"The Kingdom of God"

Thomas, an Apostle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was present on the evening of the last supper, when Christ himself told his chosen followers how to maintain his church after his own demise and resurrection, wrote a scroll containing all which Christ had said to them that evening. This was one of the scrolls known as "The Dead Sea Scrolls." Upon receipt of this scroll and the translation thereof the Vatican labeled this scroll as "heresy" out of their own fear of what the truth of this scroll would do to the structure of the "modern church" if it became accessible to the general parishioner. Thanks to the Vatican, we who are those make up the church, the followers of Christ, who need only him, his mother, father and each other, have been forced into an evil state of spiritual ignorance by the veiling of this sacred scripture to the general members of the "Body of Christ." Only the first verse of this Holy Scripture has managed to make its way into public knowledge; it translates as follows from Aramaic to English.

Christ speaks to the apostils during the evening of the Last Supper.

"The kingdom of God is within you, and all around you. "It's not in mansions of wood and stone. " Split a piece of wood, and I am there." Pick up a stone, and you will find me."

This is truly a spiritually profound statement given to us by our savior himself. According to this statement made by Christ; we have no need for buildings in which to gather except in the case of inclement weather. God and Goddess created the world in which we live. What better place could there ever be in which for us to worship them who are one if not in the very natural environment they created in which for us to live. The earth herself was not created only as a place for humanity and our animal companions to live in, but also to worship in it. In the summer time we need only trees for shade to cool us if we get too hot. When it rains or snows we only need a shelter; it need not to be enclosed. In the winter for warmth we need a fire, not electric and gas furnaces, or boilers. These things are not really necessities; they are simply mere conveniences, which we as humans have convinced ourselves that we need due to our own lack of understanding about how Christ himself intended us to worship.

He said himself, "Split a piece of would, and I am there." Pick up a stone, and you will find me." Christ was trying to tell us that glorified buildings with such things inside them as crucifixes, stained glass windows, and elaborate altars are not and have never been necessary. We do not need these things to keep us focused on him before, during and after worship. All we truly need to do is look inside ourselves, and all around us everywhere we go. It is inside ourselves and in all, that God and Goddess has created for us that we can find they who are one. We do not find them in buildings made of stone and wood; we find them in the souls of humanity and animals. We find them in the trees, stones, crystals, streams, rivers, oceans, valleys, mountains and so on. It is within ourselves, and all around us in everything, which they created with the power of their own thoughts and words. It is in these things that we come before the thrown and glory of God and Goddess.

If we were as the bible states, created in their own image as male and female; we need look nowhere else but inside of ourselves for God and Goddess. We need only look to the spirits of the animals, trees, plants, bodies of water and landmasses, both small and great. There is so much knowledge, wisdom and understanding in which to be found within all of their creation. Before there was meteorology humanity read the signs of when the seasons were coming into change not only by the temperature, but also by watching the behavior of their animal friends. If the squirrels were still storing food, they still had time to continue storing food for them selves. If they were no longer storing, but simply eating what they had gathered for the winter; humans knew that the first snows of winter were soon to come. If they no longer saw animals of hibernation around them they knew then also to prepare for the cold winter months. God and Goddess gave us these friends for many reasons other than being food, clothing and shelter. They were given to us to be loved, nurtured and cared for just as we are supposed to love, nurture and care for our selves and one another. They were also given to us to show us when specific changes of climate as well as catastrophe were soon to take place.

It is with the animals, trees, plants, bodies of water and landmasses, as well as with each other that God and Goddess wants us to worship; not apart from them. We are not greater than they, but we are equal to them as are they to us. All living things deserve to be loved, nurtured and respected. Christ wants us to worship in natural surroundings, those created by his parents. Nothing that we create can ever do justice to or outdo anything that our Holy Mother and Father have created for us. No building created by human hands can ever be equal to or greater than all that we have been given by them at our fingertips. Why do we feel the need to try to do such things? This is a selfish desire that stems not from wanting to please God and Goddess, but more from a simple desire for excessive degrees of comfort.

The Lord and Lady do not expect us to freeze our selves to death for the sake of worship. They who are one do not expect us to commit suicide by means of heat stroke either. Quite to the contrary; they who are one want us to live. We are here for other reasons and purposes than simply to worship them. We are here for many reasons from what I have learned throughout the course of my adult life. Once I moved away from the deceit inflicted upon me by the ignorance of what I'd been brought up to believe was "The Church" and I began to delve into spiritual paths which taught me what the church was unwilling to teach me and others, due to its prideful, haughty, ignorance and its apathetic contentedness to remain so, that I began to see the church for what it truly was. It had never been more for me or anyone else than "the blind leading the blind." It was never more than a lot of good intentioned groups and individuals who were little more than lost sheep, trying to be Shepard's leading other lost sheep into deeper ignorance than already engulfed by.

