How to Know God

Part of the Future Testament Series of Documents

August, 2012
Ahyh

How to Know God

Since You Asked
Recently, in the summer of 2012, Libby and I met with a friend who, after a fairly lengthy discussion said, I do believe in God, but I want to do more than just have God in my head. I want to actually feel God, I want to see God, I want God to be more real. What do I do? This is what we call the beginning of true spirituality. Much of what we call spirituality today, walking through the hills and enjoying the woods, listening to some New Age music or lighting incense, may delight us but it is not actually spirituality. When the person seeks to go beyond mortality, to go beyond simply singing songs about God, sitting in the pew and hearing about God, or having faith in God, and wants to take that step into the great unknown, to see, smell, feel and absolutely know God, then that person is ready to truly begin to make the realm of the Spirit, the invisible oneness that is the Source of All, the focus of their lives. Their spiritual life has begun. The purpose of this brief document is to give the best answers I have to the question, What do I do to make God real? Whether or not I am qualified to answer the question (or even to approach it) is up to the individual reader, but I was indeed asked, with a sign of hopefulness in the eye, as though I could shed some light on the subject. For good, bad or otherwise, I have been consciously, deliberately seeking for God since 1972. My parents did me the immeasurable honor of not raising me in the church, so I was free to explore spirituality without any denominational prejudices when, by grace, at the age of 14 the overwhelming desire in my heart and mind was to answer the question, How is it possible that anything exists at all??!? I, too, have sought beyond the boundaries of belief, seeking to become one with God. Having played the organ in Lutheran Churches for decades, it appears to me that the highest form of communion most christians are invited to is to feel a sense of forgiveness. What happens after the forgiveness? What is the next step? What do we do when we are ready for the realm of the Spirit to become utterly, totally real to us? For good, bad or otherwise then, the decision of which lies entirely in your hands, this is my five-step answer.

Section 1 - Unencumbered
The Special Person
When you desire to truly know, see and feel God, you must begin with certain understandings. 1. You are already a special person. You have entered the rarified realm of a very extraordinary persons who seeks to go beyond the norm. Remember, as statistics teach us, some 95% (if not more) of our fellow human beings tend to accept as true whatever Mommys and Daddys socially induced religion tells us is true. To go beyond its dogma and rituals is a very rare thing, indeed.

2. But on top of that, you have to recognize that you have already heard the call. As the prophet of old said, Here I am, Lord, send me. (Isaiah 6:8) And an essential realization is, as the ancients have told us, every single time a person takes one step toward God, God has already taken 10,000 steps toward that person. So, if you will sit and think for a moment how many things had to happen in order for you to have the option to say, I want to draw closer to God.This is a miracle. The saints, the prophets, the struggles, indeed, the wars, the writings, the communications, everything that has led to this point in your life, so that you have a brain, you have a heart, you have the awareness that you want moreclearly, God has taken many more than a mere 10,000 steps in the history of the Universe to bring you to this stage. 3. Realize then, that to start with prayer, you know in your heart that this must be possible. It is important to believe with faith that your prayers will be answered and as you pray in simply humility, that you desire to reach out to God, you must have faith that God hears and will answer. Pray that the Lord will extend His grace to you and that He, Himself, will show the answers to the questions that you asked of Libby and I. Its very well and good to ask friends. It is, in many ways, essential. But first and foremost, we have to go to God. This is pretty obvious: If we want to seek God, then the primary place to go with that concern is to the Lord, Himself! 4. You are already good. You are already blessed. You already have in your mind and heart and soul, an awareness of Divinity. Think of it. Most people are satisfied, if they have any kind of religious life at all, to once a week sing a couple of hymns about Gods forgiveness, receive communion and go on their merry way. You say you have the desire to see God, you have the desire to know God. That desire is, in and of itself, a fulfillment of what you say you want. In other words, just the fact that you want more than satisfied the normal pew-warmer is direct evidence that you already do see more of the truth of God, and already do feel more of the presence of God than the overwhelming majority of our brothers and sisters ever will in this life.

Getting Ready
When we go on vacation, we want to make sure that everything is prepared. We have our bags packed, usually we have our reservations, we have the dog and the cat taken care of, we make sure that the newspaper is stopped and that the stove is, in fact, turned off. We want to make sure we can leave home for one, two or eighteen weeks, knowing that everything is in order and everything will be fine. In other words, we want to be able to go on our vacation, giving it our full attention. We do the same thing, usually, with movies, books, music that we listen to. We want to make sure we have done our chores, and we are now able to spend the next hour and a half focusing ourselves on whatever it is we are being entertained by. This focusing is exactly what is necessary in order to be ready to go on your journey to Holy Jerusalem, the City where Yhwh lives. You have to become unencumbered with all of the trivialities of life that can so easily bind us up in order to be able, with a clear mind and a clear heart, to move forward. In other words: It is best if you can have your body in relatively good working order. It is best if you can have your finances in relatively good working order. Large amounts of debt work like a slaves yoke and create a burden so huge on the soul that its very, very difficult to escape from. You want to make sure, as much as possible, that you are emotionally unencumbered with worry, with anxiety, with hatred, with regret. You want to make sure that your mind is free of the anxieties of the world.

