christian

The Christian’s consciousness of acceptance that there is one God and that He created all things is a conceptual truth that frees the mind to think of God all the time. This is Christian Mysticism and it relaxes the emotions so we can praise everything as good because it came from God. This kind of encounter Jesus revealed to be the key to reality, a connection to God or pure consciousness that has the ability to bring into physical being that which is spiritual and ultimately real. Jesus’ words were not meant to be an end in themselves, but a vehicle to lead a person to encounter the all-pervading God that is beyond the grasp of the mind and all words. Jesus had the ultimate experience with God consciousness and his consciousness was interchangeable with God’s. He is beyond the normal mundane world of time and space and is the living expression of pure consciousness where everyone can find fulfillment. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” This is where the formless becomes visible and the pure consciousness of God becomes expressed in the unit consciousness of an individual in the form of Christ consciousness.

Who me? Racially biased? Now way!, or are you? Here are two tests you can take to find out.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo

http://backhand.uchicago.edu/Center/ShooterEffect

This first site is sponsored by Harvard University via its Project Implicit. It offers you an opportunity to test your biases on a wide variety of tests; gender, weight, religion, skin-tone and the like, 16 in all. I took the Race ('Black-White') test. I won't share my results until others have had a chance to take the test.

The second test is sponsored by the University of Chicago. I won't say much about it, let you take it first. All I do have to say is that you better be a fast study!

Rich

CHALLENGE: I post this article, hoping it will create much discussion on Crossleft---pro or con! We need to air out all the cobwebs and assist Christians in learning to think for themselves ... to seek Truth on their own ... to discern Truth that feels intuitively right to them ... to know that my Truth may not be your Truth ... and that is okay!

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NOTE: For the purposes of this article, I use the term “Source of our being” to refer to the omnipresent energy of Divine Love in which we live and move and have our being—-the Ultimate Source of all creation.
I use the term “Awakened Christian” to mean the one who follows Jesus as A Wayshower on the pathway to individual ascension. Jesus, as a Wayshower, reveals the way; He cannot walk the path for us. The awakened Christian recognizes this fact and strives to tread his/her own pathway to ascension. See the article entitled “Ascension” and the 16 Lessons on the Book of Job on www.pathwaytoascension.com.

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The purpose of religion, ritual and symbolism is to give meaning to life beyond the ego-dominated world. As the mind explores these things it is led to thoughts that lie beyond the grasp of the ego and reason. If these practices are done in a meaningless way, that person is wasting his time because the person who knows the significance of what he is doing can overcome the ego's tendencies and make real the Christian purpose of life. Regardless of the suffering we have experienced we are able to achieve a new state of mind and are born again, when we change our focus from the lower layers of the mind to the higher ones. This new state of mind is living in the present and is a projection of living in eternity. The ego has pride in the past and fear for the future so letting go of the future and the past lets the ego drop away too. In reality it is impossible to live outside the present and to put God in the future because this implies that God is not eternal and present. The proof is in our experience by experiment and not theory. When one concentrates only on what is happening in the present, the moment is pure awareness without any desire. To live in the past or for the future invokes memory, anticipation and causes anxiety because these are forms of desires, dreams and fantasies.

The people who do not feel love and unity with everything will have to remain calm until they work up enough momentum so they can take part in a spiritual resurrection. They can help humanity and themselves by first developing their mind, then they can help others. Love you neighbor as yourself, one must first love oneself.We go through life meeting different people; polite, impolite, old, young, husbands, wives, and different-in-laws, but in all these relationships we are meeting a part of ourselves. These people are just showing us how to live properly so it doesn't matter how long we live, what matters is how we live.

The highest wisdom is to intuitively perceive the truth and to arrive at the spiritual realization that God and man are absolutely united. This is difficult though because we have been conditioned to look outside ourselves to others. As small children we depended on our parents for almost everything, and later we learn to depend on our jobs, families and friends for support. We are not separated from God so why do we need another to translate God's intention for us? We think we need others to translate because we are individuals who think we are separate within God, but we are unit consciousness within pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is not separate from us; we separate our unit consciousness with the thought that we are separate. The Bible confirms this thought and quotes Jesus as saying "Ye are perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The soul is the starting point for this perfection. http://thinkunity.com

The personal story of Adam and Eve explains the tendency within the universe to disperse. A centrifugal motion radiating from the nucleus is what causes the worldly consciousness to appear to separate from God. The world in itself has no reality at all because it is in perpetual change without much meaning or consistency. The objects and things existing in it are separated in time and space and are changing from one moment to the next. Therefore, the microcosm apart from the macrocosm is nothing but when it knows the macrocosm, it is reality itself, constant and full of being. The feeling that we fell from pure consciousness and loss bliss is due to the separation from our internal existence. This has caused the present era of confusion where everything is divided, not centered, and separated from the whole or pure consciousness. This can be related to the story of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden or the unit consciousness separating from pure consciousness. http://thinkunity.com

This is something that I was just curious about. What are the things that influenced all of you to become Progressive? Was it books that you read, experiences that pushed you in a Progressive position, heroes that you admire? How far to the left do think you have to be to be considered Progressive? If you were influenced by the Bible to a Progressive position, what parts of the Bible played the most important role in you becoming Progressive?

I'm just wondering if this would be of interest because I'm realizing that everyone has some very individual views on being a Progressive. Donny gave his own personal definition, NYGaribaldi talked about the difference between liberalism and socialism, Bill talked about his influences from the Green Party and sources like ZMagazine. David talked about how instead of a large tent, Progressive Christians may be more like little tents that clump together and that seems appropriate to me.

Psalm 63:2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

To behold the power and glory of God! Those of us who are blessed enough to attend a Holy Ghost filled church can attest to the many Sundays spent literally basking in the presence of God. Perhaps the choir sang that song that God finally broke through your heart on. I remember for me it was “My Help.” As a born and bred catholic I swore I would never do all the hand raising and feet stomping in church! Don’t you know that God just loves our “nevers?” Sure enough, several months later there I was flat on my face before God and from that point on; worship took on a whole new meaning for me.