*giggle*

Ha!! I have just found out by accident how to give that poor little doggie a rest!

Just hit "reply" -- and you can almost hear his sigh of relief!

Well, since I no longer have a say in how this study proceeds, could someone please let me know what's the protocol for moving onto the next chapter? Do we have to wait for the text to be posted? If so, can anyone post it? Must it be posted to move on or can we just start the next thread for discussion "at will"? Just wondering. Since discussion here seems drying up I'm kind of eager to move on, and plan to read chapter 2 today.

Yup. I read Chapter 2 last night. Since there's 87 chapters in total, I think it would be wise if we did at least 2 chapters a week.

I'm going to post a link to chapter 2 in another thread and we'll go. (I apologize to protocol police in advance if I've leaped ahead of myself!)

I just can't finish this off without referring to some absolute gems back here in chapter 1. To me it remains a source of absolute wonderment (is that a word?) the lengths to which God has gone to ensure the salvation of every person in this world who chooses to be saved.

From pages 25,26.
"It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken....To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature."

How can we ever begin to understand this? 1 Peter 1:12 tells us that "even angels long to look into these things."

In my mind perhaps this very crude illustration helps me to begin to grasp somewhat of the enormity of God's sacrifice. Just imagine, if you are a dog (or cat) lover, that somehow the dog or cat population was about to be extinguished unless someone was able to actually become one of them, be mistreated, hounded, bitten, scratched, and treated in abominal ways. Even when your time of living with them had finished, you would have to remain a dog or cat for the rest of your life!

OK, that is perhaps a glimpse of what would have happened if Jesus had stepped down from His throne and become an angel. But He chose to step down and become a human -- equivalent to you or I choosing to become a worm in order to save the worm population.

"In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together, Christ glorified is our brother...The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little world...will be honoured above all other worlds in the universe of God."

Imagine -- when all of this is over, God Himself is going to make this earth His Own home!!

Love so amazing!

The "Circle of Life" mentioned in this chapter reminds me of one of the first things I ever wrote, when I started to believe there was a God, again, so many years ago:

Quote:

---

Long ago and far away, before time began, there was God. With power earth-minds cannot comprehend, he transformed thought into reality and assembled the elements into beautiful and spectacular creations.


He made for himself a Land to dwell in, green and golden and timeless, and put there tall and noble beings, to be his helpers and companions. He surrounded his world with blazing stars, flaming comets, and magnificent swirling galaxies: a cosmic symphony of light framed into an interstellar tapestry.


Nowhere could there be found flaw in his work, for all that he made was good. There, in the Land of God, far beyond the stars we know, all was peace and harmony for age upon age, millennia after millennia.


He made other worlds and star systems, strange and wonderful beyond imagination, and scattered them throughout the universe: islands of life in endless fields of light. His great love for all of his creatures reached everywhere, and everywhere love was returned.


From star to star and planet to planet, the whole universe reverberated with songs of love and joy and beauty unlimited: all creation united in intergalactic harmony.


Copyright © 1981 by Gary Tjaden

---

The Circle of Life is:

Quote:

---

Take to Give. (EGW)

---

Jesus took life from God to give to the angels and all other created beings, who in turn returned to Jesus a surging tide of love in service. Jesus then gave this love back to the Father. It was the Law of Self-Renouncing Love that was the Law of Life in the Kingdom of the Stars.

So it was in nature before the contamination of the world with Evil, everything took in order to give.

Satan, the Evil One, deliberately broke The Perfect Circle of Life when he introduced Evil into God's creation.

What is Evil?

Quote:

---

Created by the Evil One himself, Satan, evil is the dark energy of chaos.
It’s a highly contagious, fatal virus that brings ruin upon on everyone it infects, destroying goodness and beauty and peace.
The virus of evil always brings selfishness, hatred, cruelty, conflict, destruction, disease, chaos, and death.
To everyone embracing it, it causes permanent damage, leaving them even less able to resist its power over them.

---

Evil is selfishness, selfishness is evil.

It's a total disregard for the feelings or property or life of another. The only way to destroy the Virus of Evil was by an act of selfless sacrifice of the Son of God, difficult for uncontaminated beings to understand. Stepping down from the rulership of the Universe, he gave up his extraterrestrial body and had his memories downloaded into a puny, pathetic little earth-body, complete with genetic defects and human weaknesses.