The key word is unencumbered. If youre going to play the piano you have to be free of all the things that would hold your hands from the keyboard. If youre going to sing a song, you have to be free of all the things that will hold your voice from praise. So, too, if youre going to embark on something as daunting as questing for Divinity, you have to make sure that as much as is reasonable, you are able to do so. This is does not mean that only perfected people can join the parade of the saints. No. Certainly all of us have physical, emotional, financial, mental challenges that we must deal with. But it is to say that, if theres something you know that you have to take care of, something you have done wrong, something you could fix up, something you could improve, it is really important to take care of that before you attempt any serious spiritual discipline; otherwise, youre simply going to be held back. As Jesus says, If youre brother or sister has something against you, leave your offering at the altar and go take care of your sister or brother. (Matthew 5:23 & 24) If you have unresolved issues, (physical, emotional, or financial,) it is best whenever possible to take care of those up front. This is one of the marvelous things about the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program. They make sure that toward the front-end of the program you make amends, as much as humanly possible, for any harm that you have caused to other people. If you are grotesquely spending money you do not have to buy trinketsif you are spilling others secrets and betraying their friendshipif you are full of dark anger, hatred and enmity...if your brain is clouded with sarcasm, with despair then what do you really think you will accomplish in your desire for Divinity? Again, if a piano player has three broken fingers, how much will the piano player be able to accomplish? If you have broken your foot, it will be necessary to withdraw from dancing lessons for a while. No, God does not expect or need you to be a perfect person in order to begin your spiritual journey. But, within reason, anything that you know at this point you can fix, you should fix. Remember, this section is called Unencumbered. You have to be free from the past. You must forgive as much as you are capable of forgiving of what has gone on before. You must be without attachments to anything else that would get in your way of seeing God. In other words, do you really want to do this? The story is told of a lady who listens to a phenomenal piano concert and afterwards, tells the pianist, I would give my entire life to be able to play the piano like that. At which point, the concert pianist looked at her with a certain amount of distain and says, Forgive me, Madam, but I have given my entire life to be able to play the piano like this. It is one thing to say it, another to mean it, and quite another altogether to do it. Certain things can be added to a busy life. If were already doing 27 things in a given day, its relatively easy to call up and have pizza delivered. Even if we have a too full schedule, its still relatively easy to arrange to have your car painted. But, some things require concentration and devotion beyond the norm. I propose that being an Olympic athlete or concert musician are examples of tasks that require almost single-minded concentration, beyond what mortals (normal, regular folk) can really imagine. Imagine being an Olympic athlete, spending six or eight hours a day, seven days a week to try to shave off 1/10th of a second in a foot race. The point is if you are seeking to be a world-class anything, youre going to have to have single-minded focus, which leads us to Section 2.

Section 2 - Beginning the Journey

Seek Ye First
Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 & 6), in as few words as possible, with as clear and easily understood message as possible, Seek first for Gods Kingdom and His Righteousness and everything else will be added to you. All of the encumbrances that we spoke of in the previous section, boil down to you focusing the totality of you on God. For you see, by definition, God is the Source and origin of everything. God is the Source and origin of all that you are; therefore, if youre going to seek for God, you have to seek for God with everything that you are, with your body, with your emotions, with your desires, with your finances, with your mind, with your Spirit. Everything that you are has to be working together in this direction, at the exclusion, at the beginning of your journey, of everything else. You need time where nothing else matters, not your children, not your finances, not your body, not your relationships, nothing. To seek ye first, foremost and only the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. That Righteousness means to be morally upright, one of the hindrances that we spoke of in the previous section. With that focus, you are now ready to begin.

Balance
An important note here: Long term, a sustained life must have a balance. Balance is one of what we call our Messiah Lessons: Lessons that teach you how to become the Christ. A balance between your money, your recreation, your service to others and your seeking for God. (We direct your attention to Supplement 2 of TFT.) But at the beginning of your spiritual path, you must have time that you can dedicate wholly and exclusively to your Quest. For example, in a long 60, 70, 80 year life, you have to do more than just be on vacation, but if youre going to go to Paris, France to be on a special once in a lifetime vacation, you want to be able to dedicate everything that you are to that vacation, unencumbered (again) with any other thoughts or hindrances. So, too, in a life, the quest for God becomes one of the four essential components, what the Future Testament refers to as the Four Aims of Life: money, pleasure, service, God.

Exclusive Dedication
But in the beginning of your quest, you need to have a very serious amount of time where you can dedicate yourself wholly, totally and exclusively to the religious path. This may mean, for example, if you are young, delaying the time that you enter college or delaying the time that you enter work so that you can spend some dedication, concentrated time on Divinity. If you are older and already have children, work, bills and responsibilities, this means, perhaps, giving up a vacation and not going to Paris but rather going into isolation to work totally and utterly on your spiritual life. Now, if the thought of giving up your vacation by the sea in order be religious or search for God seems stupid to you, then I assure you, you are not ready for this quest. The rest of this document will be a waste of your time and you really should go do something else. Were talking about people who want to see God, taste God, and ultimately mate with God, becoming one with God, that God might fill you totally and utterly. Yes, you need to be able to spend as much dedicated time as possible. A three-day weekend if thats all you can stand. A week, a month, half a year, whatever you can at the exclusion of everything else. To go on a real retreat, to go away from the world, is incredibly beneficial and utterly advised if it is at all

possible. See, were not just talking about idle ideas here. No. Were talking about the actual, specific things you can do. What do I actually do to make God real? And these are steps you can specifically take to make this happen. This retreat is not a luxury retreat where you are being massaged three times a day and drinking Mai Tais by the pool. No. This will be a real retreat from the world, maybe at a friends house, maybe in a place in your own house, but some way in which you are physically removed from the cares and the burdens of life. If this is physically, completely impossible for you, then certainly God understands. But to whatever extent possible, beginning your conscious acceleration of your spiritual evolution, a retreat from the regular world is considered highly important. In common terms, think of it like a honeymoon. Of course a honeymoon is not mandatory for a happy marriage, but it is really nice to begin the new relationship with extended time alone together. All the spiritual greats did this. Moses spent huge amounts of time just wandering through the hills with his flock of sheep. Jesus spent immense amounts of time just wandering through the desert. The Buddha gave up everything he had, his wife, his business, to simply sit by a tree and meditate. Mohammad removed himself from the hustle-bustle of the business world, withdrawing to a cave. Day after day after day after day, to simply pray and meditate on God until we had free ourselves of the encumbrances and noise of the worldThis, alone, is sufficient. Every one of the saints and mystics were able to finally hear God. You will, too. Remember, my friends, God is everywhere, God is everything and the truth is that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If it appears that God is far away, guess who moved. Were going through all of this not to get God to come near to us, but to enable us to free our consciousness from everything that makes it look like God is far away. Jesus says, When you pray, do not do as the pagans do, for they think that with their many meaningless repetitions, they will be heard. Were not attempting to be heard with any of our spiritual practices; we are attempting to be able to hear God. And when we suggest, a little later on, something to be repeated, over and over, meditated on, called upon, this is not a meaningless repetition, but the repetition that is full of more meaning than anything else.

