Nothing is wrong with seeing God’s laws as absolutes, but it is the application of those absolutes that give life. The letter of the law still kills. Some of you, like Antonio, One of Those, and Renae caught the importance of application. Absolutes without application are held only in the head and will be applied through intellect, passion, and stubbornness or the soul. It is the application of absolutes that moves them to our heart and it is only the One, True, Pure, Holy Spirit that gives that application. To sum this thought up, True, Pure, Spirituality is deepened by the application of God’s absolutes. Thus the reason for covering this topic under the theme of Spirituality.

THE APPLICATION OF ABSOLUTES
This is why the Psalmist wrote, “I delight to do Your will, O my God,” and “Your law is within my heart. Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.” And, “Oh, how I love Your law It is my meditation all the day.” It is the application of God’s law that hands to us the liberty contained in the absolutes of love and life. In a particular application, one might now be able to say, it is not the lobster that is evil; but, the cholesterol it contains that may eventually kill you.

With that thought in mind, we can now focus on the original intent of God’s absolutes. Absolutes are not the “do not’s “ of God, they are the principle’s of abundant life. They keep us in relationship with God and His creation, a creation that was specifically designed by God to aid us in our journey in this life and the life to come. Because we are alive we can fulfill our God created purpose – hard to do if we are dead.

SHADOWS OF MUCH BROADER MATTERS
Absolutes represent more than the law we think they represent. Absolutes are actually a shadow of the real and much broader issues with God. One of God’s absolutes can apply to hundreds of matters not specifically mentioned in the absolute itself. God’s absolutes are there because He loves us and He knows what is best for us and keeps us in harmony with Him and his creation. There are three main principles that God’s laws apply to– revelation of who He is, recognition and protection from evil, and fullness of an abundant life for us.

I like what Renae said, “I don’t let my children play in the highway. It isn’t because I am a mean, overbearing mother - it is because I love them with all my heart. I don’t want them to get hurt.” Yet, I might add, when we tell them to not play in the street they see it as a law that is senseless – they have not made the application of potential danger to the absolute of love.

CONSEQUENCES AND THE RIPPLE EFFECT
The consequences of the violation of absolutes can be short lived or permanent. If I die because I played in the street and was run over; it is rather permanent. If I am dismembered from that violation it is still permanent, though I have my life. If I am injured and fully recover, it is still very painful and the fear of the street can linger for years.

God prefers we do not go through any of that – it is part of His great love for us. So we are beginning to see that it is not just the violation of an absolute that is the problem, it is the ripple effect that continues after the initial consequence. Those ripples continue long after we have forgotten what the violation was. When the consequence appears it is to our advantage that we understand God did not do this to us, the choices we made, perhaps long ago did. He sets before us choices, choices for blessings or evil, but we make the choice.

ABUNDANT LIFE
So we find law without application kills freedom and law with application creates not only freedom but also abundant life. When an absolute resides in our heart. We can now say, “Oh, I get it – God did not want me to get hurt” rather than, “God is so dictatorial, He won’t even let me play in the street.”

Think about it, your life could dramatically change.

Blessings,
John Paul

This may shock you, but here can be no deep, true, pure, spirituality without absolutes. Absolutes give us the boundaries of spirituality and keep us from innocently transitioning to pseudo spirituality in our desperation to know what spirituality really is. To not have absolutes of any kind will always results in lawlessness, a loss of unity, and eventually anarchy. There can be little if any personal direction and social unity without absolutes.

CONSCEQUENCES
When we begin to explore the world of absolutes, we begin to see that for each absolute there is a consequence. If there is no consequence, there is no absolute. What we face at the moment may be an option, but options do not carry the same kind of consequences that absolutes carry. The consequences to an absolute may be beneficial (a blessing) or harmful (a curse) to the individual depending on whether they violated or adhered to the absolute.

GOD’S ABSOLUTE OF LOVE
“For God so “loved” … He sent His Son.” Absolutes are about love not punishment. What Jesus did in taking the form of man, freely giving his life for man, raising from the dead, as well as taking the keys to death, hell, and the grave was not only miraculous, but monumental. In essence Jesus, if you believe what He did, returned man’s right standing with God. If one does not believe in His light, then one continues to be not only subject to the darker powers of this world, but also becomes a pawn of the darkest power. Sadly, perhaps unknowingly they have made this darkest power their god (notice lower case “g”).

In other words, Jesus re-established the absolute of God’s love ruling the world. This rule is called the “Kingdom of Heaven.” Here, as His Kingdom comes and His will is done, the benefits of the Kingdom are not only seen, but experienced. You see, without God’s absolutes the Kingdom of God does not rule and the benefits of the Kingdom do not come.

THE HEART NOT THE HEAD
Absolutes have their greatest benefit when they are held in the heart and not in the head. With the Law of the Old Testament, absolutes were held in the head. Periodically the One, True, Pure, Holy Spirit would visit individuals, and most of the time that Spirit of God mostly visited the prophets, priest, and kings. But, remember with the advent of the infilling or ingesting of the One, True, Pure, Holy Spirit, it is now possible for God’s Spirit and His absolutes to be within, to be written on Hearts of flesh. [If you are new to this blog, you may want to check prior postings for explanations of this ingesting of the Spirit)

Most who believe they are spiritual will have to overcome their tendency to resist this line of thinking and stop running from absolutes in order to enter into the deeper spiritual life. You will need a little time to do this, so…..

Part II will come in tomorrow’s post. It may rock your soul, but your spirit will rejoice. Again, you will need a little time to digest this post before the next post will take root – be sure to read it. Yes, I mean tomorrow’s posting – smile.

Blessings,

John Paul

Okay, this posting stirred the pot! Please keep in mind that all manner of people read this blog, not just Christians. So when I write, I write to reach both communities - believers and nonbelievers. We even have several witches who read it. So do not let a religious nature over react to something I have not written. For example, please tell me one place I mentioned the laws of God in my last post - I do not think you will find the reference. However, I will inject here that even the non Christian would be hard pressed to prove that the ten commandments are not absolutes.

So here are a few non-law absolutes as examples.

ABSOLUTES OF GOD
* God is not mocked. Whatever you do in True, Pure Spirit will come back to reward you in some fashion. Whatever you carnally, selfishly do will also come back to you in some fashion.

* Whatever you focus on you make room for in your life.

* Whatever you fear you empower over your life.

* Faith and fear, at their root, are the same thing - they both believe something that hasn’t happened is going to happen.

* As a man thinks in his heart so is he.

YOU AND ABSOLUTES
So what are some absolutes you have found? Please keep your answers to less than 40 words per absolute or we will not post them. There are some long winded writers out there in blog land.

Blessings,
John Paul