Tag Archives: Ancient Home

How Will You Use Your Freedom?

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 Martin Luther asked "As a Christian, how will you use your freedom?"

As I pondered Step 57 of Steps to Knowledge, “Freedom is with me,” I recalled Martin Luther‘s treatise “On the Freedom of a Christian,” written in 1520.  Many Christians are familiar with this work.  There is a quotation from this work that many people remember:

“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”

Martin Luther used the words of Paul to elaborate on this seeming paradox.

“Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” (I Corinthians 9:19-23, New International Version)

How will you use your freedom?

Freedom is never just freedom from some restricting influence or circumstance.  Freedom is freedom to be someone, freedom to do something.  But what?

The word “freedom” isn’t mentioned in Steps to Knowledge until Step 52 “I am free to find the source of my Knowledge.”  What does Steps to Knowledge say we should get free from?

“You who have lived under the weight of your own imagination, you who have been a prisoner to your own thoughts and to the thoughts of others, you who have been intimidated and threatened by the appearances of this world now have hope, for true freedom abides within you.”

Other things to get free from in Step 57 are unforgiveness from the past, anxiety over the future, and avoidance of the present.

But what are we getting free to?  Step 52 offers a brief description:

“What other freedom is free except that which enables you to receive the gift of your true life? All other freedom is the freedom to be chaotic, the freedom to harm yourself. The great freedom is to find your Knowledge and to allow it to express itself through you.”

In studying Steps to Knowledge, we are getting free to be our true selves, true selves which are not apart from life.  We are getting free to fulfill the mission we have in life.  Will we succeed?  All I know is that we’re working on it.

What are you getting free from?  What are you getting free to?  How will you use your freedom?

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

I Am The Self I Deserve (And Other Self-Esteem Issues)

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There is a grand total of 220 unique Google results for the exact phrase “I am worthy of God’s love,” which is step 24 in Steps to Knowledge.  It’s not one of those things I hear people say on a regular basis.

The top search result for this exact phrase is its presence in Steps to Knowledge.  What does this mean?  I think it means that whether this idea is true or false, whether this idea is right or wrong, Steps to Knowledge is a bold, loud and forthright proclaimer of this idea.

The first sentence of step 24 repeats the step, adding the word “indeed,” repeating the pattern of step 22.

And just when I think it’s safe to surmise that this is point of step 24, the very next sentence delivers an even more barbed point.  This point is repeated in the first paragraph.

You are indeed worthy of God’s love. In fact, you really are God’s love. Without pretense of any kind, at the very core of yourself, this is your True Self.  It is not the Self you yet experience, and until you do experience it, do not pretend that this is your experience. But hold in true awareness that this is your Self. You are a person, but you are greater than a person.  How can you be unworthy of God’s love if that is what you are? Your Teachers surround you and provide that which you are so that you may experience yourself and your true relationship with life.

This is not the first time the phrase “True Self” has appeared.  It first appeared in step 10 “What is Knowledge?” and appeared again in step 16 “Beyond my mind is Knowledge.”

The sentence “I am the self I deserve” could be punctuated in a number of ways at the end. But which way would make it the most truthful?  I am the self I deserve.  I am the self I deserve?  I believe the punctuation Steps to Knowledge offers is “I am the self I deserve!”

Google doesn’t show this exact sentence to have been written anywhere yet, but I believe it is a succinct way of saying the point of step 24:

Knowledge is the love of God, and my True Self.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

The Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins…

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When I was telling my 19-year-old son about this blog, and pondering what should go in it, he suggested “Why don’t you write about your study of Steps to Knowledge, and how it has helped you?”

Thus begins the master thread of this blog.  There will be other threads, but this is the big one.

Some of the wording in a given step is completely prosaic (all quotes are from Step 1 of Steps to Knowledge, “I am without Knowledge now.”)

“There must be a starting point at any juncture of development.You must start from where you are, not from where you want to be.”

I realize someone may be reading this and thinking “What do you mean, ‘I am without Knowledge now?’  I know many things!”  But this step elaborates on the meaning of the word “Knowledge” in the statement “I am without Knowledge now.”

“Therefore, you are beginning now to prepare to be in relationship with Knowledge, the greater aspect of mind that you have brought with you from your Ancient Home.”

I confess that when I did this step, the above sentence flew far above my head.  Each step ends with instructions for practice.

“Three times today spend 10 minutes thinking about what Knowledge is, not merely applying your own ideas, not merely applying your past understanding, but thinking about what Knowledge really is.”

Beginning, middle and end of the day?  10 minutes in three consecutive hours?  It doesn’t seem to matter.

Someone may be reading this and thinking “Here it comes, he’s going to hit us up to buy a copy of Steps to Knowledge.”  I actually do not possess a paper version of Steps to Knowledge.  I use the Adobe Acrobat .pdf file available here.  There are versions of Steps to Knowledge available for well-known e-readers.  I recommend that someone interested in studying Steps have both a paper version and an electronic version.  On the one hand, the paper version could be taken places one might not want to take a computer.  On the other hand, the electronic version is computer-searchable, and I like being able to search for something when I’m recalling something I read.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  Everyone who got anywhere started out from somewhere.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.