Showing results by author "Neville" in All Categories

In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he said: "I strive for you to have the riches of an assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery of Christ." Now, you may think there is no mystery to Christ and believe as any Christian believes - that Christ is Jesus, the son of God; but Paul doesn't state that. What Paul is trying to do is change your fixed ideas of the past, in order for you to have the same assured understanding and knowledge of God's mystery of Christ that he has.

God is known by experience or not at all. I have experienced God. I can no more deny it than I can the humblest evidence of my senses, so I feel qualified to tell you how you are going to experience God. There is only God in the world. When you say, "I am," that's God forever and forever.

In the 32nd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, we are told, "The rock, his work is perfect." Then this question is asked: "Is he not your father who created you? Separating the sons of men, he fixed bounds to the people according to the number of the Sons of God." Today there is much talk about curtailing the population explosion. This we will never do, for the bounds are already recorded.

You read about the flood, and you think, "Well, certainly that happened unnumbered - if it ever did happen, it happened unnumbered years ago." This morning, as is my custom, I turned on channel KFAC. That is a radio station that plays through the day and night, 24 hours a day, only lovely classical music; only a few interruptions.

"We have only to raise Imagination to the state of Vision and the thing is done." (William Blake) Just imagine it! That is all you and I are required to do. No matter what it is we desire, we have only to raise imagination to the state of vision, and the thing is done! Now, when the prophets of old used the word vision in scripture, they meant all of the senses, either individually or in combination.

Tonight, I want you to think of Christ as a cosmic being who contains everyone within him. Having died for all, this one being is in all, and will rise in all. Only one being can rise, for only one being fell. Having deliberately destroyed his temple in the fall, God (this one being) is rebuilding his temple out of the redeemed, in order for it to become something far greater than it was prior to its destruction. One being, containing all within him, fell into this world of death to become individualized as you, as me.

Every fact is a dream made visible, so I invite you to live as though your dream were already a fact! I am convinced that every dream (desire) I have dared to live in the now has gradually and unnoticed blossomed into fact in my life. I also know, not only from personal experience but from eternal vision, that the spiritual states of the soul are eternal. That like a traveler, individual man passes through states but the states remain forever.

The gospel is truly a mystery to be known only by revelation. In the 16th chapter of John we are told: "I came out from the father and came into the world. Again I leave the world and I return to the father." In these four short phrases we find the pre-existence of Christ, his incarnation, his death, and his ascension. I could put this in the first person, plural sense and say: "We came out from the father" for we're told in the first chapter of Ephesians: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

Tonight's subject is Order Your Conversations Aright. As we are told in the 50th Psalm: "To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." (Psalm 50:23, KJV1)

There are three very firm statements made in scripture defining God. God is light. God is love, and God is spirit. John tells us here that God is light, a light in which there is no darkness. Now try to follow me closely. The final gift to man is God himself and God is a revealer. Man's knowledge of himself is based on his knowledge of the revealer. Scripture records what is said of the revealer. As he awakens in you, read scripture carefully and you will discover to what extent God has revealed himself to you.

Every natural effect has a spiritual cause and not a natural one. A natural cause only seems to exist. It is a delusion of the perishing vegetable memory. We do not remember these moments in time when we imagined certain states. When that imaginal state takes form we can see it with the outer eye; we do not recognize our own harvest and deny that we had anything to do with these natural effects that are taking place in our world.

Now, we are told that Jehovah brought his people out of Egypt "with signs and wonders." All these signs and wonders are in the story of Jesus. We are told that Jesus is the representative of humanity. Take just one story, the story of Jesus, for it is really your story. Study it carefully; and once you have found it, in the light of all the signs and wonders in the career of Jesus. He is the Resurrection. That's the key to the entire thing. When that happens, all the other signs follow. They all unfold themselves in the individual.

Tonight's subject is "He Wakes in Me". I should say, "He wakes in us." Who is he? The Lord Jesus Christ, who is crucified in us. He was never crucified on anything outside of man, and because he was crucified in us, he must rise in us. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me. And if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."

Tonight's title is the Family Portrait. Thirty-odd years ago, a play appeared on Broadway called The Family Portrait. It was a study of Jesus and starred Margaret Webster and Judith Anderson. They played the parts of Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother. The central figure - Jesus - never appeared on the stage, just as it should be. The brothers appeared, bringing the news of what he had said and the reactions of the crowd and the concern of the two Marys.

To think of the Bible's events as historical, and the characters recorded there as persons such as you and I, is to see truth tempered to the weakness of the human form, unable to stand the strong light of revelation. But I tell you: It is in us, as persons, that the nature of God is revealed.

When our great scientist, Dr. Robert Millikan, was young and very poor, he set a goal for himself. Condensing his dream of greatness and security into a simple statement, he silently repeated the thought over and over again. This he did until the feelings of greatness and security crowded all other thoughts out of his consciousness. These are his words: "I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefit."

The sun rises upon a terrible knowledge. Parelli is dead. A baby is in the hole. You hear the rumble. You feel earth moving. Fires are ignited. Culture, learning and reason are about to go up in smoke. It is a tale spun from the threads of history. In turns dark and humorous, in tones richly sensual, deeply spiritual, it is a mystery entered from many levels and must be solved before everything is incinerated.

During Good Friday, undoubtedly millions attend services and hear some portion of the last seven words of Christ; but I wonder how many of them know who he is and what the words really mean. I tell you: Jesus Christ is your awareness, your I Amness, who became as you are that you may be as he is. I want you to accept this literally, for it is true.

Those who experience the Christian mystery are charged with the responsibility of telling others. Their aim is the awakening of faith in God. For, as Paul, I ask the questions, "How can men call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear unless there is a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!'"

The book of Genesis is made up of three records called the J, P, and E manuscripts. Here, I will refer to the E manuscript, which begins with the 15th chapter of Genesis: "As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, 'Know for a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves there and they will be oppressed for four hundred years. After that they will come out with great possessions.' Abraham believed and it was accounted unto him for righteousness."