Original Sin

We are born with the propensity to make ourselves into the image of God when, in truth, we are already the image of God.  The motto-making, goal-seeking free will of ours works tirelessly to make ourselves into who we think we should be.  To make ourselves more than we already are.

Perhaps this was God’s idea all along.  Perhaps God intends for us to be motto-makers and goal-seekers.  God, who knows the futility in our efforts, hopes that when we find we are unable to achieve the ultimate, we will turn and ask for help.

The Secret

Throughout the Psalms the writers entreat God to take away their sin.  And through the prophets God tells his people he will take their sin away.  So what does that have to do with us today?  Is anybody asking God to remove his sin, and does God’s promise still hold?

Many wonder if God desires to be active in the lives of mankind since few examples are seen.  I argue that once we remember the secret and act on it, we can be recipients of the sin-dissolving grace of God.  Remember the prophets who engaged in conversation with God?  Especially the one who looked for God in the storm and whirlwind but found him in the still small voice?  And Samuel who heard God calling his name in the night?  And look at the example Jesus gave, repeatedly going to a quiet place to commune with his Father.

And Gethsemane.  We have only one part of the conversation but we can imagine that God was making himself heard in that exchange.  God’s secret, which is described throughout scripture, is the spiritual conversation God wants to have with us in order to initiate the cleansing we need.

Our free will is as important to God as his love for us.  He will not override the will he has given us.  Instead, he waits for our permission to do what is necessary to wash away all that is blocking us from joyful relationship with him.  Our participation in God’s salvific act is what is required.

It is up to us to initiate the dialog that will give us the confidence in God’s power so that we will give the important permission.  Take paper and pencil and begin with a question.  You are always in control.

Ann Glover O’Dell

6 August 2018

The Lamb of God

“ Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins. . . .” The consciousness of man, whereby God can be fully known in the flesh, is the lamb of God—God’s most precious gift to man (and with it his free will). This is what must be sacrificed—made sacred. For genuine intimate communion with God, man must be made sacred, must be transformed into God’s original design—not pre-consciousness but rather full conscious awareness.

This full conscious communion with God becomes possible as man freely offers his conscious will to God. God gives man his pure lamb of consciousness, hoping man will, after having made a demi-god of it in service to his ego, offer it back to God to be re-purified, made sacred, as only God can.

Our task in this God-man relationship is to “behold” our willful ego that can no longer provide for us what we most want— peace of mind and inner joy. “Behold” in ourselves what needs to die—what needs to become the blood sacrifice—the gift to God—made pure and sacred by his power and returned to us in a sanctified relationship—a communion of our spiritual essence with the essence of God. That communion of essences is indeed the holy meal that God wants to share with each of us.
Ann Glover O’Dell
23 December 2014

(note: The story of one person’s transformation experience may be read on this website under BOOK entitled Humpty Dumpty Hatched.)

GOODNESS

Goodness includes within it the absence of goodness, else man could not know the nature of the good.

The opposite of a virtue must be present (or presented) along with that virtue in order for the totality of that virtue to be known.  And for any good to be fully known, man must have the freedom and desire to choose it.  Only in the knowledge, experience of its opposite can man fully appreciate, yearn for, and enjoy the good.

The fruit of consciousness enables us to recognize the bitter as well as the sweet in life, and each experience moves us toward wanting that which will satisfy completely.

Without the duality of human existence, God could not hope for man to yearn for the unity that he (God) wanted with man but could never achieve if man had no choice.  Opposites are essential to God’s grand design.  Whether we call the absence of good evil or sin or give it a proper name (Devil, Anti-Christ, etc.) makes no difference.  The looming largeness of this absence of good causes man to name, describe, place blame with such energy—all signifying the enormous influence of and preoccupation with this absence.

Once the good is apprehended, the energy formerly attached to the absence is now invested in and multiplies the good.

Ann Glover O’Dell

29 April 2009

 

Called to be Messiahs

messiah= anointed one, messenger, deliverer

Are we ready/willing to be an anointed one? A special messenger? One visited by the Holy Spirit? Not one filled with hubris but rather filled with compassion and patience?

The holiness within us—the soul that is the part of us that will never die—the godness in the center of our being—that holiness yearns to be experienced by the totality of our personality.

Our inner sacrality does not, however, and will not interfere with our free will which is also sacred—meaning that our free will is totally under our control. It will not be compromised, even by the Wisdom Energy of the universe.

The kind of messiahship offered to each of us does not include an outward coronation or temple dedication. Rather it is manifest in the invisible placing of holy oil and the knowledge imparted to us that we are chosen. That we are God’s only begotten in whom he is well pleased. And with whom he desires intimate relationship.

Only then do we realize we have a special message to deliver—the message that is the deliverer– and we realize what that message is.

29 April 2015

Does God Need Us?

What is the relationship between ‘need’ and ‘want’ in reference to our relationship to God? Is there a sense—a possibility that God wants/needs us as much as we him?

Our ‘wants’ we think can be fulfilled through our own will and effort. And as long as we can satisfy ourselves, there is little impetus for examining what might be beyond us.

If we come to the point where we can no longer give ourselves satisfaction and our wants and needs exceed the material and cultural, a new possibility opens. The possibility that something beyond ourselves might be able to give us something unique and life-changing.

The possibility is always there, waiting for us. Accessing it requires some effort. We must do more than simply consciously want new zest for life. We must engage the Life Force within us and cooperate with it. We must exercise our free will in giving it permission to do whatever is necessary in order to make us ready to receive what we most want.

The fact that we exercise our free will and are not coerced into surrendering anything indicates that God wants us in relationship, that God wants to protect one of the most important gifts he has given us, that God wants our will freely connected to his.

And once we cooperate with our own transformation process and the culmination occurs, we realize God not only wants but needs our bodies, minds, and spirits to transmit his ecstatic energy in the world.

(note: The story of one person’s transformation from the Life Force is available on this website in the book Humpty Dumpty Hatched.)

NEAR-SACRIFICE

The story of the sacrifice of Isaac is so powerful that it is never referred to as the near-sacrifice. Abraham’s willingness to give up his son was 100%. The story shows, with two characters and God, what, in the Jesus narrative, is accomplished in one human being. In stories the spiritual must be represented in the physical else there is nothing for the reader to work with in a symbolic way. The physical can be interpreted in many ways and that is what makes a good story.

For Abraham, the son he had prayed for, his life link to progeny, his proof of manhood, the long-awaited delivery of God’s promise—all this as his most prized possession was being asked of him.

Jesus was asked to give his life, his most prized possession—a life lived doing what he thought was most important: preaching, teaching, healing—what he thought God wanted him to do. As all those things were given up, he became, in the narrative, one whose very being was transformed. The story says his being was so transparent and ethereal he could move through a locked door, and yet he could eat and drink as a normal human.

He was recognized in a prayer of thanks. He prepared a meal for his friends (first time ever in all gospel accounts). He didn’t preach or teach or heal. He encouraged his friends to be compassionate. He just was. His being was enough. His being was exactly what God wanted of him. And what God wants of us.

A willingness to sacrifice ourselves results in a near-sacrifice in that only what needs to die dies and the real self is born into our transformed personalities. The stories of Isaac and Jesus are our stories—or are meant to be.

(Note: A book entitled Humpty Dumpty Hatched, which tells the story of transformation of one personality, is available on this website.)