Not to be Added, But to be Multiplied

Lets do just a little bit of math. Really easy. 123,456,789 + 0 = 123,456,789 123,456,789 X 0 = 0 The last counting number that the human race recognized as a number (believe it or not) is the number zero. This is a fascinating little sideline into the history of human thought for a variety of reasons (that doesnt have anything to do with the topic at hand.) God, then, has been likened unto the number zero. Zero as in no-thing, as in every-thing. The difference between nothing and no-thing, being the difference between absence and totality. In other words, if were going to simply add God to us, we wind up no different, because Us + God still equals us, because anything plus zero still just equals the original thing. But God seeks to be, and in reality is multiplied by us, so that every part of God touches every part of us; any number times God equals God. Any number times zero equals zero. God cannot simply be added to an already full life as though Oh, wouldnt it be lovely, Charles, if we were all able to be God consciousness too. I think that would be so lovely to talk about when we meet with the girls on Thursday nights. No. The quest for Divinity is the quest for totality. It is the quest for the no-thing-ness that is the heart of nothing and everything. It is the quest for what makes you think. It is the quest for what makes you feel. It is the quest for what enables you to breathe.

So, if youre looking for God to be added on as an adjunct to an already overly full life, you are, in simple, gracious terms, wasting your time.

Change in Thought
You already have your ways of approaching life: You have your way of looking at yourself. You have your way of looking at others. You have your way of looking at money. You have your way of looking at time. You have your way of looking at recreation and social service. You have your way of looking at philosophy, mathematics, music, etc.

You must be ready to have all of these changed. If youre going to move beyond normal life, into the holy realm of the Temple, you must understand that things are going to have to change. Youre going to have to be ready for madness. Let me state that again. If: 1) your current world and your current way of looking at it is called normal, and 2) anything different from normal is considered insane, and 3) your normalcy is going to have to change, then 4) at a certain point along the way, youre going to, of necessity, enter madness, as you reach for God. Now, let it be said immediately that this insanity or madness will be, in fact, the true health; you will be the one and only person able to see that the emperor has no clothes. But at least for a moment, your true observation is going to seem like madness to everyone around you. Every single saint, prophet, and messiah, without exception, has been considered, by large chunks of society, to be insane. You must be prepared to let go of your thoughts, your feelings, your desires. Were back to the very beginning, to open yourself with prayer, Here I am Lord, send me. The fewer encumbrances you have, the fewer expectations you have, the fewer preconceived notions you have, the better you will be. That is why Jesus says, Those who would enter the Kingdom must do so like a little child, because children have an open heart, they have an open faith and they have very few preconceptions as to what is right and what is wrong. Those preconceptions very quickly turn into prejudices and before you know it, our soul is so locked into its traditions that it cannot be saved. Prepare yourself to understand that madness must result. You must dine with the Mad Hatter on your journey to awakening.

The Good Samaritan

This change of thought is most astoundingly portrayed in the last half of Chapter 10 of the Gospel of Luke. For the record, heres the text.

The Holy Bible, New International Version Luke 10:25-37

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? 26 What is written in the Law? he replied. How do you read it? 27 He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind ; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. 28 You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 30 In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. 36 Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? 37 The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. Notice that this man wants to justify himself and asks Jesus, Who is my neighbor? You must understand something very simple here. Our entire Universe, and all the things that we encounter, and all the ways we speak and think are involved in a tri-unity, a three-in-one: a subject, object relationship. Theres always the subject, the thing that is doing, the I,; then theres the object, where the I is going or what its doing; finally theres the relationship, how the Subject is related to the Object. I went to the Store. I am the Subject; Store is the Object; and Going is the Relationship. The three are one. Lots could be said about this subject/object relationship, but understand this: in asking Jesus Who is my neighbor, the man says, in essence, Tell me the definition of the objects which constitute being my neighbor. How close are they? How much money do they have to have? Are they white only or can they be black? What characteristics constitute being a neighbor. That way, once you can define it, then I will know who I have to love as myself, and I can put a checkmark by it, and then go the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Jesus answer is so profound that, the fact it was given 2,000 years ago, to me, shows it can only have been given by the mind of God. The point of the story is at the end, Jesus says, So, which one of these three acted like a neighbor? And the answer was the Samaritan. Jesus switches the question. He says that the question is not which characteristics make an object of a neighbor, but rather you are the subject that neighbors someone else. It is not the object on the outside that matters but the subject on the inside that matters. Neighboring is what you do (the verb, the relationship) as the subject, and to whomever you are going to perform the relationship of neighboring that makes the other person your neighbor. Whatever the objective definition of neighbor that Jesus might have given, it would always be possible the man could say, Well, there just arent any of those around. But Jesus astounding, brilliant answer says that our actions are completely responsible for whether or not someone is a neighbor. The Definition of Neighbor does not depend on an object on the outside, but rests entirely on an attitude on the inside!

Who is my neighbor? Whoever you do neighboring to!

God is a Verb
This is why it is said that God is a verb. This is the first step along the pathway to really be able to see, smell and taste God. Why? God is not an object to be seen. God is what enables you to see and is therefore, a way of seeing. God is not something to be thought about. God is, in fact, the power by which you think and therefore, God is a way of thinking. God is not something to feel; God is the power by which feeling is possible.

So, our title, How to Know God, is ultimately misleading. It is written from a perspective as though God is an object that we, the subject, can know. This notion is so foreign to us that we really dont have the language to say, How can we God someone? I want to go God the Universe. I God you. I God you. When we truly seek Divinity, then we enter the realm where God is a verb. God is what we bring to the encounter. If you want to see God, then look with the eyes of God. If you want to know God, then think with the mind of God. If you want to feel God, then reach out with the heart of God. If you want to feel Gods love, then love with all your being. God is not an object; God is a verb that you, the subject perform.