This noble sacrifice was no afterthought, for God, who could see backward and forward in time, planned it from the foundation of the world. Only by Love can Evil be overcome. Again, Evil is overcome by Love. That's why Jesus came, to teach us how to love. If we can love, then the Spirit of God can enable us to overcome Evil.

Quote:

---

Only by Love is Love awakened. EGW

---

It's the Power of Love that will ultimately destroy Evil. Only those who love God will be saved from destruction, because they love him enough to keep themselves pure. They also love others enough to lay down their lives for them, just as Jesus did for all of humanity.

Someday, the Circle of Life will be restored and Evil will be no more. We must choose in this life whether we want Life or Death. There will be no second chances. Our time may end sooner than we think. Choose today. Tomorrow may be too late.

Choose Life:

Stop doing or thinking evil and resist its power over you, beginning now.

Ask for removal of every past evil act or thought from your life record. Be specific.

Do only good for others, even if they have harmed you, and avoid selfishness at all costs. Sell your stuff and give to the poor, feed the hungry, visit the sick and those in prison, etc. Seek out others to help them.

Live happily, forever, in a mutation-and-disease-free body, with the Son of God in the New Jerusalem, or, on a beautiful, tropical greenhouse earth,

or,

Choose Death:

Embrace evil and welcome its selfish, harmful, destructive pleasures

Refuse to repent of all evil thoughts or actions

Continue to curse God and harm yourself and others

Face inevitable, permanent, fiery destruction

You make it sound so simple. But what of those with similar realizations about the nature of things (love vs. hate, etc.) yet who for whatever reasons do not hold a specific belief in God as we do? What of those whose primary reason for not believing in Christ as we do is those who call themselves by His name? (Not necessarily us, but perhaps the christo-corporate-fascist nazi "we are always right no matter how many lies we tell" types who are trying to destroy all freedom and everything the USA is supposed to stand for at present?)

(By the way -- sorry if that characterization offends anyone -- that is my honest opinion and were it not for the fact that it is without exception this particular sort and their legalistic/Pharisaic counterparts who turn people I KNOW to be decent, hardworking, intelligent, sensitive, potentially spiritual people OFF from God, I might hold a different opinion but as it stands I will NOT be sucked in by self-serving lies masquerading as the religion of Christ!!! SORRY if that offends but it's where I stand and NO it does not mean I think I'm perfect or know everything -- NOR does it mean I think other political solutions are perfect -- so don't even try that jank on me!!! P.S. WAR IS OF SATAN LIKE IT OR NOT. THAT'S ABSOLUTE REALITY FOR YOU. EGW even says so, so you didn't hear it from me only.)

:2cents:

There will always be a class of professing religionists who, whether they care or not, stomp on those who hold them in contempt and disgust. Some of the professing religionists in other countries have guns and machetes, and use them on their religious opponents. Other religionists, blind to their own faults, spew their doctrine and opinions, turning more sensitive souls away from God by misrepresenting him and what he wants us to do.

Quote:

---

Search thine own self.
What paineth thee in others,
In thyself may be.
All dust is frail,
All flesh is weak.
Be thou the true man
Thou dost seek.

(I no longer remember who the author is of this poem.)

---

Ultimately, we're responsible for ourselves. We all have the Bible and the words of Christ. We don't have to look at flawed, erring humans to see Jesus. We can find him for ourselves, regardless of the current state of religious institutions or their followers. That's what Jesus had to do to find his Father, he had to search for himself: "It is written." He certainly didn't fit into the religionist's scheme of things or follow their religious practices.

What Christians today need is feedback to make them aware of their faults, and, a willingness to accept criticism and a desire to fight their human nature and overcome their defects so they won't turn searching souls away from God. I think that would be a sign of a true Christian: a willingness to change, and, humility, realizing they could be turning someone away from God by thoughtless words or actions.

It's all too easy for someone to stand on the sidelines and criticize other's for what they're not doing right (arm-chair quarterbacking), but it's another matter altogether to demonstrate to those in error how it's done right.

So, is everyone who professes to be a Christian a hypocrite, and everyone who does not profess anything, not? That's a really easy way to avoid any responsibility for one's actions. Don't profess anything but heathenism or atheism. Then you're not accountable for any of your words and actions, and, you have a free license to criticize and condem other's for their failures and faults concerning their religion.

People don't need religion. They need to meet their Creator. They could do it on their own, if there's no other way. If they believe in God, they need to look for him, in song, in nature, in scriptures. If they look at others and reject God, that's very, very sad.

May God have mercy on us all.