Faith, Hope and Charity, but the greatest is the last. The Church in all time since the beginning has taught three denials: The world, the flesh and the devil. It seems that each has to deny for himself in order to be free. In fact the denial and affirmation is in reality all one process. As one turns away from darkness they encounter light. When Jesus was in the wilderness, he made three denials and affirmations; which are very good to study when we know how to do so. The Spirit will teach us how, all we have to do is to study, compare, think over and we shall be led into all Truth. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, or as Luke has it, by every word of God. He denies that man lives by bread alone and then affirms that he lives by every word of God. : Again he says, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God, or try for an experiment the power of the Lord thy God. And that other denial and affirmation; Get thee hence, Satan for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. The denial of Satan and affirmation of God. The denial of ignorance or darkness and the affirmation of Wisdom. All we have to do is to worship and serve God. And that is all those do that know Truth, God, Wisdom. The denials seem to brush away the false, so that the Truth may shine through brighter and brighter. After we acquire a knowledge of What God is, Who God is, and Where God is, we begin to find out something about ourselves, but until we have a clear understanding of what, who and where God is, we can't have much of an idea of what we ourselves really are. If we are made in the image, after the likeness of God; we must know what the thing is that we really and truly are like, before we can know what we are, The world has given up the idea that God is a great big man, or that God is made in the image after the likeness of man. The world has got done with that idea, just as it has abandoned so many of the things it has been taught about God; and now comes like a little child and takes God at his word and finds that everything comes out right as they do so. They lay down prejudice and preconceived idea, and sit at the feet of him who is the light of the world. When I am in the world I am the light of the world. When I am in the flesh I am the knowledge that profiteth. Who is this I Am that says, when I Am in the world I Am the light of the world? It is the same I Am that said of himself, I Am that I Am. There is but one I Am anywhere. God is the only I Am that ever was or ever will be. When the I Am is dwelling in the flesh I Am is the light of the flesh. Wake up and know that wherever I Am there you may be also I Am the idea of God. I Am in the Father and the Father in me. So the Master said and he told us to keep his words, to believe his words, and we should never see death. Keep his words in your hearts and minds and thoughts. Is there anything too hard for me, he says, Come up into a fuller and fuller conception of God. Know that Christ is born in you. Immanuel-God with us. God is with everyone that dare assert his birthright; that dare live as though God was indeed his Father, and that his Father dwelt within him and that he dwelt with his Father. Then he and his Father are one. In him I live and move and have my being. There is no getting outside of God for he is everywhere. We are in him and he is in us. The Kingdom of Heaven is every where, within and without, all we have to do is to recognize it. When I am Good, I am God, for God is Good. When I am speaking Truth, I am speaking God. When I am Charity, or Mercy, or Spirit, or Intelligence, or Knowledge, or Mind then I am God, for these are other ways of speaking God's name. There is nothing that is, that is outside of God, for God is All. In him we live and move and have our being. We can't possibly live outside of him for he is our Life, our Mind, our Spirit. When I say, I am sin or suffer from God over three or for I am, is God; I am SPIRIT, like God; hence cannot sin, fear sin or suffer from sin, because God can't. God can't see sin any more than light can see darkness. Spirit like God, hence cannot sin, fear sin, it is as though I had really said four times and left the balance blank: Spirit, is God; and God, is God. And we know that God cannot sin, fear sin, or suffer from sin. God can't fear or suffer any way for anything. The true me is Spirit, Light, Grace and that's all of me there is. God works through me to will and to do that which ought to be done by me. Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto and I work, and that's all the work there really is done. God is working through us all the time, to do that which ought to be done. That's all we are to do, that's what we are here for, to do the will of God. I am under the law of God, the Good, and that is the only law there is. When we come to ourselves, we find there is but one law in all the universe, and that is the Law of Love. Love to God and man. Charity to all. To do all, and be all, and dare all for the Truth's sake. Dare to be true, dare to do what you think is true. Affirm what you think is right, affirm it with your lips, affirm it with your heart, affirm it with your mind, affirm it with your life. Live the highest and best there is in you. Take the affirmations of Jesus and think them over and over and over. Think them over because he told you to, and you will soon think of them because there is life and health in them. I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of Life. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me may not abide in darkness. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. What promises! What promises! How they cool dry hearts to think them, and how they cool parched lips to speak or whisper them. Think them over in the silence. Speak them in the silence. Speak them aloud to God. Remind him of his promises, not that he has forgotten them or you, but to show him that you have not forgotten them nor him. God hears and feels our every thought and word when we speak the Truth; therefore make the same statements that the Master made, think his thoughts after him, speak his words. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for apart from me ye can do nothing. I am the bread of life. This is the bread that came down out of heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. Where I am, there ye may be also. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work's sake. For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them. Do we know that our hearts are the dwelling place of the Most High? Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me. Open the door of your hearts and I will come and dwell with you. Remember the former things: for I am God and there is none else: I am God and there is none like me. I, even I, am he that comforteth you. Awake, Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on the beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrians oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? They that rule over them made them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchman shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall |