ONE GOD FOR ALL
ONE GOD FOR ALL
Nancy Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.
Our ability, to assist in bringing forth the Kingdom of God within ourselves and on our planet, depends first and foremost on understanding who God is (to the best of our present ability to do so). The Apostle Paul explained his concept of God to the people of Athens. Metaphysically, Athens signifies the intellectual center within humankind. The people in Athens had erected an altar inscribed: “This is the altar of the unknown God.” Paul recognized that even though the Athenians did not know God, they felt the urge to worship something greater than they could conceive with their intellectual minds. Paul explains in Acts 17:24-28:
“For the God who made the world and all things therein, and who is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is he ministered to by human hands, nor is he in need of anything, for it is he who gave life and breath to all humankind. And he has made of one blood all nations of human beings to dwell on all the face of the earth, and he has appointed seasons by his command, and has set limits to the age of men and women; for in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your wise men have said, ‘For we are his kindred.’”
God is above and beyond all else and present everywhere. As omnipresent Spirit, God created all that is, in its original manifestation; God is First Cause and original Source. The allegorical story of the Garden of Eden is an example of the Goodness and Love with which God creates. God provided for all of Adam and Eve’s needs; they lived in the natural luxury and beauty of paradise. God figuratively walked with and talked with them. The channels of vision and direct hearing were open to Adam and Eve. The omnipresence spirit of God was their companion and friend. Negativity and pain were unknown. They had no doubt as to their origin: they came forth from the heart and mind of God. They wore the clothes of spirit; they were spirit.
In this Garden of Eden, all things were created from the divine substance. God beheld all of creation and declared, “It is Good.” God creates because God is Creator. All that God creates become co-creators. Creation is an on-going process and the energy of creation is within all things. Look at nature: seeds create plants … plants create leaves, flowers, and fruit … stars create new stars … stars create light … rivers create beds through which to flow … birds create nests … animals create offspring according to their kind … human beings create children … the process of creation stretches throughout eternity. All things are interconnected; all of creation impacts upon all other facets of creation. The life-giving energy within all things is God energy … divine energy … love energy. GOD IS ALL THAT IS. SEPARATION DOES NOT EXIST. BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE, ALL THINGS ARE LOVED.
God needs nothing. In the words of Paul: “Neither is he ministered to by human hands, nor is he in need of anything.” God’s life-giving breath dwells within all creation. God is life; without God, there is no life. God needs nothing from humankind. God is not dependent upon humanity or any other part of creation. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, whether or not human beings worship him, obey his commandments, or allow him to manifest through them. God simply IS.
“God … appointed seasons by his command.” God created universal laws by which all of creation is bound. The Sun rises every morning. The stars are visible at night. The Moon reflects the Sun’s light. Spring always follows winter. All of life moves through cycles or seasons. Creation is an orderly process. Corn seeds produce corn, not tomatoes. Oak trees produce acorns, not fragrant roses. Universal laws do not change. We can count on them to manifest in our lives according to the way we use them. It is by these universal laws that human beings create, whether consciously or unconsciously.
“And he has made of one blood all nations of humankind to dwell on all the face of the earth….” God created humanity as one family; we are all offspring of the One Mother/Father God. We were created to live together on this planet in the Garden of Eden. God created humanity as Daughters and Sons in her/his image and likeness. That means we were created to love, to live in paradise, to live in obedience to universal laws, to express our divinity.
What happened?
Humanity was created in the image of God and given the gift of freewill. That means we possess the freedom to choose. The gift of freewill was granted so that we could grow up to be gods and goddesses, true offspring of God. Needless to say, humanity has made some mistakes.
We have created a world in which we believe in separation—all kinds of separation. We have forgotten who we are and why we are in physical bodies on this planet. We have created a relationship with God that is based on fear: fear of not going to heaven, fear of being punished for eternity in hell, fear that God will zap us unexpectedly, fear that God will not hear and answer our prayers, and fear of surrendering to the unfolding of God’s divine will in our lives. We attempt to camouflage this fear; but, as long as we can sincerely state, “God can do anything God chooses to do,” we have not allowed Truth to erase our fear. God cannot do anything God chooses. God is a God of Love and therefore, can do nothing that is not loving. God gave us the gift of freewill, therefore, God cannot take away that gift or punish us for our mistaken decisions. GOD CAN ONLY LOVE US. In that love, God patiently awaits our awakening to the true nature of all that is. When we finally call out for help, God’s grace flows forth unimpeded, except by our own resistance to change. We are loved beyond our capacity to conceive. The problem is: we have created a concept of God in our own image or worse. We blame God for our suffering, pain, and limitations. We have it all wrong.
