FEAR AND LOVE OF GOD
And the sublime Abedam replied to the known Abedam's excuse of his fear: 2. "You have spoken the truth, but between ourselves I must raise a little objection. Behold, if this light thunderstorm were a work of My might, where would the earth now be? Yes, I tell you and also you others, where would the entire creation be? 3. "If you want to see a work of My might look at the entire infinite creation, how everything is consolidated and consists as a whole in its particular kind and yet only as a part of the infinite whole; and how nothing can leave the earth, the sun, the moon and all the stars except the most imponderable, namely, a properly limited light. Behold, those are works of My might. 4. "Do you believe that My might is a might of ruin or a might of destruction? 5. “Truly, if My might were like that nothing would ever have been created through it. 6. "But since My might is not a might of destruction and ruin, but of a constant creating and preserving of the created, it is consequently a might of eternal order. 7. "Since My might is like this and not otherwise, tell Me now where that is which you fear? 8. "Or do you think that this thunderstorm is less a work of My love than a calm, bright day?
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CHAPTER 50 About love and the love of Jesus
[1] You say, dear friend and brother, you may well be right, and so it is, as you have said. But, behold, it is a hard thing with the sudden awakening of love, which we now and then know from experience. We also have in this respect somewhat of a problem with so-called 'being in love'. If we really consider the matter, one soon learn that one by no means have love in its power, and we can not say that we can be in love with a being, whenever we wish, but according to the circumstances and conditions; and a lover is not an active, but a purely passive being, and must, in the literal sense, often drag love along like a hundredweight; and there is sometimes no means whatsoever to rid itself of it as of another burden. [2] And so we think here also, if we were real masters of love, it would certainly not be wanting that we would take hold of the Lord with the blazing zeal of our hearts. But we can do what we want, we can pressure our heart and force our feelings as the grapes are pressed in a winepress, and everything comes out, rather than a flaming love described by you. [3] Hence we are of the opinion that either the love of the Lord must be of a completely different character than that when a man in the prime of his life not seldom find a beautiful maiden; but if the love of the Lord would be like the love for a virgin, it must be poured directly into the heart by the Lord Himself, according to His great mercy; otherwise it is almost impossible for man to be able to grasp the Lord with the strongest love out of his own power, when- and however he wanted. 67. THE POWERLESSNESS OF MAN
[1] I SAID: “No matter what you do, do it always in My name, for without Me you do not have the power to do anything for the salvation of your souls. And when you finally have done everything that has been commanded and advised to attain to the true, eternal life, then say and acknowledge in yourself and also to the world that you have been lazy and useless helpers. For only God is everything in all and accomplishes all the good in man. [2] When a man discerns God’s will and follows it, he does not act according to his own will, but according to the will of God. Whatever God’s will does in man or in a pure angel, is certainly not a work that is purely of man or of an angel, but the work of the One according to whose will a work was accomplished. [3] By this, the work of man is only that he, out of love and true awe for God has made with his free will the recognized will of God completely as his own and acts then for his own salvation. But from that moment on it is no more the will of man but the will of God that accomplishes all the good in man, and so the good in man is then also only God’s work, which real and true man has to recognize in his rightly humility. If however, a person attributes a good work to himself as his own merit, then by that he already shows that he does not know himself and has certainly never known God in truth, and therefore he is still far away from the Kingdom of God. [4] For this reason, give always in everything the honor to God and act always in His name, then you will have God’s love in you. And he who has God’s love in him has forever and always everything in him. [5] But remember also the following: when man does something bad against the will of God, that deed is not a work of God, but entirely a deed of man himself, because in that case man did not make his will subordinate to God’s will that he knows, but is only continuously working against it. And of him can rightly be said that his evil deeds are completely his own deeds. But precisely by that, man has by the coarse use of his free will judged himself and by that he has in his blindness made himself unhappy. 09] Your heart radiates indeed a pure, highly inflamed love for God; but from such love you can gain only a little or nothing at all other than perhaps that you can see a little better in its broken light of the night than otherwise in utter darkness. But that is already all you can gain.