When I began to realize this truth as the truth that it was, I became very angry with them for leading me to believe that they had all the answers for everything, when the truth was; they had almost no answers for much of anything at all. I became so angry for a while that I decided to give up Christ and Christianity all together. It wasn't until later when I realized that it wasn't God/Dess fault that the church had lost so much of their truth. It wasn't Christ's fault either. It was the fault of human beings who had thousands of years prior allowed something which never had any place in faith to infiltrate Christianity; that my friends was politics. God and Goddess created something called hierarchy; humans created politics. Politics and spiritual belief systems do not mix! They do not mix at all! The combination of these two systems does nothing for faith but allow for humanity to put its faith in humanistic organizations. Our faith does not belong in people; it belongs in our understanding of God and Goddess, however limited that understanding may sometimes be. That is where our faith belongs. People fail themselves. How then can they be above failing us? God and Goddess do not fail; they used to make mistakes until they learned from them, but they have never failed at anything they've done.

Humans can teach us of such things as Yin and Yang, positive and negative, or the balance of the male and female energies within us all. We can teach each other about the need to learn this balance and to some extent even how to find that balance within ourselves. Humans cannot however teach us everything that we need to know about everything. There are some things that only God and Goddess can teach us themselves in whatever manner that they who are one deems necessary. This can be through the use of spirits other than they who are controlled by they, during ritual practice, by animals and plants, earth wind fire and water, by other people, as well as by they themselves if and when they chose to do so. Never dispel the spiritual visions of others. There is always a reason why it's being shared with you. There is something in it from which you are to learn something from. If not at the time that it's shared with you than somewhere throughout the course of your life's spiritual journey; you will come to understand what you were supposed to at just the time when you need to understand it the most. Then you also can share your understanding and spiritual growth with someone also. These are the main purposes for which all humanity is given life, to learn is first, for knowledge is power! The second purpose for which we all are here is to find our own understanding as best we can, for what we have learned. The third purpose for us being here is to allow our selves to grow along spiritual lines from all which we have learned to understand about God/dess and the experiences bestowed upon us throughout life. The fourth and final purpose for all our lives is to share the strength, wisdom and understanding we have acquired throughout life with all those who are willing to receive it. These are the same purposes for existence in this world and in the universe for each and every individual human being. Everyone's purposes in life are the same; we all just very simply have different ways and time tables for finding the appropriate usage of these purposes in our lives; in that we are different people with different levels of understanding and spiritual growth. This is why we need each other, God/dess and everything they who are one have given us to use for our learning, understanding, growth and sharing in life and of life. Not yet being able for whatever the reason to understand what someone is to teach us doesn't make either individual right or wrong; it simply makes one a little capable to grasp what the other is trying to convey at a given point in time.

The earth herself has a soul, as does the water, fire and air. The very spirit of a human being, animal, tree, plant, stone, crystal etc, has a soul and the soul has a spirit, or life force. This spirit is what is what's responsible for making all living things aware of their own existence within this world and universe. Without the soul and the spirit of the soul residing within all living things; nothing would be living at all. There could be no life of any kind. If the earth herself did not have both a soul and spirit she could not provide all that she does for food consuming entities such as humans, animals, trees and plants. Therefore she must have both a soul and the spirit of a soul to be capable of conducting such marvelous wonders; although these abilities were bestowed upon her by God/dess. She is but one of the many aspects of God/dess. She is a grand aspect of the essence of life, but only one of many. The same is also true for all the other four elements, water, fire, air and spirit. Without all of these elements, who all have a soul the spirit of a soul acting out their own parts of giving and taking life, not only could they not survive without all their counterparts; nor could we.

We are all dependent on each other for everything. The elements are not dependent upon us. We are dependent upon the elements for everything we need and desire to have. Without them, even one of them, all life on earth would perish. Why should we not worship together in the spirit and truth of all life and surrounded by all living things. This is what our savior Christ is telling us that his mother and father want us to do. Who are we to argue with The Lord and the Lady? Who are we to argue with the son of our holy parents? To question them is acceptable to them; this is how we learn. To blatantly go against them is ill advised. They will not themselves bring any harm to us; they will however allow some lesson to come along in our lives that teach us to be more trusting of them. We should always listen to the voice of the wise; in not doing so we set ourselves up for unneeded suffering.

Contact the Rev. Patrick E. Ravenschild


The Raven
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