St.
Paul’s Address to the Areopagus:
“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men
of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the
objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the Unknown God.’ Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to
you: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is
Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed
anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood
every nation of men to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the
boundaries of their dwellings, so that they
should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us; for in
Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, “For we are also
His offspring.” Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that
the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
Truly, these times of ignorance God
overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in
righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the
dead.” And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” So Paul departed from among them.” (Acts 17:22-33; New King James Bible (NKJV). Many
centuries have passed since Paul, the Apostle, spoke to the ancient citizens of
Athens, Greece, spreading the word of God to whomever would listen. Paul’s entire message above is preserved in
the biblical book of Acts 17: passages 22-33 of the New King James Bible version. (The older version of Paul’s speech was
written in the old English style of speaking, so it is more cumbersome to read.) Whatever
Bible version one prefers, St. Paul’s message is still present in our world
today, freely spreading the spiritual knowledge that frees our souls
from this collective, false sense of materialistic sleep; and because Paul’s speech
continues to stay in our world today, we have that same spiritual knowledge
that the ancients had, so many centuries ago.
And despite all this time, the sermon that Paul preached, that day so
long ago, still waits at the door of our spiritual attention. So
while humanity still continues to live out the false, materialistic view of
reality, the actual spiritual realm of Reality still awaits our full attention.
Despite the centuries that keep rolling
on, Earth’s inhabitants continue to embrace all that is finite and imperfect,
while we wander through our false, material sense of reality, still searching
in vain to find God’s truth and harmony in our lives. Yet, God’s Truth of all being can only be
found in the spiritual realm, …and the spiritual realm doesn’t exist in
the material sense of things. Only
in some rare moments do we think of spiritual things as something important to know. The material
sense of things takes charge of our consciousness, from the moment we open
our eyes each morning, to the time we go to bed at nights. Believing ourselves to be inhabitants of a
finite, material world and universe, our thoughts rarely go beyond the physical
sense of things (what we can physically see, hear, touch,. taste and smell.) We don’t
open the doors of our spiritual consciousness long enough to find our one and
only, true, Home, where divine Spirit dwells. In
God’s (divine Spirit’s) creation. there is no such thing as a material
existence. Our limited days of what
seems to be our material existence doesn’t last for anyone. Our material sojourn here, in this so-called physical
‘realm’, is a short journey we’ve taken outside the boundaries of our forever
Home, the everlasting kingdom of God, Spirit.
Yet, our forever Home is always with us even when we don’t perceive it,
hiding as it does, in the false, material sense of things. So,
here is a truth to ponder: Whatever is material
is temporary, and temporary things don’t last. They never last. Material body forms don’t last, even though they
serve us for a short time in this physical realm. Only spiritual realities exist forever. Every spiritual thing and every spiritual one
is a spiritual being; and as spiritual
identities, we are always safe in divine Spirit, even when we are still
using a finite, human form in this human experience. Now,
when we seem to be existing in a material universe (where we are playing
a temporary life-part) we can use the finite, material props to get around in
this human experience. But while we are
still working out our human days, don’t forget that it is wise to remember that (as the Bible tells us) we
really ‘live, move, and have our being in
God.’ So,
when we awaken from the material dream of life in matter, we’ll all remember
that we are really Spirit’s forever children, and all the evils of material
existence will fade from our awakening consciousness. That’s because when we awaken from our
earthly ‘sleep’, we will know that there is no evil cause, or effect, in the
spiritual realm of God, who is divine Spirit.
It
is wise to ponder these things of Spirit, because eternal life means that we never lose anyone. Although we may mourn for our love ones who’ve
passed away before us, we’ll find them again, on the other side…that’s because we
awaken to discover that there is no such thing as death for anyone. Still,
we must realize that this temporary, material realm that we’re now
experiencing must have some divine purpose for us to learn. I think that each of us has our own human
paths to walk before we awaken from the belief in death. I think that our time in this human-sense realm
is like going to a school…where we have time to grow and learn what to do and
what not to do. So, instead of being told
what to do, we find out, for ourselves, “I
shouldn’t have done that!” So,
how do we find God’s spiritual creation and our everlasting life spans within
it? And while here, how do we chase away
all the evils that this temporary span of existence dumps upon us? The
book of Revelations in the Christian Bibles, (and probably many other religious
books of the past) tell us of the awakening time to come, when the collective
dream of life in matter calls us all from our earthly graves. It’s a book to read for several reasons,
particularly for the good news that points to the loved ones we’ll eventually
see again. But, ultimately, I believe
that the prophecy of the end-time is a joyful thing to ponder because it tells
us of our lives, after our earthly time is finished. Revelations tell us of our wonderful futures,
above and beyond what this material realm offers us. So,
although we often seem to see our human trials and tribulations as things we
cannot rise above, they are all temporary.
Way, way ahead of us there are new places, fresh fields, new loves and
great adventures awaiting us. Looking
beyond our earthly, material days, we spiritually awaken to find that all of the
evils of the flesh were dreams we’ve produced, while in a lower level of
consciousness awareness. And just as our
sleeping dreams seem to be real while we sleep, in the morning light we awake
to discover that our earthly dreams had no reality, at all. As we begin to realize that the kingdom of
God is a spiritual place, and the only place that actually exists, our
human behavior begins to change from beliefs of every kind of material darkness
into the light of spiritual Truth. Material
existence was never real, even when we thought it was. As the realization of spiritual being begins
to dawn on thought, we discover that all people, all races, all-believers and
all unbelievers, are our brothers and sisters, and no one else. I believe that this is what we are here, in
this earthly experience to discover. When
we begin to realize that God’s creation belongs to all of us, we won’t have
wars, greed, jealousy, unkindness, theft, murders, or any other harmful
behavior, one to another. The only law-of-the-land
will be Love. But until that day, when
the last trump sounds, we all have work to do. |