Notice: In the question, what is the greatest commandment, Jesus answer is a verb: something we do. This is so obvious it is easy to overlook. Again, its not a question of which characteristics meet the definition of a neighbor. Its which acts and attitudes YOU do so that you turn others into neighbors! So, too, it is not a matter of finding the characteristics and attributes that makes something God, but rather the thinking process by which you are able to recognize the Universe, and everything and everyone in it, as God.

The Good Samaritans thinking and his heart turned the hurting man into his neighbor. Your enlightened mind and heart will turn the entire Universe into God. The scales will fall from your eyes, and you will see as for the first time, as Adam and Eve gazed upon Primordial Being, to Feast on the Treasure, set for our strange Delight! Everything that you see, you will be God-ing. Everything that you know, you will be God-ing. Everything that you feel, you will be God-ing. And if you do not have yet a glimpse of what I meant when I said you must be prepared for madness, then either youre not ready for this quest or you simply need a bit more time.

Bumps in the Road and Isolation

But another warning: every single mystic, saint, prophet who has gone on this journey has always come to a time of great anger and frustration. The New Age/New Thought gurus who make it seem as though everything is bliss and happiness, and all you have to do is have the right thoughts and confessions, and if you do it all right, then everything is just peace and bliss from here on, are well-intended but theyre simply wrong. Moses is so marvelous in the Book of Exodus: If this is the way its going to be then kill me now. Jesus, How long do I have to put up with you, you stupid stiff-necked people? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Every great leader through history comes to a point that their understanding, their new approach to God-ing everyone around them, comes to a bit of a breathing pause and the stupidity, ignorance, ego-centered closed-mindedness, the willing to settle for the stupidest kinds of entertainment and the most narrow-minded idiocy, drives the seeking saint again to the point of madness. There is anger, there is frustration. Even when you understand you are angry at the people doing the very thing that you used to do, you come to a point that you realize, well, I changed, so can they, so why arent they? All you can do, my friends, is be aware of this and let it go. We all go through it, we all have that frustration. All of the famous names that are walking around today on the discipline/saint/preacher/guru circuit have their times when they are so frustrated and so angry with the world around them that they, too, can only close their private prayer door and scream at the world. This is why it is important, again, to reiterate that you have constant, ready access to withdrawing yourself from the world, and experience the bliss of isolation. My wife, who is a living incarnate saint, says clearly, It is her sacred duty to ensure my isolation. She understands me so clearly, that for good, bad or otherwise, I am at least trying to follow the spiritual path, at least pretending that Im trying to follow the spiritual path, at least deluding myself that Im trying to pretend follow the spiritual path(!), that I have to have copious amounts of alone time so that my thoughts, feelings and meditations can be gathered together, She knows that there are times that I simply have to remove myself from the human race. As things got too intense, Moses left the masses and went up the mountain again. Things became too crazy and Jesus removed himself to the wilderness. (The examples are plentiful, and if you have not availed yourself of the opportunity to read both the Old and New Testaments, I highly recommend you do so as soon as possible. Youll find a great cloud of witnesses who seek to go beyond the norm and wind up finding worlds unimaginable. You will find lots of folk like you who want more than the norm; their stories can touch your soul.) My wife recognizes that it is important for her to protect my sacred aloneness. She recognizes that our bond of marriage requires her to leave me the heck alone. Now thats an enlightened person!

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So, too, when things become tough, you must have access to alone time every single day, every single week, so that you can deal with the madness. As your thoughts and feelings are transformed, as you are God-ing everyone and everything, and as you become angry at the growing darkness of those around you, you need to step back. Take a deep breath. Literally. Renew. Rest. As you are able to see the light every clearer, the darkness and sickness in the souls of almost everyone around you will become a burden almost unbearable. You want to say to them, But, look, all you have to do is follow me, at which point they will look at you as though you really do need a straight-jacket. So, all you can do is wait; wait until someone comes to you and says, What do I do? Until they ask, do not talk. Thats why it is so essential that you follow the next advice.

Dont Spill the Beans

Whatever ideas you gain, whatever feelings you have, whatever visions you have, whatever dreams, whatever revelations and enlightenment come to you, DO NOT SHARE IT WITH ANYONE, certainly not at the beginning. Many, many people when they enter the spiritual pathway think, Oh, wow, look at this, and with youthful exuberance want to go share it with the world. Just like a kid who has learned their first Mary had a little lamb piece on the piano, they want to gather all of the friends and relatives and give a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful 32-second piano concert. That might be very cute for little kiddies, but it becomes very tiresome in the adult-league of sainthood. Your revelations and understandings are meant for you and you alone at the beginning of your pathway. Its what the mystics call Dont Spill the Beans. As your beans are cooking, they need a long time to heat and to soften. You dont just put baked beans in hot water for three minutes and then serve it to your neighbors. You have to give the beans quite a while to really become consumable by other people. So, too, with your revelations. Whatever pathway youre on and whatever realizations you gain, you must keep them to yourself! If you go out trying to save the world or convert the world, then you will be immensely frustrated because people will reject you just as certainly as you would have rejected anyone who came to you before you were ready. What then is the difference? You must not just hear, think, see or feel, but you must become Divine. As the life you live reflects itself in a different kind of living, shows itself in a different type of vibration (if you will) then you will find people will begin to come to you, and they will be asking you, What is your secret? What do you do? They will drive many miles to sit and ask you, What do I have to do to make God real in my life? You will be honored and deeply humbled that they would drive so far and work so hard to come to you and you will, at that point, be ready to help answer them in any way that you can But until they ask, then keep quiet!! Intruding yourself into peoples lives, without being invited, is the obnoxious noise of a clanging bell.

Dont Preach, Live

This is another area that the church has gotten oh, so very, very wrong. Saint Paul admonishes us to be imitators of him as he is of Christ (1st Corinthians 4:16, 11:1.) Yet, uncountable times during my service as a Lutheran organist I heard the pastor say, Only look to Jesus. Never look to me. I will always let you down. Only Jesus will be there for you. The church has lost any sense of imitating Christ, because that does involve work and effort. It is so much easier to simply say, Im going to collect my pension by simply standing up here and parroting the sermons that Ive been taught to parrot in seminar, and this doesnt require any type of personal transformation on my part.

