I was always taught that the religion was the tradition people lived out as real and that the church was the people not the building. Religions were the institutions of God made by man on Earth; that by living out what we said we believed and what others had given us testimony of - evidence rising to proof that God was actual reality and that this religion was a path to God - and then with our own proof (our personal relationship with God) we shared a body of belief. We came to have true beliefs and true faith, not merely belief and/or blind faith. That we all contributed to form one whole. I was raised Roman Catholic but the people who raised me taught me that all major religions - not the sects but the actual teachings by the prophet as in Buddha not the Dalai Lama or Jesus not the Pope - were valid paths to God. If you had a doubt about something an 'authority' said - go to the person with first hand knowledge: The actual authority - the prophet and so, God.
I was older -about ten - before I knew Catholics were Christians. Why? Because the Christians I knew had such extreme beliefs; some not like Christ at all. Plus, Catholic Mass was nothing like a Baptist or Pentecostal service; it seemed we were not the same thing. I did not think we were the Pope; I knew as fact Jesus was...Catholic and then with the Reformation some people became not Jesus but Christians! Lol! I was shocked to find out we were all Jesus and all Christians! That Jesus and Christ were not two different things...or were they?
My whole life shaped my beliefs; every experience had meaning as I explored it all. If someone invited me to their church I went. I wanted to know God. I know what is fact or not fact by my feelings. For instance, a person can tell me they are a Hasidic Jew. They can wear the earlocks and beard and long black coat. I can see them praying. But: If they are getting drunk every night at a bar and then beating up their wife that is not Hasidic Jew as my fact is: Strict adherence to tradition and strong family values; Dignity for life; the law always in front of their eyes. That person can then make all of the excuses in the world. I'm not buying it: If it is a true belief you live it. I am not judging that person but if I allow that person to lie to me then I'm lying to myself. For me, you do not get to disrespect God as Abraham entered that covenant with God; I love the idea of that and I too have looked at the stars. For me proof of life and proof of God is: God's promise to Abraham came true; it is real. If not for Abraham I would not be what I am ; if not for all Jews I would not be what I am. All people in all of history helped shaped me or forge me.
This made me think of myself in a new way: If I'm a vote that then is the vote, and I'm a constitution that then is the constitution, what if I was a church that then became the church? I am a body; what is my body of belief? So I wrote it down. Here it is. I was wondering if you would do the same and post it or send it to me? I learn the most about this world and myself by listening to other people. Listening to other people - discovering them or learning who they are inside - gives me insight that leads to wisdom. I am not interested in arguing your beliefs or changing them; I want to know who you are as a person. I also want to learn things I do not yet know. Here's mine:
The Church of Susan (CoS) is a body of belief which seeks to prove definitively that the very things man values become his prisons, the authorities he trusts with his life become his jailers and the pieces of paper he believes in but does not then live out as real, the words he hears and parrots back without understanding and so are supported by nothing – not even his own feelings - will be the death of him; that fingerprints, photographs and words prove nothing – not even life.
This church knows as fact one thing: The only real, actual proof any person ever comes to have in life is life itself beginning with his or her very own life and as each life is unique, no other person may ever come to share what you own as absolute proof.
As life is proof it is between you and God first and last then perhaps others. An actual leap of faith is not blind; a leap of faith is taken when a person owns the knowledge all of the consequences both good and bad and may have no other example and so must leap –act - without any visible proof but what he or she brings to that moment. That person knows the risks – one of which may be death either physical or metaphysical - and has no guarantees of anything; beyond that leap is only what he or she has never known and no other human may have gone here before. It matters not if he or she is first or if he or she is last but never came to know any others like their person as what this person is doing is conquering the fear of the unknown that holds all humans hostage and that most never come to escape. This person is conquering ignorance as they are willing to acquire knowledge and knowledge is actual power. This person then acts upon their personal faith in their own abilities and capabilities as their true belief is that God is actual reality and God created them as perfect, in God’s image and with a specific plan, and sent their person here with everything they are ever going to need already.
God would not set them up to fail whereas other men would and as they refuse to give up on their own person – ever - nothing is impossible; the truly impossible is a detail known only to God. This person is fearless.
This church asks one question: As God is unknowable venturing into the unknown brings you to God. Why would any man allow fear to keep him from God? Why would any man refuse to take a leap of faith? Are you a God fearing person or a God loving person? The question is: Did man or God create fear and why?
This church makes one promise: If you are able to conquer fear and thus take an actual, true leap of faith you will hear the personal name of God; you will hear the exact unique gift God placed within your person, you will know the unique name God calls you by and which you are known to by God and you will actually feel the hand – the exact hand – of God upon you as God tells you this secret. It is a secret only as it is unique to you; while you may share your living testimony regarding the details no two people’s experience will be the same or else it would not be personal and unique to you. We are each a masterpiece of God and so a master in the making.