10] However, only life is the main concern, which is to last forever but not the light of the temporal life which fades with the same. 11] Therefore the heart of the spirit or your love for God, must be closest to you, which means, it must be within you. You must search for God inside you, recognize and then love Him above all, and you will have eternal life; for behold, God alone is indeed life and thus has it and thus gives life! 12] But if such is an eternal truth, then tell Me to what use can an endlessly distant God or an endlessly distant life be to you! 13] You must have the eternal life, which there is the eternal love of God, only in you if you want to live but not behind all the stars! 14] In addition it is important to note, however, that the infinite God is of no use to you because you as a finite being, can not ever grasp the actual infinite being of God. 15] And that is why God has created the human heart as a dwelling place for Himself, so that no one should live apart from or without God. 2. "Yes, thus My beloved Sehel has truly spoken! Among all sins, self-seeking is the greatest. But man's greatest and most sublime glorification is humility and the therefrom-issuing glorification of My name before the world.
3. "Let him whose heart is burdened come to Me; for verily, say I now just as My beloved Sehel has said before, he will nowhere find relief, but solely with Me! 4. "Thus you, Garbiel, did not err in asking your great brother's forgiveness, and Seth, too, did not err when he realized his old error after being angry with his son Sehel who, following an inner impulse, refused to tread into Adam's footsteps but wanted to retain all his life the heavenly primordial purity of his heart out of his great secret love for Me. 5. "But, as Sehel said a while ago, it is going too far when one brother wallows in the dust before another brother. 6. "For not even I demand this. How much less, then, shall you honor one another as if one brother were a God to the other. 7. "By this I do not mean to say that you should not give honor to each other at all, but only that you shall not crawl before each other like worms. 8. "If you honor one another, give honor only through love, and let no one elevate himself above another but let each one be a true brother to another in My love. 9. "Such a mark of honor is a just one, - this you owe one another; however, what goes beyond it is again against My order, wherefore you shall leave it alone. FEAR AND LOVE OF GOD
And the sublime Abedam replied to the known Abedam's excuse of his fear: 2. "You have spoken the truth, but between ourselves I must raise a little objection. Behold, if this light thunderstorm were a work of My might, where would the earth now be? Yes, I tell you and also you others, where would the entire creation be? 3. "If you want to see a work of My might look at the entire infinite creation, how everything is consolidated and consists as a whole in its particular kind and yet only as a part of the infinite whole; and how nothing can leave the earth, the sun, the moon and all the stars except the most imponderable, namely, a properly limited light. Behold, those are works of My might. 4. "Do you believe that My might is a might of ruin or a might of destruction? 5. “Truly, if My might were like that nothing would ever have been created through it. 6. "But since My might is not a might of destruction and ruin, but of a constant creating and preserving of the created, it is consequently a might of eternal order. 7. "Since My might is like this and not otherwise, tell Me now where that is which you fear? 8. When the amazed faultfinders noticed this they were frightened and became greatly embarrassed; for they presumed to have sinned by their remarks.
9. But the high Abedam promptly stood up and addressed them with the following words, saying: 10. "Children of the midday! Why are you trembling here before the countenance of a merry one whose heart became full of mirth, having understood and absorbed My grace? 11. "Did maybe your sly word not benefit your heart since it now trembles and quakes as if buried in the night and mud of all sin? 12. "O you still great fools! What is better, fear or joy before Me? 13. "Verily, verily, whoever still stands before Me in fearful reverence, is not pure as yet; for only a wavering, impure and therefore weak heart, not yet at one with My will, fears Me, the almighty, strong, eternal God. 52. REBIRTH AND THE RIGHT EDUCATION
[1] (The Lord:) “What fruit would a tree bring forth, if not the heart appealing appearances of the blossom of the first fruit would lead the way? How can fall be in the place of spring and spring in place of the fall, which normally is followed by a freezing winter? Would not the frost of winter destroy the heart uplifting blossoms and kill the hope radiating leaves together with the true fruit, which first is blessed and enlivened to become a growing being by the blossom? The wood of the tree would increase, but nobody of you would see a fruit ripening on the same! [2] And so it is also with a person and especially with his soul! Everything becomes coarse matter, of which no fruit is forthcoming, other than those which are finally chopped off and burnt as wood in the fire of judgment, to finally at least yield some ash for the use to fertilize and clean the bad and meager ground. [3] Who begins to awaken