Friday, September 23, 2011

Slow v. Fast/ The Gospel of John 1:1-18

I notice that when I'm around other people who seem to have "hurried tendencies", I just kind of sit back and watch them spin their wheels. I'm never in a rush. Even when I'm late, I'm patient because I can just Accept the fact that I will get there when I get there and since I can't time travel or teleport I just have to acknowledge he given situation and take it as it is.

When I'm on a freeway, I look at the places I drive by... I admire the view. Other people seem like they're in such a rush to get places they never bother to enjoy the journey. It's like going to a 5 star restaurant and with someone who slurps all the food down in 2 minutes. That wasn't the Point of going there. You were suppose to Enjoy the meal to get out the best part of it. Taking your time with things almost always goes hand in hand with maintaining some sort of Quality in what you do. I think that's why I'm never in a hurry actually -I enjoy where I'm at and can enjoy a slower pace in a direction then just sprinting because everyone else is.

Anyways, I was with a friend today going over the Bible... I'm taking pseudo Bible study lessons now. I'm just happy it's at a slower pace than my usual classes were in college. It was like drive-by spiritual reading.

Things I learned about The Gospel According to John Today:

Firstly there was John's back-story as explained to me by my friend. John was "mystical" and spiritual more than he was "rule-oriented". John had a tendency to Capitalize his words. According to my Aries friend, John has a unique line of thought and way of explaining things that is similar to the way I write. Namely, he states fats and links concepts, but doesn't go into depth about what led him to those conclusions. John also had a brother named James, and was essentially Jesus's best buddy when they were together. John was his favorite. When all the other apostles had deserted Jesus, John stayed by his Jesus's mother's side and was there when he was crucified. Loyal, faithful, humble, honest, and modest. I'm going with Pisces or Taurus. Maybe Cancer...

John starts out talking about God, the Beginning, and John the Baptist (who got everyone informed and mentally prepped for the coming of Jesus).

"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
4 In Him was life,  and the life was the Light of men.
5 The Light shines in the darkness, and darkness did not comprehend it." -John 1: 1-5

At this point I'm knodding my head inside and completely understanding everything, but my friend is like, "Whoa! and this blew my mind and I was like, but how? And it was hard to understand..." And I was like, really? Maybe I'm just really good at grasping and accepting concepts.

When John says in the beginning there was this thing called the Word, I immidiately translate that in my own mind to be Truth. My friend (The Airamses) says that Word came from the latin "logos". And I thought, doesn't that mean logic? At trip down to the land of Wiki says that logos refers to order and knowledge. Where do order, logic, and knowledge come from? Truth. Anyways, There was a Truth;the Truth was there was God; God was the Truth for He was the one who created it and everything else. He created order and fact.

Then John says all things came from God. Duh. I would say the Bible supports evolution -although we still don't know all the details about earlier times and how things technically came to be -ultimately all we really Need to know and understand is that God created life. So where did He get this "life"? He was alive, and just as a mother can give birth to a child that was created within her out of her own flesh and blood, God created man out of His own life force -hence the reason why people can have a direct connection to God (He's already in us, we just have to tap into that force and surrender to the serenity).


The life was the Light/ Light of men/ Shines in darkness/ Darkness did not understand and was also overpowered by the Light. Yup. This makes sense literally and spiritually. I've seen people with "the light". They've essentially uncovered their True Self, a.k.a their Soul that was buried an ignored under their physical being. The spiritual light from within can cast out darkness -in this context being fear, doubt, hate, negativity, loathing...

"6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
10 He was in the world and the world was made through Him,and the world did not know Him.
11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." -John 1: 6-12

Yah, this is very similar writing to my own. I would have used this sort of structuring because it accomplishes several things: 1. It gives simple terms that people can understand, 2. It explains these simple terms and how they relate in a profound way that pushes people to expand their understanding so they can grasp and larger meaning, and 3. It just states fact so people don't get caught up in the reasons why because the Ultimate message is more important than the details. It's always the moral of the story that makes the story worth reading.

