Who Or What Will Guide Us Through The Narrows?

pieter-bruegel-the-younger-blind-guides Who or what will guide us through the narrowsThis is the fifth post in a series of posts about the New Message from God revelation, “The Race to Save Human Civilization,” received by Marshall Vian Summers in 2009. The first post in the series is here. The previous post in the series is here.

2/10/2015 UPDATE: The next post in the series is here.

Who or what will guide us through the narrows?

What have we seen so far? Humanity faces wrenching adjustments from a disrupted climate. Many inhabited places, most notably in the arid regions of the world, will become inhabitable. These changes will cause large human migrations, resulting in great stress and difficulty. This is the seventeenth paragraph.

“There will not be enough surplus food to simply ship out to stricken nations. There will not be enough. If humanity loses a percentage of its food production, it does not matter how much money is spent. The world is being exhausted. Are you going to exhaust it even more and more and more?”

Who or what will guide us through the narrows? While on a hiking trip in the Sierra Mountains of California, our guide told us “In the mountains, food is money.” I envision that in the future described by this revelation, food and clean water will be precious like money. In a previous paragraph, it was said that humanity would lose 30% of its agriculture. Hard choices are going to have to be made. Humanity’s current pattern of resource consumption and environmental use is not sustainable.

“This is the great uncertainty in the situation—how humanity will respond? What is human response-ability? Even the leaders of nations are blind. Even the leaders of religious institutions are blind. They only see the world as they are accustomed to see the world. They only see the world in terms of what they can expect and believe to be true from the past. But these things will no longer hold true.”

Who or what will guide us through the narrows? I realize this is a scathing indictment. But isn’t this the way most people see the future, in a context that the future will be an extension of the past, only with different names and faces? As I read this paragraph, I recall the times Jesus referred to the leaders of religious institutions as “blind guides” (once in Matthew 15, twice in Matthew 23). I don’t believe anyone took Jesus very seriously when he said that not one stone of the great buildings of Jerusalem would be left on another (Mark 13). And yet, about 40 years after Jesus spoke those words, it happened exactly as he said. How will you make yourself wiser, stronger, more resilient, more magnanimous than your leaders?

“There will be great human migration all over the world. Some of it will be normal, but much of it will have to be organized and agreed to between nations. If nations close their doors to the displaced peoples, it will be a tragedy never seen before. This tragedy will despoil the world in war and conflict.”

Who or what will guide us through the narrows? It was mentioned in an earlier paragraph that people in a stricken area won’t be able to move to the region next door, as it will be facing the same problem. I want to ask this revelation “Why are you telling me this? It’s not like I can open the door of my nation, or any other nation, to the displaced peoples. How am I supposed to respond to the need of the world, and to the blindness of my leaders?

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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.

News Travels, Even Among Thoughts

The play Privacy. News travels, even among thoughtsAt one point, the Pharisees and teachers of the law requested to see a sign from Jesus. This illustration was part of his response.

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45, New International Version)

In my mind, it is as if Jesus is saying “What would be the point of my performing a sign? It’s not like it would do this wicked generation any good in the end.” But the claim Jesus made that news travels, even among wicked spirits, went unchallenged by the Pharisees and teachers of the law.

News travels, even among thoughts

In the days of Gunsmoke (see earlier post), Dodge City, Kansas was hardly the only town in the region. Great Bend was (and still is) about 80 miles away. Hays City (now just Hays) was about 100 miles away. I can clearly see in my mind’s eye the various villains, outlaws and no-goods of the region, commiserating in a saloon in Great Bend. One of them says “That <expletive> Dillon ran me outta Dodge City!” Another one says “Oh, I wouldn’t let that discourage you. I believe there’s some opportunity here for a man of your…talents.” Talents such as gun fighting, horse stealing, cheating at cards, etc. News travels, even among villains, outlaws and no-goods.

A Course in Miracles teaches that the very idea of private thoughts is an unidea, non-well-formed, gobbledygoop:

“I have no private thoughts. Yet it is only private thoughts of which I am aware. What can these thoughts mean? They do not exist, and so they mean nothing. Yet my mind is part of creation and part of its Creator. Would I not rather join the thinking of the universe than to obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful and meaningless “private” thoughts?” (Lesson 52 (review of Lesson 10), Workbook for Students)

I don’t know if this is really true, but I have a picture in my mind’s eye of thoughts comparing notes with each other, looking for minds in which they might be welcome. Just as the villains, outlaws and no-goods compared notes regarding how welcome they might be in various Kansas towns. News travels, even among thoughts.

I realize that some people may not see what I see in my mind’s eye. But the idea of the spreading of thoughts has been around for a while. The English biologist Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme” in the 1970’s to describe a thought-complex that commandeers a mind to assist in its propagation. It is similar to the way a virus commandeers a cell to assist in its propagation.

American poet Mary Oliver wrote that “news travels, even among foxes, as you might know, or not know.” I realize I’m not being exactly precise in what I’m saying about thoughts, memes and impure spirits. But I’m here to tell you that news travels, even among thoughts. Why am I here to tell you that news travels, even among thoughts? Because I haven’t said everything I have to say about the Prodigal Son.

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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 Will Not Be Afraid Of My Will

The Sermon on the Mount by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1598. I will not be afraid of my own will.In the final portion of what is now known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:21-27), Jesus says something that I didn’t expect him to say. I have read and heard this passage many times, but I’ve never heard a preacher or a commentator fully address my disquietude on the subject.

I will not be afraid of my will

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23, New International Version)

The last sentence is the one that gets me. I expected Jesus to say “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘You didn’t do the will of my Father. Away from me, you evildoers!'” But instead he says “I never knew you,” as if that was the most terrible indictment he could bring against a human being.

Perhaps when the audience heard the phrase “does the will of my Father,” they imagined the miraculous demonstrations Jesus mentioned in the following sentence. Perhaps Jesus felt a need to disabuse his audience of those imaginings. I don’t claim to be a Bible scholar. I don’t believe you need to be a Bible scholar to see that one of the points of this passage is that Jesus teaches it is the will of his Father to be known by Jesus.

I am sharing this because something in Step 43 “My will is to know God” of Steps to Knowledge said something along these lines, even more succinctly:

“Your will is to know God. Do not be afraid of your will. You are created by God. God’s will is to know you. Your will is to know God. There is no other will. All motivations other than this are born merely of confusion and fear. To know God gives God power and gives you power as well.”

I cry out with the psalmist David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” (Psalm 139:23, New International Version). I cry out with Jesus “Not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36, New International Version). I cry out “I will to will your will, O God.” I will not be afraid of my will.

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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.