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If you seek for genuine Divinity, you do not want to be that way. If you are going to be real in your sainthood, in your ascendency, then this will encompass every part of you and you will literally become a different person. You will not just think differently or feel differently or have different ideas or find new passages books that you can quote to slam other people over the headNo. You will actually become a different kind of a person. You will be a different vibration. You will be free. You will be love and everywhere you go, you will be God-ing people. Again, this does not mean you will be instantly perfect. You will fall. You will have setbacks. But the overall arc of your life will be in this loving, God-ing direction. That and that alone is worth peoples time to respond to. We do not need anymore ideas we do not need anymore books we do not need anymore sermons we do not need anymore study guides What we really need are examples, living embodiments, people who live as Christ, people for whom God is the only reality, people who are full of the Christ and living as one with that perfection. Anything else is a poor substitute and anything else is a failure. So, with every glimpse of your new trans-reality, your newly awoken-madness, you will find love, joy, peace and excitement in all aspects of the fruit of the Spirit blossoming; and right along with it, sorrow, anger and frustration at the social orders sickness and inability to respond to the Spirit. Understand this is part of the journey. Dont spill your beans until they come to you, seeing the new you that you are. Before we move on to specific Messiah Lessons, I want to share (what I consider to be) a perfect summary of this unencumbered / focused attitude. Amazingly, it appears right after Jesus parable about the Good Samaritan, starting in Luke 10:38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lords feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, dont you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! 41 Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. This astounds me on so many levels. Martha represents the first-birth, the natural us; burdened, distracted, obsessed with myriad things that do not matter at all. This is our state before we begin our spiritual quest. Mary represents the Spiritual Devotee: unencumbered, focused, concerned first, foremost and only with Gods Kingdom and righteousness. And notice that Marys devotion appears as madness to Martha(!) Simply said, these two passages from Luke 10 tell us everything we need for spiritual preparation; everything we have said in these 11 pages has been but commentary. NextWe begin our lessons
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Section 3 - Exercises
If you have read this far, and begun to align yourself in any way with the advice that has come before, then you really are well along your way toward everything that is necessary for Divine encounter. Intent, concentration, preparationif you really have made the search for God your primary drive and your souls desire, then everything else becomes details. The decision, the will to seek and serve only God is the only requirement, for that is an expression of the only commandment, to love God with your full being, and its reflection to love your fellow person as yourself. Nevertheless, there are some specific activities that we can do that can help us. Being a musician, I liken it unto learning how to play the piano. If you really wanted to become a world-class piano player, what is required? Well, the vast majority of what is required is simply the intent, the dedication, the will to do so. The rest of it will naturally follow. Using that as our model, we will now lay out for you a series of further proposals that people throughout the ages have found to be incredibly helpful. Every one of these is optional, but every one has been found to be helpful. Depending upon your specific personality, each section may or may not pertain. NOTE, please that this is just a tiny sampling the spiritual exercises that can, have, and will work. In short, everything done with the intent of Sacred Devotion becomes an act of worship.

The Teacher
Every discipline that you can think of that requires great diligence and learning will involve a one-on-one coach. Sooner or later, you will take piano lessons from a great master. In order to become a fantastic ballerina, you will study with a master. In order to become a great oil painter, you will study with one of the best. Until about 100 years ago, it was inconceivable that anyone would try to learn something on their own. And, yet, when it comes to religion and spirituality, indeed, we think, in our modern narcissistic era, that we can go it alone and learn everything there is to know without any person-toperson guidance. I understand peoples reluctance to enter into a master/disciple relationship (what the Hindus call a Guru / Chela relationship). We have so many people who have proven to be so fallible, so damaged, that, though they parade as spiritual leaders, following them has clearly proven to be dangerous. Nevertheless, the ancient saying is true: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. There are many honest, sincere, devout, divine, loving people who are simply farther along the spiritual pathway than you are. Almost never will you find those people to be big media stars, because that is a very different program that requires many talents which are not necessarily compatible with the spiritual pathway(!) So, absent the flowery language, what it boils down to is this: if you know someone who really, genuinely reflects the love of God, who really, genuinely reflects all of the material in the first half of this document, you really will be best served if you can have a personal relationship with that person as a disciple or student. In my case, I absolutely did this. When it came to organ instruction, I had a series of organ teachers who I sat with, who taught me how to look at the instrument, how to look at myself, how to look at music in ways that I never, ever would have been able to do on my own. Religiously, in 1977, I was introduced to my Rabbi, my Guru, Dan Bloxsom. He was my personal, one-on-one teacher. He showed me Gods name. He showed me some of the exercises that Im going to share with you, and he was my personal guide. I cannot and do not want to even imagine where I would be if I had not met my beloved Rabbi Dan. How do you know when you have a good teacher? Ultimately, you dont, but there are certain signs to look for:

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Is this person genuinely leading a healthy, balanced, spirit-filled life, at least as far as you can tell? Does this person seek to control you, or really serve you? Is this person looking to help you find and become all that you are, or is this person trying to shape you after their own image? If you are open, I think you can see the signs of a genuine, loving, spiritual seeker who can be a valuable teacher, versus someone who simply parades around as such. Ultimately, it is a matter of prayer, that God will guide you to your teacher in His way and in His time.

