| More musings on spirituality:
I believe that our spiritual natures are truly the eternal in us. The
spiritual nature is that part of us that responds to "eternal truths"
larger than ourselves. It is also that part of us that can be
celestialized/deified/exalted, capable of inheriting and living
"eternal life" (which is life as God lives it).
And all of us humans have a spiritual nature, more highly evolved than
other life forms. We nourish it according to our own understandings,
desires, attitudes, etc. Some nourish is with good, some with evil.
Utlimately the latter will experience "spiritual death" if they go too
far and are not redeemable. Imagine being dead to things of the
spirit, such as love, hope, faith, joy, accomplishment, happiness,
learning, inspiration, etc.?
Since all of us have a spirit and are thus engaged in nuturing our
spirits, one way or another, then what are the evidences/indications of
spiritual development? Religion takes on a whole meaning in that we
can turn to our religions for the feeding and nurturing of our spirits.
Some use a do-it-yourself approach and join no organized religion, but
read scripture and pray and learn. Others use a highly structured
approach, removing themselves from society to live a life of totaly
spiritual involvement (monks and the like fit this category).
Most of us are engaged in living temporally and developing our
spiritual natures within life's parameters. And then there are those
who are "spiritually dead" while still living.
More on this later.
Paul
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| I believe that all things created must fill the measure of their
creation, and that all things on this earth were created spiritually
before physically. While the physical will fall and decay, the
spirit is that which goes on. Mankind (male and female) are not
animals, but spiritual children of God. Where animals rely on
instincts, man must learn. Animals may exhibit signs of thinking,
but they do not use it to adapt - they die. The one thing that
separates man from animals in particular, and mankind in general, is
that spirit which inhabits the physical body. That is what makes us
different from each other.
A new born baby is totally innocent in all things, and must be taught
to do all things. It must be taken care of and nurtured. If nurtured
in an evil way (from a religious standpoint), then it will be evil.
As the Light of Christ is given to both good and evil, only the good
will respond in like. The evil will deny and turn away.
The complexities of this issue are great, but the fact still remains
that each human being is a child of God and is basically driven by
three things: God (through the Holy Ghost), the Light of Christ, and
their environment. The only true measure of their spiritual growth
is to compare them to Christ. The goal, in my mind anyway, is to see
or measure when they have reached a fullness in their pure love of
Christ, and have charity towards all men. The degree in meeting this
requirement, is, to me, the evidence/indication of their spiritual
development.
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| I attended FAst & Testimony this week and looked at that meeting
differently. For me, it became an opportunity for people to tell
stories (read bear testimonies) about their own spiritual growth and
experiences. The result is that 1)it tells the rest of us that indeed
spiritual growth is real because it is happening to others and 2)how to
recognize and realize the development of the spiritual nature through
other people's experiences.
In the past there have been Fast and TEstimony meetings that bored me,
sometimes angered me (especially when people spouted their political
beliefs) or left me unfulfilled. Now, however, these meetings have
taken a new meaning because every person, even the kids, are narrating
their experiences of spiritual development. Their narrations
(testimonies) encourage me that the temporal reality (jobs, bills,
materialism, etc.) that bombards us in the work-a-day world is not the
final reality. Rather, it is the spiritual realm of every person that
is paramount. Testimony Meeting is a time to stop and celebrate the
samll and sometimes large victories of spiritual accomplishments of
everyone. By so doing my own spiritual exploration and growth is
nutured and fed. And I start to get a greater insight into how God is
working among mankind to foster the spiritual advancement of all.
Paul
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