and educate his children by the mind, begins to build a house at the roof and scoops water in a bucket full of holes. It will be wet, for as long the scooper will be busy with such a vain work; however, there will never be a drop of living water left therein, and with the wonderful expressions of the soul-life there will be nothing for a long time to come. The vessel full of holes had to be blocked off one by one requiring a great deal of work, until it will hold the water. But how easily does a little not properly set plug gets bad, and in time the vessel can become completely life-water empty! [4] It should be understood as follows: A mind educated person can by a lot of self-denial bring it to an effective, subsequent education of the heart; but if he is not very careful and does not pay attention to the many stoppers, with which he patched up the many holes (earthly weaknesses) of his life-vessel, he will soonest convince himself, how the accumulated life-water has left him, and soon he will convince himself how he unnoticeably became the old person again, without any inner life-content! [5] Therefore I above all recommended to you neighborly love, which comes from the love to God! Since only this can make from your total wrongness, again people in My order. Do not be blinded by the world; since everything it gives you, is death and judgment, a fruit of the pure mind! Only love can transform you into life! 16. Says the escort: “My dear friend and brother, it will be a little hard to show you Jesus at a distance; for whoever does not get to see Jesus at close range shall not see Him at a distance either. You must strive to see Jesus close by, then it shall be according to your desire.” 17. Says the count: “My highly esteemed friend, it would be most desirable, if only I could bear His holy proximity. Even the highest angels are said not to bear up to His nearness; how should I?” – Says the guide: “Friend, if Christ the Lord stood before you not a shade more impressive than I, would you then still suffer such holy timidity?” Says the count: “Well, that would make it easier indeed! It would still be a burden, considering Who He is and what I am. He – the most infinite All, and I, the most perfect nothingness! Yet it would make it easier than if He came along in His celestial almight.” 18. Says the guide: “Good! What would you say if I Myself were to be Christ, and for certain reasons only revealed Myself to you now? W hat kind of face would you cut to that?” 19. Says the count: “Hearken friend, this would be putting a poor devil through a tough test! Verily, my exalted friend, if you ultimately were Him yourself, then I would have to be speechless for an eternity! But tell me for certain right now, so that I may at once perish for esteem!” 20. Says the guide: “Yes friend, I am He! Should this be hard to believe, then ask these here. They will tell you! Your love has drawn Me to you in this way!” (From Hell to Heaven chap. 145) Chapter 185 - A Gospel On Prayer Pleasing To God
WHEN CYRENIUS had heard this from Joseph, he turned to the little Child resting on his arms and said to Him, 'O my life, my all! May I then not pray to You, my Lord and my God?' And the little Child answered, 'Oh yes, you may indeed do that - but not with all manner of never-ending exclamations, but only in your spirit, which is your love towards Me, and in its truth, which is the true light that streams forth from the flame of love! Do you really suppose that I become more opulent, mightier and greater by the prayers of men than I already am without such prayers? 'Oh see, that is just why I have appeared out of My eternal infinity in this body, so that men should pray to Me more with their love - and should therewith spare their mouth, their tongue and their lips! For that kind of prayer degrades the worshiper as well as the worshiped, because it is dead nonsense, a characteristic of the heathen! What after all do you do with your good friends and brothers when you gather with them? See, you are delighted to see them, greet them and offer them hands, breast and head. Do the same with Me also, and I shall eternally ask nothing else of you! And now be wholly of good spirits, look around a bit after your children and inquire of them a little as to what they have already learned, and you will have greater joy thereat and will also prepare Me a greater joy than if you were to sigh and exclaim a hundred times on end!' 'Oh see, that is just why I have appeared out of My eternal infinity in this body, so that men should pray to Me more with their love - and should therewith spare their mouth, their tongue and their lips! For that kind of prayer degrades the worshipper as well as the worshipped, because it is dead nonsense, a characteristic of the heathen! What after all do you do with your good friends and brothers when you gather with them? See, you are delighted to see them, greet them and offer them hands, breast and head. Do the same with Me also, and I shall eternally ask nothing else of you! And now be wholly of good spirits, look around a bit after your children and inquire of them a little as to what they have already learned, and you will have greater joy thereat and will also prepare Me a greater joy than if you were to sigh and exclaim a hundred times on end!' (The Childhood of Jesus) |
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