1 result for (book:nopr AND session:674 AND stemmed:he)
[... 29 paragraphs ...]
(Intently:) Now: In those terms you are the power of God manifested. You are not powerless. To the contrary. Through your being the power of God is strengthened, for you are a portion of what He is. You are not simply an insignificant, innocuous clump of clay through which He decides to show Himself.
You are He manifesting as you. You are as legitimate as He is.
If you are a part of God then He is also a part of you, and in denying your own worth you end up denying His as well. (Pause.) I do not like to use the term “He,” meaning God, since All That Is is the origin of not only all sexes but of all realities, in some of which sex as you think of it does not exist.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
(10:48.) True religion is not repressive, as life itself is not. When Christ spoke he did so in the context of his times, using the symbolism and vocabulary that made sense to a particular people in a particular period of history, in your terms.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
He began with their beliefs, and using their references tried to lead them into freer realms of understanding.
With every translation the Bible has changed its meaning, being interpreted in the language of the times. Christ spoke in terms of good and bad spirits because these represented the people’s beliefs. (See the 647th session in Chapter Twelve for related material.) In their terms he showed them that “bad” spirits could be vanquished; but these were, then, symbols accepted as realities by the people — sometimes for quite “normal” diseases and human conditions.
[... 9 paragraphs ...]
Each of you survive death. The man who was crucified knew this beyond all doubt, and he sacrificed nothing.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
The “substitute” was a personality seemingly deluded, but in his delusion he knew that each person is resurrected. He took it upon himself to become the symbol of this knowledge.
[... 10 paragraphs ...]
Christ uses parables that were applicable then (as described in all four of the Gospels). He used priests as symbols of authority (Matthew 21:23–27). He turned water into wine (John 2:1–11), yet many who consider themselves quite holy ignore Christ at the wedding feast and think any alcoholic beverage degrading.
He “consorted” with prostitutes (Luke 7:33–50) and the poor, and his disciples were hardly men that would be called the city fathers. Yet, many who consider themselves religious people hold on to respectability most of all. Christ used the vernacular of the times and in his own way spoke out against dogmatic ideas, as well as temples that pretended to be repositories of holy knowledge but were instead concerned with money and prestige. (Mark 11:15–18). Yet many who consider themselves followers of Christ now turn against the outcasts that he himself considered brothers and sisters.
He affirmed the reality of the individual over any organization while still realizing that some system was necessary. His whole message was that the exterior world is the manifestation of the interior one, that the “kingdom of God” is made flesh.
[... 10 paragraphs ...]