Christianity Oasis Forum

[Angelwings]

( PART THIRTEEN )

Is God Alive?

Well, God is not dead, but neither is he particularly alive as we know it.

The deeper question is: "What does it mean to be alive?" Psychologists, biologists and computer programmers debate this question. (Philosophers debate a similar question: "What does it mean to exist?") Unfortunately, they're not very successful at coming up with a useful answer.

Psychologists might say that you need a certain degree of self-awareness to be alive, biologists might say that something is alive if it can move and reproduce as a species, while programmers who deal with artificial intelligence might say that giving a deep illusion of being alive is what makes one alive. All these viewpoints can be insightful, but in the end what it boils down to is: "Something is alive if it's like me."

Everything is God. In this sense, God is alive, and through the oneness of God the whole world is alive. Being alive or not is a concept that makes sense in everyday human life, but does not really apply to God as God is well beyond these human concepts.

God is not a single person - he is all of humanity. He's not bound by time either, so it makes no sense for God to die. In a way, God is the only one truly alive, because compared to God, we are just sleepwalking through life with slumbering consciousness.

The breath of life goes both ways: in and out. We are alive through God and God is alive through us!





( PART FOURTEEN )

Is God in Me?


We instinctively know that we have some kind of relationship with God, but we don't usually know what kind of relationship it is. A common belief is that we are children of God. Some believe that we should love our parents and grow up to be like them, and some believe that we should fear them and do everything to please them - the latter attitude is not very beneficial to have towards God.

It is also a common belief that God is hidden somewhere inside us, within our good qualities and moral actions. That makes some sense, since if you work on yourself and become the person you wish to be, then through becoming closer to yourself you also become closer to God. A strong backbone, an open mind and a loving heart are always desired.

However, to say that God is within us is not very accurate. That would imply that few hidden parts of us are godlike or worthy of God, but most parts are quite the opposite (or worse: just irrelevant). Accepting God but also at the same time pushing him away is not very wholesome and creates unnecessary inner tension.

The answer would have to be: no, God is not in you. God IS you - the whole 'you'. God is not inside us - we are inside God. What kind of relationship you will have with God depends entirely on you. If you open your heart (which is in you), you will be ale to rise up to God on God's Love.





(PART FIFTEEN )


Is God a Man?


No, God is not a man. She is not a woman either. The idea that a single person with human emotions, thoughts, flaws and limitations also has infinite power to control the universe is pretty ridiculous. To make an analogy, it's like building a long stairway from earth to heaven, and bothering to construct only the first and last steps of the stairway. Such an idea has a huge gaping hole in the middle.

Even though God is not a single man, there is undoubtedly a connection between God and all of humanity. We live and breathe God, even if we don't notice the divinity around us and that we are a part of it.

How can a man (or woman) bridge the gap and become closer to God? The trick is to build the steps one at a time and not expect God's angels to grab you and fly you up with no effort on your part. Power is not something that you simply attach to a human ego.

To gain power first you have to develop the integrity to wield it. With no responsibility, the power of God burns like fire and makes you scream like you're in hell. Without a sense of balance, order cannot be made out of chaos. Without Love, parts cannot be made whole. Without transcending the ego, one cannot be human and God at the same time.

There are several words to describe a human who is to become God, such as: avatar, ubermensch, bodhisattva etc. God is all and all is God - the difference between such a spiritually fulfilled person and a normal human is simply the degree to which we are aware of the oneness and Love of God.





( PART SIXTEEN )

Is God Evil?


No, God is not evil for the simple reason that evil does not exist. Do you believe there is evil in the world? If so, then unfortunately God is evil too.

Good and evil are human-centric concepts. Good is generally something that feels good, and evil is something that threatens our identities or the core of what we feel is to be human. If we don't understand something and it is detrimental to us in some way, then we call it 'evil'.

The evilness is not external - the evil is in our own ignorance. If we understand something completely, then we can no longer call it evil because we are able to change it. What we named 'evil' before now becomes simply a form of expression.

Nothing is evil to God - that's why if you so choose, you might see God as the most evil of all. However, looking at the world through such polarized lenses will cause your inner perception of yourself to break in half too, and your 'good' part and 'evil' part will always be in battle with each other - instead of being whole, strong, and peaceful.

God cannot afford to be judgmental and petty. God Loves all of his creation, even those parts that seem evil to human eyes. God sees all sides and understands fully with compassion. Fighting and rejecting 'evil' only creates more struggle. If you don't like something, let God know! Not by selfishly praying to God to take care of it, but by embracing, Loving and changing it yourself.