So here, John is saying that John the Baptist went around telling people of God and the Light and that the Light was going to come to them. John the Baptist also made it clear that he was just the messenger informing people of things to come -not the actual Light. I like how John says the Light enlightens every man. This is Truth. When man comes to recognize his true nature, sees his own Soul, and lets it out for others to see -people get inspired to do the same. This is what God wanted. Trying to guide people to heaven from a google map outline of routes to take wasn't working. He had to come down to earth himself to show people The Way.

"He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him." Ha ha ha, irony. God creates humans and the earth and to help them out of their struggles he visits earth and man has No idea who is standing in front of them. It's like when you meet a CEO for Cisco or Google and you don't know that's who they are. Or you run into Oprah, but you don't realize it's Oprah. Funny. And then, not only that, but people then refused to believe it was Him. Funnier...

It makes sense though. If you don't know God now in your own personal life because you went out of your way to find a way to Him, then what makes you think you could recognize Him if He was standing in front of you?

"children of God" and those "who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" were terms that confused me a little. Maybe it's because today Everyone considers themselves to be a child of God or "the universe". But I guess this was God's way of making it official and drawing people's attention to it. God said, "You know what?, you may have been born on this earth and you may have been born from a woman and she may have decided to bear you... but I created life itself and therefore I am your True Father."

"14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John testified about Him and cried out saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me'."
16 For His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 
17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth we realized through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." -John 1: 14-18

Grace and Truth. Jesus was either a Pisces or an Aquarius. Maybe a Leo, but Leos don't exactly have a great deal of humility.

"For His fullness we have all received" -For Gods own happiness, He came down to earth to be received by His children and to receive them as His own. People typically have a hard time understanding how God an be in Heaven, in Flesh, and in Spirit all atthe same time. It's because people aren't thinking about the connective threads the right way.

Think about it. What is everything on this planet comprised of ? Atoms and matter that is beyond microscopic that everything is made of on the most basic level. We all come from the same place and the same source. But what animates us and gives us life is our Souls ultimately. It's not our brains -people in comas can still live. And the heart is just a functioning organ like all the others -not the one causing life.

God is Life. He created everything from Himself and therefore everything is an extension of Himself and therefore we are all connected and God is Boundless. It's like saying there's Compassion, Family Love, and Romantic Love. Love is something that exists from within and  carries its own light. There is no one form it is bound to -it comes in many different ways in many different intensities. People just have to acknowledge, accept, embrace, and act out of Love. It's the same with our Spirits. It's the same with our relationship with God. It's already there. It's within us. He is within Us.  

3 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to studying with you also for my benefit --- I know that I will also learn how to view the Bible with a different perspective, which will help me to be able to relate it better. You operate in a different world --- as I said, one that most people cannot see --- but I can at least pick up and remember whatever it is you choose to let me see through your words. =)

    One thing I want to emphasize is that John believed he was writing down a Word that was established from the beginning. John was always meant to write these things down; these things didn't come out of his mind, he was passing the info to us THROUGH his mind.

    The beauty of God is that He is able to use everyone to translate His Power through each person's unique personality/traits.

    For example, the God that you will relate to someone will be a part of God that only you can relate.

    I would do it a different way --- but it would still be relating the same God.

    This section of John links the Word directly to Jesus' Being. This is why (according to Christianity), the Bible cannot be man-made, as it's a part of who Jesus is. We are simply allowed to see a part of that which is in the Bible.

    A challenging thought, perhaps...but just hold it in the back of your mind.


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  2. Since all permenates from God, including the Bible and Jesus -it is also true that any higher level of Truth we find outside of Christinity also derives from Him. Like Buddhism.

    Not taking credit for Wisdom and Truth is also a Pisces trait. We relay informiation and facts -we don't create it. We just discover it and therefore can take no credit for what we say or write. Even when it comes to artowrk I have a hard time explaining to people where i "come up with" the images i make. I don;t come up with anything -I just draw. It's hard for me to receive praise for lots of the things people compliment me for. I actually experienced it today when people congratualted me on passinghe test to get my license. I didn't do anything other than take in infrmation and repeat that information correctly like a copy/paste. John seems like this kind of individual too.

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  3. That...that must be EXACTLY it! Thank you. I will be using that in the future to help explain John. =)

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