holy, as
    well as the church in Heaven. Be careful. What
    you focus on will be your god. Focus on the
    holiness of God and not the sinfulness of all
    humans.
    
34. Pride is the central downfall of humanity. It
    still is. If God is Love, God is also Humility.
    Humans must learn it the hard way. The story
    of Adam and Eve, set in the perfection of the
    Garden of Eden, answers the questions: Why is
    life so imperfect? What happened that we have
    to suffer, endure pain, and finally die? Is there
    hope? Once out of the Garden of Eden, Adam
    and Eve experienced nakedness, or their
    vulnerability to the elements, old age, and
    pride. Read Genesis 2 and 3 to get a flavor of
    why we experience the effects of sin.
35. The effects of original sin mean that, even
    though the Master restored the covenant
    through his death and resurrection, we still
    must struggle mightily to maintain ourselves
    from falling back into bad habits. Read
    Galatians 5 to get a flavor of what St. Paul says
    are the fruits of the Spirit.
36. All humans come into the world in a state
    of original sin. We are washed by The Father
    with the water of the Son and the refreshment
    of the Spirit to enable us to be sons and
    daughters, heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.
    We have moved from the Garden of Eden to
    the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you know the
    significance of the switch? We continue to
    experience the effects of sin, those tugs and
    pulls to entice us to put other gods at our
    center. We continue to experience this until we
    reach our destiny… The Kingdom of Heaven.
    
37. The struggles we face are due to our
    acceptance of being spiritual, spiritual apes.
    Once we say that there is a force outside of
    ourselves, a destiny beyond death, a way of
    acting that prepares us to meet our destiny
    in Heaven, then we are at odds with the
    world. We are strangers living in a foreign
    and, world of two universes. Our Kingdom is
    not of this world, yet it is through the world and
    living boldly that we discover meaning.
38. When you accept our destiny as centered
    around The Master, then you stand all reality
    on its proverbial end. Those who live in three
    universes employ three rules of spirituality:
39. The Rule of Threes: Ever wonder why the
    critically important spiritual relationships are
    in threes? The Trinity? Three Universes instead
    of Two to get to Heaven? Of course, these
    are assumptions that I am making, but maybe it
    will enable you to challenge the status quo.
40. The Rule of Revolving Centers: Once you
    have selected an authentic center for your
    life, you spend the rest of your time trying to
    keep yourself centered. Your spirituality
    continues to struggle with our animal
    nature.
41. The Rule of Opposites: In the world of two
    universes, might makes right. In the world of
    three universes, spirituality being the highest
    form of reality, the opposite is true. Blessed are
    the peacemakers. Read Matthew 5.
    Final Learning Points 213
42. How do you explain the imperfect work in
    which you live? Read Genesis 2 and 3 to get a
    flavor of why there is imperfection. Read
    Romans 5 and Colossians 1 to see how all
    humans, wounded by original sin, are made
    whole once more. It is important to note that
    we still have to struggle to keep ourselves
    centered, even as we become adopted sons and
    daughters of the Father through The Son, with
    the energy of the Holy Spirit.
43. Most of what happens in the spiritual universe
    is not magic, titanic battles between good
    and evil, or even sweeping miracles that show
    that God is visible to us. God works
    unobtrusively and quietly through your
    miracles when you help those in spiritual
    and corporal need as though The Master
    Himself were here today. You are the universal
    translator between what is real and what is
    ideal. The language is the love and a wonderful
    statement of how it influenced St. Paul may
    be found in Philippians 3:8-16 In two universes
    (physical and mental) what is real is
    seen as being what you can see and what is
    the idea is that to which you aspire but is not
    necessarily present. In three universes (physical,
    mental, and spiritual) reality is turned on its
    head. Reread page 231. What is ideal is now
    real. In Heaven, there is no reality, only the
    ideal of God, which, after all, is the ultimate
    reality.
    
44. It is easy to make yourself God. Just put
    yourself at the center of your life. The great
    paradox of spirituality is that, by putting The
    Master’s redeeming act of love as your center,
    you not only retain your individuality but also
    align your purpose with that of God.
45. Do animals have sexual immorality? They
    procreate when in season, they don’t marry,
    although some form lasting mates throughout
    their lifetimes. Animals live in the physical
    universe. Humans live in the physical and
    mental universes. We are animals but with a
    difference. We have the ability to say YES or
    NO to our activity. Our sexual activity has
    consequences. When someone adds a spiritual
    universe to the mix, you have three universes.
    This is the universe of free choice, of
    consequences, where God’s values are center.
    The spiritual universe is God’s playground,
    and we can enter it only by free choice. Once
    there, we don’t make up the rules, we spend
    our whole lifetime struggling with what these
    rules are and trying to keep ourselves centered.
    We are pilgrims in a foreign land. The foreign
    land is the physical and mental universes of
    animals and those who have not selected God
    as their center.
46. Heaven begins on earth when you accept that
    God is your center and your purpose in life is
    to prepare to live in Heaven…Forever.
    
