Pathways to Being Willing

When I was younger, (teen/young adult) many aspects of my life focused on church and the Bible. I was a bible toting junior in high school and proudly read my Bible in class when completed with that days assignment. As a young Christian, I embraced the Lord as passionately as possible and was a true Pentecostal believer.

Time passes and life happens. I fell away from God, but eventually was drawn back, but not through religion, but through the absence of religion. I read the first ‘Conversations with God‘ book, and although I did not really buy many of the things the author related, it did help me see that God might be different than what the Bible had explained.

I later began reading ‘A Course In Miracles‘…which was a very difficult read at first, but still, it portrayed God differently. It portrayed God as I had always hoped he could be…unconditionally loving of everyone.

As I began writing articles, while also getting a clearer picture of God’s true being, my articles slowly introduced many things about the Bible in which I disagreed and in which I believed were responsible for our very distorted image of God. At the time, I did not realize that I was Bible bashing with an attitude to some degree. I later read an article by Ken Wopnak that stated that those of us who were brow beaten with the Bible, might have a tendency to then brow beat Bible believers with A Course In Miracles….but this is of course, an error in judgement and totally unnecessary.

I left my original writings as they are since they still portray a viewpoint that may be helpful to some and since all things work together for good, I can’t let myself think anything but good will come from them.

Now, as I opt to include the Bible as part of a discussion or in an article, I focus only on those things I believe as truly depicting our God as loving, and I do not debate those things that disagree. It’s not my job to say “hey look how wrong you are about that“, because then I am judging and it’s not possible to judge here. We simply don’t have all the facts.

My base premise for seeing God as a truly loving God is also confirmed within the bible in  1st John where it states that perfect love casts out fear, and in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus says to pray for your enemies, do good to your enemies and to give without expecting anything in return. These are just a few of the true characteristics of an unconditionally loving God. Anything else that is written within the Bible or any other text that shows God as using fear or playing favorites or establishing requirements by which he’ll give, I know is written from the heart of man, and does not have anything to do with the truly loving characteristics of God.

Overall, I believe that the physical things that we so dearly cling to, need to be let go. Who cares when they happened, if they happened or how they happened? Does the story convey a truly loving message? Are Gods actions in the story peaceful, kind and unconditionally loving? If so, the story may be true, but the actual events are not important if they occurred as written. What is important is the lessons of love they teach.

God is not physical and I don’t believe there is a single physical thing he requires from us, nor is there a single physical thing he has blessed above another. Nothing physical matters because only spirit is eternal and only the eternal matters. Jesus proved this as he rose again. He showed his followers that no matter what anyone does to the body, you don’t die…only the body dies.

The Bible is a great source of information, provided you can accept that it is not 100% inspired by God and can be questioned. People, like you and like myself, wrote the stories and accounts in the Bible. They wrote what they felt was true or necessary to say at the time, but this does not make it Gods inspired word, it just makes it words.

I believe I am inspired, but not every single word…or even every paragraph or even every article, however, I am open to allow the Holy Spirit and Jesus to work through me more and more with every time I write, and I know as time has passed, what I write today is more inspired than what I wrote 5 years ago…as it should be, otherwise, I have not grown.

Nothing on earth is perfect and nothing on earth provides all the knowing that will reveal God’s truly loving nature, including the Bible and A Course In Miracles. To accomplish this, simply open yourself to contemplating that god is more than all the feeble attempts any man has made to describe him, and be open to let him reveal himself to you. Be willing to see things differently by setting aside everything in this world that has created any image at all of God in your mind, and god’s true image will begin to break through.

In your article about Being Willing you mentioned or rather suggested that one learn how to be willing. “Learn to Be willing and you’ll truly see what God Can Do.”

My question is how does one learn how to be willing? For example, if one were trying to prove the existence of God but wouldn’t or couln’t accept the myriad proofs because of unwillingness, prejudice or bias, how does one turn that unwillingness to willingness?
 

 (this is a copy of an email request received by David and has been republished here. All personal information has been removed)

You mention that the story of Noah never happened and that God would never kill all those innocent people. The story of Noah is mentioned throughout the New Testament as well. Matthew 24:38 for example.

You give examples from Matthew that we should accept but we are supposed to just disregard others as made up? Are we to just read the bible and disregard any mention of God or God’s acts that are not loving?

 (this is a copy of an email request received by David and has been republished here. All personal information has been removed)

Hey I love your site and I’m glad I found this site because you talk about the true loving God I’ve always believed in. I was just wondering what you thought about hell?? I believe hell is a man made invention.. What do you think?? I think from reading your site tyou agree.

(this is a copy of an email request received by David and has been republished here. All personal information has been removed)

Upon reading ‘A Course In Miracles’ the first time, it was difficult to image how I could ever apply all its concepts and live as though I am totally forgiving and totally loving…which pretty much concludes that i did not really understand the spirit of what I had read, but it was a beginning.

 I view much of the course as ‘data’, meaning, there is a lot of information that basically tells us how it really is, or could be, but I simply view this as useful information that I can refer to so that I am open to adapt my thinking today. In other words, I do not try to get to the end of my journey but instead I use that ‘data’ to help me work through what I now perceive as real and as today.

Viewing many of the teachings and concepts as ‘data’ allowed me to keep an open mind on what I could learn to be open to instead of seeing the Course as a series of dictates that must be totally embraced and applied today.

The Holy Spirit knows we perceive and knows we have ’special’ relationships and knows we judge and knows we often forget we are better to be loving and forgiving. He knows and works within the limits we have set. As we become more and more open for Him to provide guidance, we relax our limits and he can work with us more consistantly and help open our minds to seeing more clearly and seeing differently.

When thinking if I am living the Course or if others are living the Course, those questions often also infer if the Course is even being understood well enough to genuinely apply it, but this is not a judgemnet you need to make. The Course is a personal journey for you until you finally see all others as being totally forgiven and see all  their problems and perceived attacks as call for love. Until this happens, we live as though separate, while learning that somehow, we are not separate.