Calling on the Name

The first time I met Dan, his presentation was very simple. When you are tired of simply playing around with the world, and you are ready to get serious, sit down and in the morning and in the evening, chant Gods name 100 times. ANI YOD HEH VAV HEH. In our English Bibles, we see that as I Am the Lord. Do this 100 times in the morning, 100 times at night, and every month, add 100 times. Eventually, you will find that The Name is constantly ringing in you, and the God is the only reality. I told him he was an idiot. He told me I only thought that because it was more important to argue with him than spend 5 minutes a day to see if he was right. He was right. The purpose of this exercise is not to get God to hear us. The purpose of this is not to open up any kind of magical doors to Heaven, but it is an exercise designed to do precisely what we talked about in the first part of this document. It is meant to focus you so that your body, emotions, mind and spirit are all moving in the direction of God. It is meant to push away all other distractions. If you are doing this exercise with intent, then you do not have room in your mind to be worrying about the days struggles, political intrigue or who is going to win the javelin throw in the Olympics. By chanting the name of God, aloud or quietly, simply or melodically, fast or slow, rhythmically or flowingly, we literally become a stereo system designed to play the CD of God saying to the Universe, I Am the Lord, I Am Yahweh. Of course, your ego can try to hold on to that and pretend that it is you, the person, who is the Lord, but this is just as absurd as a stereo system taking credit for the music. Rather, when we chant ANI YOD HEH VAV HEH, we are trying to become in sync with the heavenly Father. (Much like, if you understand a clutch plate in car with a manual transmission, you are trying to get the engine and the drive train in synch, to mesh together.) Youre trying to get your Spirit, Will, mind, desires and body completely in tune with God. As a way to start and end a day, this is magnificent. This is a form of prayer that is simultaneously praise, petition, and Gods answering word of comfort. You will find different examples of chanting at Yhwh.com, and other documents that will help explore the issue. In Western Christianity, especially, people have been taught to be very nervous about this. It smacks of Eastern mysticism, and theyre afraid that theyre really going to be calling on the devil. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Calling on the name of the Lord is a Biblical practice, and we recommend it most highly.

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Scriptural Devotion
The world has accumulated its set of holy scriptures. They are here because, for millions of people across thousands of years, these books have proven to be the most inspired and inspirational material available. There is no substitute for reading and studying deeply the holy scriptures of the world. For most people reading this, that will be the Old Testament and the New Testament. For some people, it will include the Future Testament. And above and beyond reading and studying, it is incredibly valuable to pray the scriptures. Take a piece of scripture that is important to you and memorize it. After you have called upon the name of the Lord, recite this verse to yourself very, very slowly, focusing on the meaning of every word. For example, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Its easy to say that, its easy to sing it, but to really internalize what it means is a different experience. If we study with our minds, we will learn that this beloved verse is actually a mistranslation, that what the scripture really says is YOD HEH VAV HEH is my shepherd, I shall not want. Calm yourself focus and prayrealize that this name you have just called upon is a link to God, Himself, to Yahweh Himself and that Yahweh is your shepherd and just like a real shepherd, spends all of His energy making sure that His sheep are safe and happy; so, too, God wants to shepherd you, guide you and take care of you. To feel this in your soul far beyond simply thinking it in your head, is the essence of what it means to pray the scriptures. This way, we are doing more than surface level skimming the sacred scriptures, but rather letting them sink into the very depths of our soul. Again, you have this theme repeated over and over and over, the theme of going beyond the surface level into the depths. as

Well, one reason that we recommend chanting Gods Name so much is because that Name

you probably know by now, forms a pictogram of a human being, so you have a visual image that symbolizes everything that your spiritual life is focusing on and what is more, that visual image you can see in every single other person. So,

Homework
What this boils down to is, you can see every single person as the name of God. You can encounter every single person as a reflection of God. Even if they do not know it, you can see them in this way. And, even if they are only reflecting darkness and hatred, you can encounter every person as a lesson to be learned, an encounter of the Divine. This is, in the Church of Yahweh, what we call homework. It is good to be learning our lessons, it is good to have the teacher help us, but sooner or later, we have to learn these things ourselves. That almost

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always means homework, which means we have to take our lessons about love and peace and patience and forgiveness and we have to practice them!! The good news is that life will provide you an almost endless series of homework assignments(!) so that you can learn how to find peace in the midst of turmoil, how you can find love in the midst of hate, how you can find goodness in the midst of evil.

Time
And what this means is sooner or later, you must begin to give of yourself to other people. This is the number one thing missing in the spiritual lives of almost everyone that my wife and I encounter in ministry. People, on way or the other, will have some kind of money in their lives, some kind of pleasure, and if they consider themselves to be spiritual, they will have some kind of meditation or church that they go to, or some kind of spiritual practice. What is almost always missing is that fourth aspect of a balanced life and that is social service, helping someone else, giving of your time, which is the only thing in the Universe you cannot make more of. That service can take many different forms. You can help a soup kitchen, you can give money to the poor because time is, indeed, money. You can get involved with people who have been abused in the way you have been abused, and help them to find the healing that you have found. You can go to Mexico and build a house with Habitat for Humanity. You can take your guitar and play for an old folks home. Any number of ways that you can reach outside of yourself and your own bubble and extend yourself to another human being. It is amazing the number of people you meet who consider themselves to be Divine people, who consider themselves to be on a spiritual pathway, who never spend a single minute in a month doing anything for anyone else without pay. And whatever it is that you do, if you are doing it with (again, the first half of this document,) intent, with concentration, with love, unencumbered by thoughts and words of all the other things you could be concerned about, then you will be literally an embodiment of what your meditation is doing. Youre meditating ANI YOD HEH VAV HEH, I Am Yahweh, I am the Lord and as you go out into the world, you will literally be the presence of God to all the people you meet! That does not mean they will fall to their knees and worship you. That does not mean that they will even recognize you as Divinity. It doesnt even mean that they will even like you! But the truth is, your heart, mind, soul and spirit will be there, offering yourselves as a channel, if you will, for God to touch these peoples lives.

Coordination
When soldiers come to an old wooden footbridge, they have to stop marching in synchronized footstep together. The reason is that if they continue marching in step, as they go across the bridge, the bridge will begin to sway and eventually break. There is huge power when things work together. When human beings work together, we can build the Empire State Building. We can build the Internet. We can build the Great Wall of China. We can perform Mahlers Third Symphony! A laser beam finds its power by enabling all of the different photons in the light to vibrate exactly together, and since the energy is not dissipated (one going left while the other is going right) and they are all going exactly the same way, then all of the power that is always there, in the light, begins to be focused in one specific place.