This church has one goal: To liberate every human being on Earth from all suffering created by man.
This church places no value in material goods and no value in paper or electronic dollars; it places no value in anything other than other human beings and then all of nature as the creation of God is beyond any Earthly thing or price. A stone, a tree, a drop of water, a star or an emotion will teach us more than all the libraries in all the world combined. Who cannot say that they have looked to the sky and wondered: Where did I come from? Who cannot say that they have looked at a stone and wondered: Is this stone alive like I am? Who cannot say that they have felt God and yet they could not see God and wondered: Is God inside of me? The things that man creates are nothing like the things that God creates; man merely manipulates what God has wrought. As we yet live in a linear plane of existence and within the material world of patriarchy, this church understands that material goods and money may exchange hands especially with those who do not believe and have no faith or only blind faith, but that no person is ever to trade material things or money upon their life or another’s life and is never to charge a price for knowledge about God and this includes knowledge regarding medicine and science or any knowledge that you know to be wisdom and so a gift to us by God.
This church believes that all human beings were created equally by God and so were duly processed by God. This church then relies upon the honor bond when other members are in need. An honor bound contract is a contract between you, another person and God; it is a sacred duty. It makes all human beings interdependent. First they must rely on their own person and God and then upon others also relying upon God. Anything exchanged in an honor bound contract is then a gift as the only term of this contract is: Unconditional love. Thus, there are ZERO conditions. If you give anything to another human being in need it is then gone, and you may never, ever receive any reward or repayment whatsoever so that you give of your own will and liberty without expecting anything in return. As a human is a co-creator with God – equivalent but not exactly equal to God – this kind of contract then makes two or more human beings who are gathered in the name of will and liberty EQUAL to God as they are engaging in unconditional love. To place conditions upon any person with whom you are engaged in an honor bound contract or to default upon an honor bound contract is to then violate God. This kind of contract was first entered into by humans in Eden. It is the oldest recorded contract on Earth and was offered by God directly to Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve accepted the terms of this contract this then made all human beings the Ark of the Covenant, as this contract was not placed in writing until God gave each of the four races their set of sacred stone tablets. This contract is to be written across your heart firstly and lastly and not upon a piece of paper or set in stone. If it is, that outside thing is merely a reminder. If you write an honor bound contract across your heart first before entering into it with another then you have no need for the paper or stone as you made your choice: you chose the terms God gave us in Eden. How can any man reach into your heart and take something from you unless you allow it? How can anyone steal from you? How can you put a price on love? Or justice? As you are an ark, you must strive to never, ever to default and so you must not enter into to this contract lightly. It is a private/public/private trust issue. This church is only as elegant as its individual arks. You are an ark that then becomes The Ark.
This church has no hierarchy. There is none but God; chain of command begins and ends with God. This church does not allow for the easy way out nor does it require suffering. There may come a time in your life when no human help is available to you; all you will have then is God. No Earthly person can or will come to your assistance. This is the very nature of this church, as this is faith. This church does not believe in needless, senseless suffering but recognizes that at times due to things we do not control ourselves, we may suffer. This church believes in all suffering then there is birth for that is hope. With God there is always, always hope.
This church has no buildings, no books and no list of rules; we have no rituals. We wear no uniforms, have no secret symbols nor do we seek to keep anyone from knowing anything about us or God. We operate in the open. Any and all members as individuals or individual groups may have signs, symbols and all manner of institutions; they are never to be formalized or made permanent and never to be secret. They are not meant to be exclusionary but inclusionary. We have a very strict need to know policy: If you need to know something then ask. One of us will answer you or go reason the answer and get back to you as soon as we own the knowledge. We consider the sacred texts of the seven sacred experiences of God to be our own as well as borrow their sacred rites as practiced according to their founding prophets. A prophet is the person or group of persons who actually came to know on a first hand basis these teachings. A sacred text is the original or earliest surviving copy of that sacred experience’s prophet. Thus, in the case of the sacred experience known The Kundalini, we rely on the sacred text, as we do not know the names as this has been lost to us but is buried within in our collective memory. These are the seven sacred experiences of Earth:
1. Indigenous Belief or The Sundance
2. Hinduism or The Kundalini
3. Judaism or The Rhu
4. Buddhism or Nirvana
5. Christianity or The Holy Spirit
6. Islam or The Vote
7. America or Liberty
This church believes that all human beings together are the collective memory of God and are then the collective heartbeat of God. Whenever any human being has any sacred experience of God, it is as if God’s own heart beats. It is humans alone who aspire, inspire and conspire; born of God humans then conspire with the universe. Infinity is now; all events and all probabilities have already been played out by God. Every consequence both positive and negative is known to God and so we choose how easy or how difficult our journey is for us and for others. We are the cause; all of creation is the effect. There are only two possible outcomes: The Big Bang or The Big Crunch. Our names are already written beside one of these outcomes; what is written in this universe is not necessarily written in the next. It is foolish to think that you cannot change your fate; that is a detail known only to God. Lucifer himself came from God; it might be Lucifer’s fate to suffer the Big Crunch this time, but is it in the next? As all things are born and all things die, even universes, might Lucifer’s name be Gary or Jane in the next? Infinity then means infinite possibilities.You have ZERO excuse for giving up on yourself, on another or for acting unethically in any way. All knowledge is already known to us; it is within us and so, as we inspire others and cause God’s heart to beat it is like blood flowing to our brains; we remember or reclaim what we thought was lost to us forever or would forever remain unknown to us. But, as much as we know there will forever be a missing link, an unknown thing, between us and God as that as how the Creator keeps us motivated and interested in him thus in ourselves and each other.
