Having been concerned recently about relating as a potential minister to a possible future congregation, I had two transformative discoveries catalyzed by Margaret Benefiel’s book The Soul of a Leader: first the realization of myself together with a future congregation as a living organism, and second, a new level of self–realization—of myself as soul. The next day, thinking of “saint Amy,” as I call the manager of a nearby store, I experienced a great revelation of mercy as divine love applied to the very imperfections of such a congregation.[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4983415/height/0/width/0/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”” width=””]
To do the Father’s will is indeed a joy beyond the veil. It is indeed the doorway to an expansion of life, a new quality of life. It allows the doer of his will to receive all of the spiritual blessing that he is capable of comprehending, especially the application of love which is mercy.
When I think of divine mercy being applied to incomplete creatures like us, I think of several area in which mercy is applied. To be delivered from the animal response to stimuli is indeed a merciful intervention. To have the moral consciousness enlarged beyond the narrow confines of one’s immediate self interest and free of moral infirmities is indeed an application of mercy. To have the intellect free of superstition, biases, and unreasonable fear is indeed a gift of mercy.
To be delivered of the fear of God into the love of God is beyond anything that words can describe. Only the experience of it can give it justice. To discover that God is love, gives us the consciousness of living in a friendly universe and our safety in that universe and fills our souls with unspeakable joy.
And finally to realize that the Infinite, absolute, eternal, all powerful all merciful God is our spiritual Father and we are his spiritual sons an daughters is a truth that is overwhelming, the total consequences of which are beyond our powers to comprehend. It will require an eternity to fully realize this great truth.
And my understanding is this mercy is available to us by our simple faith decision to do the Father’s will.
Dr. Perry
Thanks much for your testimony and reflection. It is very important for people to hear from a variety of folks who obviously speak from their own personal experience of making these discoveries for themselves. It encourages us. And every next person who has such realizations to share expands our consciousness of what is possible. No two persons say it the same way, or trace the same path through the infinitely nuanced network of possible discoveries. And we stimulate each other to look again, to see more next time, to spiral around into familiar territory when we have reached a plateau and are ready for the next layer of realization. The only danger is to assume (unconsciously what we would never say to ourselves), “Now I have the definitive insight into this spiritual reality.” Once you have seen layers added upon layers for decades, you finally get the message that this process continues beyond any humanly conceivable horizon.
When thinking of Our All-Merciful Father, I remember a quote from Shakespeare’s, “The Merchant of Venice,” that our sophomore class was required to memorize in high school. I did once know the line numbers, but, here is how it goes: Portia: “The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rains from heaven, where it is twice blest,. It blesseth him who gives and him whom receives. It is an attribute of God, Himself, and mercy doth showeth liketh God’s, when mercy seasons justice.”
When thinking of the way that Christ rules the earth in individual hearts and in the kingdom to come, He rules by Truth and Grace.
As The Father Loves all His Children, the Son, like The Father loves all His brothers and sisters.
I was given a beautiful Jerusalem cross by a dear friend of mine after her return from visiting The Ho;y Land in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and many areas nearby. The meaning of the Jerusalem Cross is that The Word of Christ must be spread to all four corners of the earth, as Christ is The Word of God, we spread love, compassion, caring considerateness… of Our Lord and Savior. The Jerusalem Cross has 2 equadistant crossbars and may have 4 rubies representing the four piercings of Our Lord’s Body on the Cross. Whatever meridian line or latitude line, the Word of God is to be spread world=wide.
To be a minister to a congregation is a beautiful way to spread “The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of God. It is the utmost one can do to reach many people. The many holy virtues taught by St. Paul to so many differing people is a great example to me.
Wherever we go, as believers in Christ, we should all be ministers and we are if we act in the ways He taught us. Most importantly, as I know that you are very aware, God loves All of His Children, and all of us are brothers and sisters in Christ. Though we may come from Christian backgrounds, our Jewish, Sikh, Muslim, Hindi, etc. are all our brothers and sisters, too, and all religious backgrounds are of beauty, too!
Thank you, Paula. Followers of Jesus do well to spread his teachings and to welcome all persons of faith as members in the spiritual family of God.
Oh Jeff,
How beautiful and inspiring this message is to me. To understand more of how God loves us is magnificent. Your words took me to the Beatitude “blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” I now have a deeper understanding of God’s Fatherly love and how I can manifest that Fatherly Love in my life. Thank you, thank you.
And thank you, Susan, for completing the circuit of communication to let me know that you had been blessed in this reading.