47. Wonder if there was a planet out there where
    Adam and Eve did not eat of the tree of the
    knowledge of good and evil? Would they have
    developed without the overshadowing of
    original sin? Would they be perfect, as The
    Master and his mother are perfect? There is
    only one God, one Master, one Spirit. Truth on
    the earth is one. That truth extends to the whole
    universe, wherever that is.
48. If there was no original sin, we would have no
    need for forgiveness. There would be no
    imperfection. There would be no struggle to
    keep ourselves centered on God’s principles.
    We would be living in the Garden of Eden. As
    it is spiritual apes must struggle against the
    effects of that original sin to move to the next
    level–the spiritual universe. Our destiny is not
    of this world but of the next.
49. Forgiveness is the ability to recognize who you
    are in the sight of God and make all things
    new. It is not a license for licentiousness.
    Read Galatians 5:19-29. The Master was very
    tolerant of our human fragility, our stepping
    over the bounds of righteousness. To keep
    asking for forgiveness is not a sign of
    weakness, but a recognition that God knows
    our struggle and is a patient Father.
50. The reward for trying to live in the spiritual
    universe is everlasting life. Mark 10:28-31.
    
51. The struggle of the spirit and the flesh is one
    that won’t quit until you pass from this life to
    the next. This is a worldview, a way to look at
    reality that includes the help that God gives
    you to fulfill your destiny. In the Garden of
    Eden, Adam and Eve fell out of grace with
    God. In the Kingdom of Heaven, Christ
    reestablishes the covenant link with the Father.
    Because of this, no one goes to the Father
    except through the Son, Our Master, Our
    Mediator, by means of the Holy Spirit. Read
    Hebrews 8:13 to see how to keep this covenant
    new.
52. In each age, The Master lives through His
    Living Body, the Church. The notion of
    continuity is evident in Acts when Matthias
    was elected to fulfill the number of the Twelve
    vacated by the suicide of Judas Iscariot. Read
    Acts 1:15-20.
53. Whatever happened to the mystery? The emphasis
    on knowing in Western thinking carries
    over to theology. The more we know, for instance
    in the Scriptures, the more we can
    control. In Eastern thinking, knowing implies a
    level of unknowing called mystery. The mystery
    is as real as what is seen, heard, tasted,
    smelled, and tasted. In mystery, what is known
    is not what it seems. The Scriptures were written and read by people who valued the mystery
    of faith. That is a lesson we could learn more about.
54. If you are feeling your spiritual muscles and want to look outside of the box, make sure you master what is inside the box first. I used to think I mastered what was on the inside. Now, I am content just to realize how to wait for the Lord and ask, How can I do your will?
    
55. Ten Blessings to Help You Keep Your Faith in the Struggle for Meaning
    a. Blessed are those who recognize that what you
    see with your eyes is not always all there is to
    reality; you will be able to see beyond space
    and time.
    b. Blessed are those who struggle with their
    humanity; you will attain that which you place
    at your center.
    c. Blessed are those who see that forgiveness is a
    way of becoming more human and attaining
    the perfection of our nature. You will live in
    Heaven, what you have strived for on this earth.
    e. Blessed are you when people throw unbelief in
    your face and ridicule your practice. Your
    destiny is to be a spiritual ape in the Kingdom
    of Heaven.
    f. Blessed are you who strive to know, love, and
    serve God in this life. You will be happy with
    Him in Heaven.
    g. Blessed are you who see the big picture of
    where you fit into God’s plan. Your destiny is
    to be with God…Forever.
    h. Blessed are you who are not sidetracked with
    false gods like money, power, fame, sexuality,
    drinking to excess, or pride. Your reward in
    this life is to fulfill your nature as a spiritual
    ape.
    i. Blessed are you when you plug into God’s own
    pure energy, you will be satisfied according to
    your capacity to know, love, and serve God.
    j. Blessed are you who give glory and honor to
    the Father through The Master with the
    energy of the Holy Spirit. You are living
    what you will experience in Heaven.
    k. Blessed are you when you prepare each day for
    the trip to Heaven. Your reward is to take with
    you that which God values most about your
    life.
56. Being spiritual is not easy. There are so many
    temptations to un-believe, to place false gods
    in place on the one, true one, to discount the
    Church as being anachronistic and made just to
    lead you in the wrong direction. The streams of
    false centers become loudest when we are
    getting closer to the truth. The howls of
    irrelevance are placed in public places to
    seduce the faithful to un-believe.
57. It all comes down to this. Humans developed
    reason for a reason. We can make choices that
    discover meaning about why we are here on
    earth. Humans developed religion for a reason.
    We got most of it right, from reasoning about
    it, but had to have God tell us the rest. The
    Master, both God and Human not only told us
    the purpose of life, but showed us how to live
    in a condition of unconditional love…Forever.
    The catch is, that Adam and Eve committed the
    original sin to break the covenant with God.
    They wanted to be god. Humans wandered in
    the wilderness of sinfulness and worshipped
    false gods for many centuries. Our Master
    came down from Heaven to restore the
    covenant with God or atone for all of our sins.
    Without spirituality, we are just so many
    evolved apes. With the capacity and the
    capability to live Forever, some of us evolve
    into spiritual apes. The effects of the sin of
    Adam and Eve still haunt us. We are strangers
    in a foreign land when we choose to follow the
    path that God mapped out for us. It is a path
    where we struggle with our animal selves, with
    pride versus gaining humility, with knowing
    what is ideal and yet living in the imperfect,
    real world. We have helped to keep us on the
    righteous path and food for the journey. We
    don’t always stay within God’s guidelines.
    When we stray, we admit our error and ask for
    help to get back to where we should be. Life is
    about making all things new.
58. We are not orphans. We are heirs of the new
    Kingdom of Heaven promised to us by The
    Master and prepare for us from the first
    moment of intelligent progression. There is purpose and
    design to the seeming chaos. We have reason
    to decipher the signs and come to a realization
    of the truth. The Master has made our
    inheritance possible through Faith and given us
    the gift of Hope to help us on our way.
59. It is important to see that each of us makes the
    choice to be a spiritual ape, but it is also
    critical to see the context of the Grand Design
    of the Father. Faith has two dimensions, that of
    the individual response and the communal
    context of all believers who have gone before
    us. This includes all humans who, in the mercy
    of God, have an opportunity to be with
    God…Forever. The destiny of humans is to be
    one with the Godhead–three persons but one
    nature. Our heritage on earth is what has been
    handed on to us from the beginning. Not all
    religions have this heritage; some have made
    up religion in their own likeness. God will
    judge them, each according to their heart.
60. God won’t ensure salvation for us. We must do
    that through the free choice of Faith, Hope and
    Love. What God can ensure is our destiny and
    the help to get there. The Master walked the
    way for us and we must walk in his path. Read
    Philippians 2:5-12.
    
61. Should we wander off the path, we have a way
    to get back and restore our covenant with God.
    We have a way to sustain what is life-giving
    through marriage and what is spiritual through
    orders. There are many who would dissuade us
    from following the sign of contradiction. What
    seems foolish to those who consider
    themselves enlightened, is actually the wisdom
    of God.
62. Be strong in your faith. Be resolved in your
    Hope that the words of The Master are true. Be
    constant in your charity to one another.
63. Charity, the unconditional love of God for us,
    is the pure energy of God’s nature. We use it to
    get us to Heaven. It will sustain us..Forever. St.
    Paul told us that: “the things that no eye has
    seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the
    mind of men, all that God has prepared for
    those who love him.” Read I Corinthians 2:9-
64. What does this tell you about being
    spiritual?
65. Spirituality is about making all things new.
66. The Master is our mediator between what we
    can’t see and what we can see. We Hope that
    the words given to us are true and that we will
    make it to Heaven on the other side.
    Confronting our own death is the ultimate
    struggle, one that involves Faith, Hope and
    Love.
    
    “Father, I want those you have given
    me to be with me where I am, so that
    they may always see the glory you have
    given me because you loved me before
    the foundation of the world.”
    John 17:24
    
67. My Final Wish
    May your journey be meaningful and
    may you never lose sight of your center.
    May you have friends to help you in
    your sorrow and rejoice with you in
    your good fortune. May the good you
    have experienced on earth be yours in
    heaven.
    So be it now,
    so be it Forever.