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Intimatic Christianity, a term coined by this writer and spiritual teacher for a new movement of emerging unitive consciousness within the true, spiritual Church of Christ; living with, in, and through the Christ, expressed as the longing of our common Source and in fulfillment of the Gospel of John 17.20-22:
20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.
*Gospel of John 17.20-22 (NLT)
Wisdom Saying
Every soul is inviolable.
Any thought can be private.
The deepest goal is to
Find sanctity's source.
*Deng Ming-Dao. 365 Tao. No. 76, "Sanctity." HarperSanFrancisco. 1992.
Comments
"Every soul is inviolable" implies your personal soul is sacred, indestructible, and cannot be penetrated by anyone without your consent: so, "Any thought can be [remain] private." You hold the key to the door of your soul: Grace provides the will, thought, and action to open it.
What is soul? See spirit~Spirit as universal Ocean, from which many rivers flow. The Ocean is spirit, or Spirit; the rivers are individual outflowings of the Ocean.
Your soul is an Ocean-river. Your soul is unlike every other soul, while your soul shares in the likeness of all other souls.
In soul universal and individual merge; soul is the Divine universalizing-individuating. Soul is God becoming personal in the process of the emergence of creation. This is Incarnation and mirrored in the historical Incarnation of the Word in and through Jesus of Nazareth.
Soul is the first step of the individualizing of universal Spirit, or the Christ~of-God, by the Holy Spirit. Through openness to this process, we participate in the Mystery of Christ, or Christing.
Yes, the deepest goal is to "find sanctity's source." Therefore, I cannot find God, or be found by God, without intimacy with my soul, my own True Self in the Divine. Likewise, I cannot enjoy God~in~others apart from intimacy with my own soul. For only in entering the True Self, or the soul, do I discover the living likeness of my soul to the Ocean and, in and through the Ocean manifesting in and through my soul, kinship of my soul to all other souls.
How else can such discovery occur, except through contemplative awareness?
This is one of the major failures of conventional religion~it seeks to connect to the Ocean apart from intimacy with the True Self, the flowing river that is your Deepest, Truest Self and, being you~and~God, is flowing as one with all other rivers, too.
Without God in all others, I am not. With God in all others, I am.
Suggested Reflection
In what sense does the following pertain to you?
You hold the key to the door of your soul.
What role does Grace play in the opening of the door of your soul?
Rejoice!
See next page for details on OneLife Ministries, Brian's book An Ache for Union, and material pertaining to sources used in the writing.
Feel free to submit a query. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
See next page for Invitation to writer's contemplative village, purpose of OneLife, data on ordering author's book and upcoming devotionals 2008, and material on citations.
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