2003-12-25 05:41:00
My Friends,
For some time now the spirit of this time of year has been affecting me more than usual. It happens whenever someone sings a Christmas carol about Christ such as "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" or "Joy to the World."
It seems that each year the intensity of the experience increases.
This year it happened as I was doing some shopping. First I passed a bell ringer and entered a food co-op I frequent. After I was inside a few moments four Christmas carolers came inside and started singing. As they sang my heart burned with greater intensity than it did the year before. The Presence came to me with great power and love and said:
"I am near, very near, as is the day of my appearance. Let your faith be renewed... The day draweth near."
How near is difficult to say from my perspective, but from looking at it with the idea that the promise is around 2000 years old, several decades hence would yet be very near. Yet at the time the coming of the Lord seemed to be in the now. This is because the Spirit always speaks from the point of the eternal present and thus God, when felt, is nearer than any other life.
Even so, I felt the meaning of the message was more than this, for I already have an approximate idea of when certain events will arrive. Instead I sensed the main purpose of the affirmation was to strengthen my faith in the work in which we are engaged in preparing for the reappearance of the Christ.
The problem with a work that requires faith and endurance is that there is a natural tendency, after a period of time, to view the struggle as if it were an academic thing. But then when one is reminded of the reality behind the ideal it is as if an awakening occurs.
Christ is indeed real. The entity who has the position of Christ is real as is the Christ which is in each of us.
For us to be as real as the Master we must see the Christ in ourselves, each other, and humanity as a whole.
Peace, Peace on earth. Good Will to Men.
Copyright © 2003 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved