8th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE
A TIME OF RETREAT
8th DAY OF LENT – FASTING/FEASTING FOR THE NEW GOLDEN AGE
(Devotionals may be best understood by reading in order)
Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.
A Light for my Path
In the 7th Day of Lent devotional, we learn that instead of being fallen sinners, we are child gods who used our God-given gift of freewill choice to experiment with life on the plane of duality—experiencing both good—walking with God and evil—pretending to be separated from God.
We learned that Charles Fillmore’s metaphysical interpretation of the Hebrew word for “sin” = missing the mark. “Sin is a departure from the law of our being.” [i]
Creator God created humanity to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” [ii] Metaphysically, the creatures of land and sea signify the various states of mind within human consciousness. “Any failure on our part to exercise this dominion [or authority] is falling short, or a ‘sin.’” In other words, when we fail to deal beneficially with feelings of resentment, despair, disappointment, confinement … any negative emotion, we neglect to exercise dominion over our emotions.
The distinction between “feeling” negative emotions and maintaining “dominion” over them is important. It is natural for human beings living on the plane of duality to experience times of depression, disappointment, etc. over persons or events in our lives. We fall short or miss the mark when we neglect to exercise our “God-given authority” over our emotions (creatures of the sea), thoughts (creatures of the air), and personal habits (creatures of the land). To repress, and leave unattended, any negative emotion, thought, or habit is to sow seeds of dis-ease for our self that we will reap at some point in time. Energy never disappears; it seeks expression in one form or another.
When we exercise authority over our pet dog, for example, we closely observe the dog to make sure he is properly cared for … is not hurt … is loved. We notice when the dog needs to go outside or is hungry and we fulfill that need.
The same will be true when exercising dominion over our self. Do we take note when we feel weary … hungry … thirsty … stressed … lonely … or unloved, etc.? Sadly, humans will many times ignore their own less-than-personally-fulfilling lifestyles. We pride ourselves in not “being a wimp” … tell ourselves “big boys don’t cry” … demand of ourselves to “suck it up and go on”—all as if being tough on ourselves is the healthy way of life. Often, we do not love self enough to see that our needs are met. In fact, we are taught that to do so is to be self-centered, selfish. Yet, to fail to exercise dominion over our self may result in dis-ease of the body … accidents … even the residual effects of not exercising dominion over self in a prior lifetime, such as incarnating with a predisposition for a particular dis-ease or malformation of a physical body part.
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We can NEVER know why another individual incarnates with a handicap, so it is best not to speculate. There are a multitude of positive and self-sacrificing reasons for choosing a handicap. Bottom-line: the reason is NEVER God’s punishment. For whatever reason, the Soul has chosen to do so as a means of service to others; to teach self a lesson, such as patience; or in order to reap what was sown in a prior lifetime. The Soul Contract is created in an atmosphere of unconditional love and with the assistance of our spirit guides. As we learned in Day 7 of Lent, Universal Law states that for every action there will be a re-action. This re-action will come at the perfect time, which may be lifetimes later when our Soul has evolved spiritually enough to successfully deal with it. We are NEVER given more than we can successfully handle in any one incarnation.
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What is the “unpardonable sin?” According to Charles Fillmore, it is the belief that Mother/Father God is the creator of disease or inharmony of any nature.
Wow! We’ve been taught to believe in a God that places curses on humanity … that lacks the capacity to forgive us unless Jesus allows himself to be crucified for our sins—in other words, we been taught that God requires a blood sacrifice, thus implying that God is a violent God.
This belief that God is the creator of dis-ease or inharmony is called the unpardonable or eternal sin because it is abiding. For as long as humanity abides in the belief that God causes us to suffer, we close our mind against the inflow of God’s gifts of health, peace, and harmony. WE close the door to pardon, not God.
Humanity’s sins are forgiven when we cease to sin [i.e. believe God causes us to suffer] and open our mind to the fact that we are heir only to the good. [iii]
On this 8th day of Lent, may we “fast” from blaming God for our suffering … from believing that our loving Mother/Father God could create lack of harmony in any form.
May we “feast” upon the fact that God created us and gave us dominion over all of our emotions, thoughts, and lifestyle habits. He created Universal Laws that are neutral until we give them positive or negative influence in our lives by the choices we make.
May we “feast” upon the fact that Mother/Father God indwells us … always loving us unconditionally … while we experiment with living on the plane of duality … and patiently waits until we are ready to return to the Gates of Eden—until we return home. And then ……. There is a feast of celebration!