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This is not abstract philosophy. This is tangible, hard-hitting advice, friends, as to how you can really accelerate your spirituality and feel God. In other words, make sure that everything that you do is moving in the same direction. The scripture is full of such advice, to pray always. That means everything you do, everything you say, is an act of worship and prayer. Whatsoever you do in thought, word or deed, do all to the glory of God. In other words, as the Future Testament talks about the four aims of life, (money, pleasure, social service and quest for God), if they all are working together then you will find they begin to multiply one another, feed one another and create an intensity that is completely, utterly, theoretically impossible otherwise. Specifically, if your job is to help evil, for example, building weapons or creating chemical pollutants, then no matter how hard you work in the other areas of your life, you will be restricted. If your relaxation is to watch gangster movies and blood and violence, obsessively, then your heart will not be full exclusively of the love of God. If you are neglecting to serve one another, then the real power and animating force of your spiritual life will be denied. When your money, your pleasure, your service of man and your quest for God are all essentially the same thing, working together as one unified field, then you experience an acceleration of your growth that is truly a wonder to behold. For example...if your job is to run an organizationLets say that you manage a restaurant. You can see that as just a dumb old job, or you can turn on the other aspects of your life and let this job be your social service, be a part of your quest for God and be a part of your pleasure(!) If you cannot do that in your job and you have the opportunity to, maybe you would be well served to find a new job. But imagine when you wake up and go to work, you see this as an opportunity to serve God, that with the smiles you have and the encouragement you give to people, the life-wisdom you share is not preaching to them, but you are trying to be a channel of peace and calm, to hear their complaints, to work on finding solutions and if you bring with it the intent that this not just a job youre going to punch a time clock for to get your damn paycheck, but rather is a part of your spiritual devotions and a part of your service to humanity and a part, even, of your personal recreation IF you can do that, then you will find that your job is integrated into your spiritual growth and youre literally getting paid to draw closer to God.. which is what you said at the beginning of this document you wanted!! As you are working, dealing with timesheets, dealing with frustrations, dealing with people and their problems, every aspect of it becomes ministry, becomes a way to seek for God and truth. This will make God very real in your life.

Joy??!?
The quest for God should be, and ultimately is, an exciting, wonderful, thrilling joy ride. We were talking with one of the people who called us for advice (because thats part of our social service, our phone number is available on the Internet for people to call 24 hours a day and ask their spiritual questionsI dont recommend this for everyone. Frankly, I dont recommend it to anyone, unless it is your calling.) Anyway, after about an hours conversation, the person said, Well, wow, I almost feel like this is exciting and fun! Afterwards, Libby and I laughed to each other how did we ever get into a state where seeking for God, the ultimate, the highest, the most fulfilling, the most liberating, the most loving, the most peaceful essence of the Universe could be anything other than fun and exciting and magnificent??!? How did we get this notion that God is suffering and drudgery and turmoil? Damn the churches, is what I say. And damn them that their regurgitation of three-chord blues substitutes for musicAndAndAnd For most, the attitude appears to be What I really want to do is go get drunk with my so-called friends, but I know I shouldnt, so Im going to sit here and read the damn Bible instead. That has nothing to

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do with anything to do with anything. That is not spiritual growth. That is not seeking for God. That is just stupidity. When you come to the point that you are genuinely desiring God, then all things done in spiritual service will be an exciting, wonderful, thrilling adventure. Until thenThe bars are open until 2:00am.

Section 4 - Advanced Techniques

Everything that we have talked about so far falls under the realm of the normal. If you really want to take some quantum leaps in your spirituality, then there are some practices which have been done by people through the centuries which have been found to really accelerate your communion with God, to deeply intensify your realization that you are one with Heaven. Of course, you must engage in these very carefully, with wisdom, and you must take upon yourselves any and all liabilities that would come from anything that you would do. Neither we nor anyone else can be responsible for you and your desire to come closer to God. As you can count on no one else to take you there, you can rely on no one else if something goes wrong. These, then, are some of the advanced techniques.

1) Open your home to strangers

By that, I mean, people who cannot pay you, who are down on their luck. Let them live with you for a while, while they get themselves straightened up. This involves every aspect of you. It involves your money, it involves your recreation, it involves your social service and it involves your quest for God. Youll find the experience to be maddening, frustrating. You will be astounded that people that you are doing so much for are so ungrateful and are causing you such grief. But like I said, this is a very advanced technique.

2) Fasting
In America, fasting means not eating for the 12 hours between 6:00 p.m. dinner and 6:00 a.m. in the morning, which is precisely why its called breaking the fast, aka breakfast. But real fasting is a very different enterprise. You can go all the way from soft core fasting (which would be nothing solid and only fruit juice for three days,) all the way to doing without any kind of substance except for water, for as long as 40 days. Of course, again, you have to make sure youre not going to do physical damager to yourself. If you are semi-diabetic or hypoglycemic or any number of health problems, God isnt here to do damage. If youre fasting for true spiritual devotion, then you will love it, and you will want to do it, and no one and nothing will make you eat. And you will know how to do it safely. If that is not your truth, then fasting is not for you.

3) Sexuality
This is one of those areas that makes people very nervous. But if you have a committed relationship, exploring the limits of what the body is capable of doing in terms of the energy fields that it controls and can be excited by, is one of the most direct, immediate ways to encounter God. Even this statement sounds foreign and silly in the West. There are many people who think you can only serve God if you eliminate sexuality from your life. This is an incredible tragedy, of which we are seeing the ramifications daily in our newspapers.

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The idea of using sexuality as a spiritual meditation is foreign to most Westerners, but I assure you it is absolutely an organic part of Gods journey. As we said in previously, if you really are on a spiritual pathway, then your quest for God will be joyous. That means that you dont just screw for the heck of it but rather, find the ecstasy of sensuality to be a reflection and a call to the Spirit of the ecstasy that the spiritual pathway really is. In other words, as you delight in nakedness and as you delight in orgasm, you are giving yourself an incredible opportunity, in a state of prayer and meditation, to find your soul experiencing God. As Ive so many times, its a matter of intent. If you intend to simply slam down a god-damn burger so that you can have something to keep your stomach from growling, then thats what you will get. But if you are able and willing to dine, to taste every bite, to let every sip of your organic blueberry smoothie to be an explosion of ecstasy, then all your eating and drinking is communion with God, not just for the five minutes on Sunday morning when we break the dried wafer and drink the fake grape juice. But every time we eat, we are communing. Every time we drink, we are communing. Everything we eat is literally the body of God. Everything that we drink is literally the blood of God. Light a stick of incense and you smell the fragrance of all the prayers of the devout who have sought God from the beginning of time. Its a matter of intent. And if you intend to continue to just slam the first hot body you can tolerate to take home at the end of the drunk fest at the local bar, then you will get what your intention is. But if you intend to find the dance of eternal, spiritual communion, then you will, indeed, find that as well.

