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24754 |
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Date: December 11, 2023 at 23:56:22
From: Nevada, [DNS_Address]
Subject: We Are All Images of God |
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We Are All Images of God
Joan Chittister, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti, and
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, writing from their traditions of
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, believe we all share
equally in God’s image, even amid our joint history of
violence.
All our traditions—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—teach
that the human race and every human being are created
in the image of God. Rabbinic midrash says that when
Caesar puts his image on a coin, each coin comes out
identical—but that when the One who is beyond all
rulers puts the divine image on the coin of every human
being, each “coin” comes out unique.…
Today, the various Caesars of our planet insist that we
must fit into a single mold, the mold of uniformity and
death.… The pain of these deaths and of this
destruction drives some of the children of Hagar,
through Ishmael, and some of the children of Sarah,
through Isaac, to forget that they are all children of
Abraham. That we are all children of Noah and his wife,
Naamah, who suffered through the danger that human
violence imposes on all who dwell on our planet.…
If we are to celebrate [the Infinite God], we must in
the same breath resist the idolatrous Caesars who think
to impose upon us their murders. In our banks, our
kindergartens, our picket lines and voting booths, as
we worship in our graceful sacred buildings and in our
quiet forests and on our frenzied streets, through the
seasons of our joy and of our sorrow—in all these, we
must remember to welcome ourselves, each other, and all
who begin as strangers into the Tent that is open to
all. [1]
Richard Rohr describes how each person is created in
the Divine image, and is called to participate in the
process of growing into God’s likeness:
What does it mean that everything created—everything
our eyes can see or have ever seen—is somehow a partial
reflection of the image of God? How can something be
diverse as all of creation, and at the same time say
that reality is more one than many? We say it of God,
and we say it of everything our eyes have ever seen.
If we don’t view everything as created in the image of
God, what happens? We start picking and choosing: well,
that’s created in the image of God, but that is not.
But everything, everything, is created in the image of
God.
What, then, does likeness mean? In the early centuries
of Christianity, the Church Fathers concluded: image
was our objective, unquestionable creation as a child
or image of God. Likeness was our personal
appropriation of that reality. Two people might equally
be images of God, but perhaps only one chooses to
become kind, forgiving, inclusive, accepting, and
patient, full of the great virtues. We already have
image, but we grow in likeness. There is a dynamism
toward growth, universality, and an infinite love that
we can’t get rid of. [2]
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Responses:
[24756] [24760] |
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24756 |
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Date: December 12, 2023 at 05:11:47
From: Chuckles, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: We Are All Images of God |
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Light, God's Light! Never saw a actual image of God,
but did see the face of the Shroud of Turin at the core
of God's Light (dream). What's inside the core, a
blinding Light that's so powerful, brighter than all
the sun's in the world, a love that is so electrifying,
that it sparks all the stars in the world, so much so,
that it gives birth to All, God's Light (dream). When I
touched the sleeve of the robe of the one on the Shroud
of Turin, I was electrified with God's Light, the love
that flows through the world as it flows from the core
(dream). The core of God's Light, how does one enter?
We must become like little children, Love like, Christ
Like, ONE like, quiet peaceful mind, to come HOME from
back out in this world, the broadcast of God's Light,
the Big Bang. When I left my broadcast body and came up
to the core, I knew it was my true home, I am God's
Light, one and the same! Coming through the birth canal
as I leave Home into this coldness, like being left
outside in the dark and having the door closed behind
me. I'm in a strange world, it seems dark even though
there's a glimmer of light, but it's not the full
gentle blazing light from behind the door I just came
through. I'm in a room of some sort as I can see some
light outside an open door where noises are coming
from. I feel as if I'm in a alien world away from home
(my first memory as a young child). I soon realized
there are others big and small outside this room. Who
are these strangers, aliens all around me. I remember
seeing images on a screen with men in strange outfits
(Vietnam War). I thought to myself, what place is this
with so much meanest. I found refuse in nature as I'd
felt my true home there. How I fell in love with nature
as I became a nature boy. I could see and feel this
golden essence of honey oozing from all of nature as if
it was coming from my true home. I was like a little
child in a candy store. Seeing fragments of sparks of
love in my alien family of brothers and sisters and two
adult parents, I slowly realized I'm in for a long
journey, a journey of pains and sorrows. Over the time
I slowly wake up to who I am. I feel there is sparks of
love in this alien world, just wishing it was the love
that I'd come from, my true home. I learned that in
this world that one of my most favorite things to do,
is to help people, I love helping others. It's as if
when helping another, it sparks a curiosity in that
person why am I helping them as if it begins to
reawaken something within them that's missing in this
world, as if they remember something that they've
forgotten, their true home. We remember who we our as
we begin to develop love, and accumulate this love.
This love is the golden essence of honey that oozes
from behind the close door, it's the key that reopened
that door to our true home. LOVE
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Responses:
[24760] |
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24760 |
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Date: December 12, 2023 at 11:37:09
From: Nevada, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: We Are All Images of God |
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What an incredible journey Chuckles.
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Responses:
None |
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