( PART SEVENTEEN )

Is God Truth?


Yes, God is Truth. In everyday life we deal with information that are true or false, and in communicating with others we also have to discern if somebody is intentionally lying to us. God doesn't deal so much with statements and facts - God's truth is creative truth.

What is creative truth? For example, you say: "I will build a house." If we look only at the present, there is no house, so this statement borders on false. To see whether it turned out to be true, we would have to travel into the future and see for ourselves if there is really a house.

Creative truth is true because you make it true. It doesn't matter if it was objectively true or false before - with your own power and determination, you create new truth. God does it all the time.

God doesn't see truth as black or white. There might be a deep truth at the center, and lesser truths radiating and reflecting as mirrors all around it. These might be false illusions from certain perspectives, but they are still valid in their own right.

In our human lives it is difficult at times to discern what is true and what is not. However, it can be even more difficult to decide what kind of truth we wish to create. Essentially, all life is about helping God create the truth we wish to experience. When you find what resonates with your own truth on the deepest level, let it out into the world for all to see!





( PART EIGHTEEN )

Is God Eternal?


God is beyond our perception of time, so this question is almost meaningless. God is a master of time, not a slave of it.

Time is one aspect of God. Both time and space are a way for God to give form to his creation. There are a myriad of ways for one aspect of God to relate to another, and through such relations God creates physical form.

If something is eternal, then it partially defeats the purpose of time. Through time we recognize change, and it is change that allows the breath of God to permeate the universe. If something changes into itself, then it seems to us if it is unchanging, but that is not the case. For example, the human body changes completely every seven years, regardless of if we notice the changes that happen every moment or not.

If something changes into itself, we can say that thing is 'stable'. If change is erratic, then it is 'unstable'. For humans, too much of the same can become a form of prison, since if we are limited in change we are limited in exercising our free will. In a way, being eternal could be a negative thing too.

An eternity can be only a moment for God. Although particular forms or aspects of God are not eternal, God is eternal in the sense that God is present as long as the time of the world exists. What we humans tend to forget is that time is a unified whole too. Chopping up time into seconds, minutes, days, centuries etc. is just a human way of looking at things and not the basic reality of time itself. Eternity, as an infinite series of moments, simply doesn't exist.





( PART NINNETEEN )

Is God All Powerful?


Yes, God is all powerful.

Being all powerful is something that defies our imagination. We are afraid of even our own power, because we know we can get burned by it if we don't wield it responsibly. We imagine all kinds of demons and devils to somehow counterbalance God's power in our minds - but that lessens only our own power, not God's.

For us humans, power is the measure of our ability to affect, change and influence our inner and outer environments. Let's look at some examples: If you are physically strong, you can lift a lot of weight. If you are intelligent, you can solve problems fast. If you are disciplined, you don't let change affect you negatively. All these are different measures for power, but there is always something against which to measure that power: in this case weight, problems, or change.

Since God is all powerful, God doesn't have anything to measure his power against. If God is everything, then there is only God and nothing else. So, our human idea of power does not really apply to God.

For God, the question is not how to become powerful enough to create the world, but what kind of world to create? For this reason, the world has a say to how it wishes to be created - and that includes human individuals. We too are part of the world and share God's infinite power (as long as we learn to use it responsibly and with balance).

God's deepest and truest power is Love.





( PART TWENTY )

Is God All Powerful?


Yes, God is all powerful.

Being all powerful is something that defies our imagination. We are afraid of even our own power, because we know we can get burned by it if we don't wield it responsibly. We imagine all kinds of demons and devils to somehow counterbalance God's power in our minds - but that lessens only our own power, not God's.

For us humans, power is the measure of our ability to affect, change and influence our inner and outer environments. Let's look at some examples: If you are physically strong, you can lift a lot of weight. If you are intelligent, you can solve problems fast. If you are disciplined, you don't let change affect you negatively. All these are different measures for power, but there is always something against which to measure that power: in this case weight, problems, or change.

Since God is all powerful, God doesn't have anything to measure his power against. If God is everything, then there is only God and nothing else. So, our human idea of power does not really apply to God.

For God, the question is not how to become powerful enough to create the world, but what kind of world to create? For this reason, the world has a say to how it wishes to be created - and that includes human individuals. We too are part of the world and share God's infinite power (as long as we learn to use it responsibly and with balance).

God's deepest and truest power is Love.

( MORE TUESDAY )