4) Consider Death
Only the Spirit is forever. Realize that most of our attachments (our car, grandmas rug, the family china) are to things that will break and fade away. People will die. By embracing death as an organic part of life, you gain wisdom and strength few in the West ever know. This does not mean we seek death, but a mature, well-rounded assimilation of the truth of dying is essential for spiritual health.

5) Consciousness Altering
This is another area that you simply cannot talk about in Western Civilization. We have found some societies that have actually outlawed sexuality, but we have never found one, as far as I can tell, that did not have some form of self transcendence because, friends, isnt that ultimately what religion is all about, to go beyond ourselves. This goes back to the heart of what we started with. As we chant ANI YOD HEH VAV HEH, we are opening ourselves to the possibility that we are more than we say we are, than we think we are, than we start by knowing that we are. And one of the things that has to be transcended is our limited consciousness. So there is a wide, wide variety of tools that can be used to take us beyond our normal, waking consciousness and help us to enter the Divine throne room that Isaiah was taken to. These are on a scale, from the mild to the extreme. There are breathing exercises that simply will make you a little bit dizzy but really change the whole way your electrolytes and the energy patterns in your body move, and give you a totally different way of thinking in less than a minute. You can go out and run a 20-mile marathon and find yourself in, literally, a different state of consciousness. In that 40-day fast, you will most definitely be in a different state of mind. What we discussed in the previous section, sexuality, will take you into a ecstasy which, in its root, means out of mind, and you become more than you are.

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There are substances that can help this, but one is loathe to even mention them because of the fear and paranoia and psychosis present in Western Civilization. But I will state this: from the beginning of time, substances like marijuana, like opium, like wine have been considered to be sacraments, the fruit of the gods that literally take you into another world.

The sacred ceremonies of ayahuasca in South America, for example, are literally a way to enter a different dimension of time and thought. And many anthropologists are forced to conclude that chemical intake has been responsible for quantum leaps in society. People encounter things, lets just state it, with drugs that they do not encounter normally, and that awakened sense of consciousness changes the society. We know that because many of these substances become the center of religious rites, communion with the holy. Like it or not, the truth is that drugs, throughout the history of the planet, have become sacraments. Entire social orders get focused around a substance, the food of the gods. Well, there is much to be learned, there is much to be explored. I simply want to leave you with this critical observation. If you decide to work in this area, you must make sure, as always, that you do it with intent. If youre simply looking for a joy ride, you are in trouble. But if you are doing it with the intent of learning something, then remember the essential aphorism: Once you get the message, you must hang up the phone. Otherwise, this substance, which is a sacrament, can and will turn around and hurt you.

In summary - Balance
Over and over and over again, we have to return to this notion of balance. Too much air and you will pass out. Too little air and you will pass out. Too much water, you will die. Too little water, you will die. You are looking for the balance of the four-fold aspect of life. You are looking for the balance where all aspects of your life are working together as one coordinated whole in your dance of God. You have to be careful that even if youre going to push yourself into the extremes, you must be doing so in a balanced way! This almost sounds like a contradiction, but let me give two examples. If youre going to be fasting for 40 days, you must make sure that that is balanced in your life with rest, with much prayer and meditation. You cannot be fasting for 40 days while you go out to work in the 100 degree sun, digging ditches. You will die. If youre going to explore the boundaries of female sexuality and go for 10, 20, 30 orgasms in a row, entering ever-deeper states of transcendent-bliss, this has to be balanced in a loving relationship, in a safe environment where you have time to integrate the experience; otherwise, the experience in an improper relationship, in the wrong environment, can hurt you. Even in the extremes, we can and must find balance.

Who Are You?

Basically, everything and anything that you do can be a tool to help you see, smell and feel God. If youre primarily a scholar, then learn everything. If youre primarily an artist, then paint with the eyes of God. If youre primarily a lover, then teach and serve. If youre primarily a helper, then go out and give of yourself to the people who need you.

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Whatever you are, whatever sparks you, you can find exercises and activities that will match your proclivities. In the East, the Hindus call it the yogic system. They do not just say, Have this doctrine, confess this prayer and you go to Heaven when you die. They actually have a religion based entirely on those exercises you can do which will bring you closer to God. And they have entire denominations devoted to the pathway of physical pleasure, the pathway of harnessing the psychic energies in the body, the pathway of service, the pathway of concentration, the pathway of mental study. Again, for the last time, whatever you are, whatever you are interested in, if you will do it as devotion to God, then your activities will be transformed from simply mortal life into the very divinity that you claim you want. This is why it is said that every time one of us takes one step toward God, we find that God has already taken 10,000 steps toward us. From that minute we decide we want to smell God, we want to mate with God, we open our eyes and find that there are traditions, scriptures, exercises, teachers, songs, and stories that have been here for ages, waiting for us to respond to their call. Theres an angel standing in the sun, and hes crying with a loud voice, This is the supper of the mighty One. Lord of Lords, King of Kings, has returned to take his children home, to take them to the new Jerusalem. --Genesis, Suppers Ready, coming from --The Revelation of John, coming from --Every Moment of Every Day Happy journeying, and welcome to the adventure of your eternity. Ahyh, August 2012

P.S.It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that Libby and I are available to try to help you in any way that we can, to further your adventures. You know the several ways you can contact us. I will leave you with my favorite benediction: Heres to Peace and Love, Love and Peace and a little Piece of Love.