During my days as a traditional minister, I sometimes presented the Children’s Lesson. Heretofore, the youngest children had seen only male ministers dressed in a black robe. One Sunday, when the children came to the front of the church for the lesson, I—a female minister wearing a white robe—met them. One little boy looked up at me and said, “Are you God?” I smile at his innocence and shudder to realize that all too often, we consider God “the man upstairs … the man who physically looks like us.”
This “man upstairs” concept of God leaves humanity feeling separated, and sometimes, even estranged from God. We know all too well the unpredictability of humankind. The “man upstairs” can be absent from our lives; he can fail to hear our prayers. He can be preoccupied with other things. It is easier to get angry with the “man upstairs” than it is to love him.
On the other hand, many call God “First Cause” or the “Source.” Even though the titles are true, many then proceed to view God as far away and unattached to what happens to human beings. The sense of separation becomes a chasm too great to cross. We hear people say, “God doesn’t need me” or “God is too vast (or great) to pay attention to little me.” In other words, “Why would First Cause love me?” “Why would the Source consider me worth listening to?” Either way, God is seen as far away and unrelated to our daily lives.
In Truth, God is that energy of love that is everywhere present. God is the divine substance from which all things are made. There is nowhere where God is not. In an effort to reveal our true relationship to God, Jesus taught us to address him as “Abba.” Abba translates from the Aramaic as “father,” but possesses the connotation of the intimate relationship we share with “daddy or dad.” To the western ear, “father” sounds more formal. It is a term of respect, whereas “daddy or dad” is most often a term of affection and close relationship. The term “mom” will work just as well. The important issue is that we learn to communicate with God as a being of infinite love for us, his/her divine offspring.
Knowing God as our loving parent … as that being of love that is always present with us … who is all-powerful … and who wants only the Garden of Eden for us creates a tremendous shift in our view of life and of ourselves. As God’s offspring, we realize we are never alone … we are all-powerful … and that the Garden of Eden is already ours. Our task becomes allowing that paradise to manifest in our daily lives.
God is the Mind of the Universe. Just as our hearts are directly linked to the Heart of God through love, so our minds are directly linked to the Mind of God through our capacity to think and to intuit. This link to the Mind of God is how we create; we create with our thoughts. It is how we receive inspiration: we are inspired via our intuitive insights. We often see evidence of our connectedness to the Mind of God or the One Mind, in the synchronicities that occur in our lives. For example: we think of a friend and she appears on our doorstep unannounced. Or, we pray for a wheelchair ramp and a member of our church announces he has one for sale. We are all connected to the Heart and Mind of God and thereby, to each other. Wherever we are, there is no separation. Death does not exist, so those in spirit are not separated from those of us presently residing on the physical plane. We feel separated because we lost our original ability to see into the world of spirit as easily as we perceive the physical plane. We can be separated only by belief in separation.
Within the One Mind and Heart of God, “we live and move and have our being.” As offspring of God, we have the capacity to be all that our Mother/Father God is: all loving and all powerful, possessing the ability to create all Good in our lives, and holding the potential to transform our world. We, the offspring of Mother/Father God, can bring forth the Kingdom of God within ourselves and on Earth.
INVITATION TO SHARE WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
“Bring all the tithes into my storehouse that there may be food in my house, and prove me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, and I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out blessings for you until you shall say, “It is enough.” Malachi 3:10
BLESSING FOR LOVE OFFERINGS
Before sending your love offerings to the charity of your choice, please pause and affirm:
Divine Love, flowing through me,
Blesses and multiplies all that I am, all that I have,
All that I give, and all that I receive.
Thank you, God.
BENEDICTION
UNITY’S PRAYER OF PROTECTION
The Light of God surrounds me,
The Love of God enfolds me,
The Power of God protects me,
The Presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am … God is! And all is well.
