God Is Love—God Is Love!

Realise all the underlying meaning and truth of those words—

God Is Love—God Is Love!

Saint Joseph with the infant, Jesus, in his arms | Guido Reni, c. 1635 | Hermitage Museum

The door is opened

What does it mean when God opens a door?

Taking your wish for service, your love for God, even as you cross over, the Door is opened and revelation is yours.

The Light of the World | William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) | Keble College

Leave everything in the care of the Saviour.

Leave everything in the care of the Saviour.

A young girl waits to receive a blanket from Afghan National Police during Khowst Provincial Reconstruction Team’s return visit to an orphanage in Khowst City | U.S. Air Force Master Sgt Matthew Lohr, Khowst Provincial Reconstruction Team Public Affairs | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

What causes a person to not think clearly?

What causes a person to not think clearly?

A mind that is worried does not think clearly.

Anhedonic Distractions of a worried mind | User DeeAshley from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

How do you harness your thoughts?

How do you harness your thoughts?

I want you to harness your thoughts, to get into the way of keeping a tight hold on the reins—in fact, to be master. You will find it a bit of a struggle at first. Spirited horses who have a will of their own do not like to run in an orderly and restrained manner—they prefer to take the bit in their teeth. It is just the same with you, and with a great many on this side if a firm hand is not there. 

Zodiac, the Christ Messenger

Brick wall close-up view | Pawel Wozniak | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

As we think, our thoughts are taking permanent shape.

Thinking is a gift, but we can abuse even a gift direct from God unless there is that steady anchorage to Him, which makes all other precautions unnecessary. When our thoughts are allowed to wander on their own, the shadows get a better chance of interposing, and the more we develop mind control, so will we find that as we think, these are taking permanent shape.

Repose | Jules Breton (1827–1906) | Walters Art Museum

The Inner Citadel

Enter into the inner citadel of that which belongs to God and separate yourself equally from the discords of daily life.

Inner Citadel of the Chitradurga Fort | Henry Dixon

Immunity from Suffering

To those who wish to follow the Master, not only is there protection but immunity from suffering—held out, lavished upon us, in a way we cannot grasp.

The Buxtehude Altar | Master Bertram (1345–1415) | The Bridgeman Art Library

What is the gift of God to man?

The gift of God in Christ—Man will never understand its magnitude, its selflessness, its essential God-likeness. We cannot take it in. We stand on the outer threshold of understanding and have to fall back again and again on the old thought that, after all, it was God, and leave it there.

Zodiac, the Christ Messenger

Christ in the Wilderness | Ivan Kramskoi (1837–1887) | Tretyakov Gallery | Google Cultural Centre

Each pang endured is a gift.

Each pang endured is a gift—a gift—because it brings us just that space nearer to the One who bears the pain of all.

Armenians | George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) | Bain News Service

What is the far-reaching power of the Spirit?

In the dust under your feet, in the green slips by your side, there, in the hedges, in the ditches, above and under the ground, work of a comprehensive nature is going on minute by minute, unceasingly, and without definite periods of rest.

That is the comprehensive view because in nature there is no cessation of effort or labour at all. While the animals rest, the soil works on, and the growth of the trees is not retarded because the night is gathered in.

And then, in the fields, this idea is multiplied even more. There is a struggle, there is effort, there is a labour of a kind inconceivable to the physical mind, but, nevertheless, it goes on, and not in an inconsequential way—nothing is haphazard with the plans of God, but in a regular orderly manner, and although to you the seasons seem to change, the labour of the earth is unchanging—unchanging and unchangeable—because only by its efforts can man live.

To your physical eyes, there is the outward, and very often, the beautiful, and to the eyes of the spirit, there is that of which no man can speak—a network of arrangement, a most marvellous system worked out to perfection; to you, automatic, but to spiritual sight that sees the far-reaching power of the Spirit, the Spirit knows and understands that only the Mind of One could have conceived of anything so wonderful, and yet so straightforward and simple.

It is, of all things, the most difficult to rid the physical mind of that invisible, but permanent and insurmountable dividing line between life and so-called death. 

Again and again, you swing back to your early conception that this existence of yours upon earth is governed by laws entirely separate from those, which are in evidence in the life of the Spirit.

I want you to think about this most earnestly; I want you to try and take in more the real position of affairs. 

To use a crude illustration, it is just as though a child were taken blindfolded through a beautiful land of flowers, colour and changing scenes, and the companion who walks by her side tries, so far as he is able, to describe what lies on this side and on that. 

Many questions are asked, but his best powers seem totally inadequate to present the picture that lies around, and the child says—

But what does that look like, and how does this happen, and why is that? 

The questions go on and on, and the answers do not satisfy the mind, which wants to know so much; and again and again, fretting under the restrictions so imposed, the child cries out—

Take off the bandage and let me see for myself.

He who walks beside the child longs to uncover the eyes and grant a request so natural.

Let Christ come in.

Try and remember that although you feel lonely, that no one understands, yet the One so kind is there, and even as He understood the plight of His friendless child, so He understands all that you fear and all that these dark days bring out in the way of pain and disappointment.

Let Christ come in. Christ understands that sometimes the barriers seem too great and although you may relinquish your hold on the Master, He never lets go of you and never will for all Eternity.

Let the little children come unto Me | Carl Bloch (1834–1890) | Museum of Natural History (Denmark)

Fling out sufficient trust in the spirit to let the personal go by.

Fling out sufficient trust in the spirit to let the personal go by—We have the Saviour, and He never forsakes, and He never lets go. This should comfort us. Now and again, beset by much that tries and frets us, we release our hold on Christ—but Christ never lets go of us—remember that. Over and over again, He closes the wounds in heart and mind, gives strength to the faltering, hope to the despairing, and lifts our eyes up to the golden horizon.

The Fall of the Rebel AngelsLuca Giordano (1634–1705)Kunsthistorisches Museum

Take the bigger view.

Take the bigger view, which is God's view, and be sure that what He has promised, that shall be fulfilled.

The Big Pineapple, between Port Alfred and Bathurst on the R67 in the Eastern Cape, South Africa User NJR ZA from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Selfishness is the ugliest thing we create.

The work for gain and for self is a very ugly picture—Selfishness is, of all things, the most unlike to God because it is in direct opposition to Love, which God represents, and, therefore, from a spiritual point of view, selfishness is perhaps the ugliest thing we create.

Seen nearly edgewise, the turbulent disk of gas churning around a black hole takes on a crazy double-humped appearance. The black hole’s extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, producing the warped image | NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

What are the stars on the dark night of our physical experience?

What are the stars on the dark night of our physical experience?

The little-unnoticed acts, the unspoken thoughts, the unmentioned prayers, these stand out as the stars on the dark night of our physical experience.

The Starry Night | Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) | Museum of Modern Art

Lack of consideration for others is self in one of its ugliest forms.

Never forget that lack of consideration for others is self in one of its ugliest forms.

Coloured drinking fountain from the mid-20th century with African-American drinking (original caption—Negro drinking at Coloured water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), July 1939 | Russell Lee (1903–1986) | United States Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division

God over all.

Light after darkness, the calm after the storm, rest after weariness, and God over all.

User Vmi2015 from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Frame your life so that God comes first.

Evil seeks to disguise itself in the ordinary commonplace details of everyday life. Frame your life so that God comes first; all the rest will fit in without effort on your part.

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, near Moab in Grand County, Utah | National Park Service

Remember the lines.

Remember the lines—

Renew my will from day-to-day;

Blend it with Thine, and take away

All that now makes it hard to say—

Thy perfect will be done!

Circumpolar star trails | User Kkiks29 from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International