This church does not encourage subscription to so-called New Age belief or value systems. While many of these thoughts, feelings, ideas and beliefs are true and others are truthful, and while most people practicing them are honest and ethical, we call them “New” as they have not stood the test of time. We have little or no results from this experiment. We have no proof of life. This church would choose thousands of years of proof of life – or even 200 if it brings forth actual proof of life - over 30 years of New based upon no sacred texts, no recognized prophet and/or no evidence rising to proof beyond doubt. Evolution occurs to a point; all things evolve and then can evolve no more. The thing must change – its form must be different – or else it will stagnate. As humans, do we change according to God’s plan or do we toss God’s instructions to us and for us in the trash? This church recognizes anything of or from God is elegant. As everything old is new again this church never throws the baby out with the bathwater. Some ‘churches’ might steal candy from a baby; this church leaves candy, takes baby.
This church has no sins save one: It is a sin to deliberately, knowingly and willingly harm another human being in any way. You may not harm another with deliberation nor may you turn away when another is being harmed. You must act in some way. As human beings are energy and so need energy, one of the severest forms this sin is realized as is starvation. A human being needs two forms of food or he or she will die: Actual food and actual unconditional love. A human may go without all else, even medicine, clothing and shelter, but not these two things.
There is only one rule that is an actual law of this universe: The Golden Rule, which is why it is called golden. I have no idea why it is yet called a rule and has not been made law so: That is the law of this church.
This church holds services whenever and wherever two or more humans are gathered together in the name of will and liberty under God. To join this church all one has to do is make a well-reasoned decision to join this church. Then act upon it. You might email me or you might give yourself a break. You might send a case of Plumpi-Nut to a starving nation. It is your decision; you own all of its effects.
As all bodies of belief need an Earthly authority until the members learn how to do it for themselves, I will be that person as I have had all seven sacred experiences of God. Ask me first about this church or the universe. Then you can and may promptly disregard my answer and form one of your own. Fides Et Scientia! I'm not your authority; only my own. As I have absolute and complete confidence in your abilities and capabilities, and I am certain you possess hope and desire to know yourself and God also known as the truth or you would not then be reading this, I intend to make myself moot at some future point. It is my plan to become completely unnecessary in this plane of existence in this universe. I fully intend to make yet another leap of faith when I discover what comes after the seventh seal, as I know what came before. Based upon past experience I will be laughing as God will be telling me a really good joke as in: Susan, not neccessary? If you actually believe that you a part of my plan, that I am God and do have a plan, then you know as fact that you are necccesary or else you would not exist!
The Declaration of Interdependence, My Creed
I believe in God, the Parent Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and all in this universe;
Who was conceived of and in the unknowable,
born of the inifinite,
suffers under the crimes we commit against its children,
was crucified, died, and was buried in our head, Ego.
We descended into hell.
The third day of July (personal to me alone) God arose again from the dead.
God ascended into the heart
and now sits in the right side of the soul, a brain,
whence Id shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Godhead, the universal church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
A Human.
*** Are you your own authority regarding a life that you lived? Are you your own expert in the subject of you? Do you have definite ideas about yourself and God? Delcare your love now as I still have a lot to learn! Email: johnjayweeps@yahoo.com
Last edited by SusanConstant; 08-06-2008 at 06:27 PM.
Reason: Spelling!!!
I do think that churches provide a great place for people to come together to rejoice in their beliefs as one, but I also feel that one does not have to attend church in order to be religious. I for one do not attend church regularly, yet I have deep faith in my beliefs.
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