Hymn XVI: Happy the Souls That First Believed

Happy the souls that first believed,
To Jesus and each other cleaved,
Joined by the unction from above
In mystic fellowship of love.

Meek, simple followers of the Lamb,
They lived, and spake, and thought the same;
They joyfully conspired to raise
Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise.

With grace abundantly endued,
A pure, believing multitude,
They all were of one heart and soul,
And only love inspired the whole.

O what an age of golden days!
O what a choice, peculiar race!
Washed in the Lamb’s all-cleansing blood,
Anointed kings and priests to God!

Ye different sects, who all declare,
“Lo, here is Christ!” or, “Christ is here!”
Your stronger proofs divinely give,
And show me where the Christians live.

The gates of hell cannot prevail;
The church on earth can never fail;
Ah, join me to thy secret ones!
Ah, gather alt thy living stones!

Scattered o’er all the earth they lie,
Tilt thou collect them with thine eye,
Draw by the music of thy name,
And charm into a beauteous frame.

For this the pleading Spirit groans,
And cries in alt thy banished ones;
Greatest of gifts, thy love impart,
And make us of one mind and heart.

Join every soul that looks to thee
In bonds of perfect charity;
Now, Lord, the glorious fullness give,
And All in All for ever live!

Wesley, John Rev. M.A. “A Collection of Hymns, for the Use of the People called Methodists.”
London: Wesleyan-Methodist Book-Room, 1889.

Confronted with the grief of a student over the distress that has befallen him, the student asked him “why teacher, doesn’t the love of God protect us from harm?”

The teacher looked in the distance and answered “As his word teaches everything in life returns to us, so that should direct our ways. In life everything that befalls us is an opportunity to learn and I needed still a lot to learn about the essence of life as in His love He gave me many opportunities to learn. Sometimes a lesson is painful and only that pain can occupy our mind. If we widen our view the necessity to learn presents itself.
We are never alone in our times of distress. The field of trouble is also a door of hope as long as we allow His light to penetrate our darkness.”

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54
- working title “Songs from the wilderness”", H. Blum 

Wholeness and the Implicate Order:

In the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the “explicate” or “unfolded” order, which is a special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate orders (Bohm, 1980, p. xv).

All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force…
We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind.
This Mind is the matrix of all matter.

Max Planck, physicist
considered to be the founder of quantum theory

“Teacher” said the pupil, “Why is there a difference between a spiritual man and those that are not?”

Son, is there such a thing as a non-spiritual man? In this world there are man who have fallen in love with the gift so much that they have forgotten to seek the face of the giver. Others seek his face constantly. Both bring a smile to the face of the giver.
The misuse of his gift will sadden him.

He gave us of His essence, that we may manifest His essence for He loves us so much that he gave his own that we may find life.

In our darkness and to blinded to see we choose to put out the light and remain in darkness.

Can a woman with a loving and faithful husband remain ignorant of his lovingkindness? Knowing that if she accepts and returns his love that will make her the most revered bride?
Praise the faithful husband that in his lovingkindness he still sees the beauty of his bride even though her missteps in his severity cause his face to turn away. 
Praise the husband that he is a faithful husband!

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54 - working title Songs from the wilderness, H. Blum 

“Teacher” said the pupil “Why is it that the most zealous in the search for God’s Kingdom are capable of the most horrific extremes and rigid legalism?”

That, my son, is like this pond; what do you see when you look into it?”

“I see myself, teacher”  

 Now what do you see if you hit the water with your stick?

“then, teacher, I only see troubled water!”

That my son is the problem with the mirror of the soul.

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54 - working title Songs from the wilderness, H. Blum 

From the movie Contact
written by Michael Goldenberg, from a story by Ann Druyan & novel by Carl Sagan

Kitz (James Woods): You admit that if you were in our position, you would respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism?
Ellie (Jodie Foster): Yes.
Kitz (shouting): Then why don’t you simply withdraw your testimony and concede that this journey to the center of the galaxy, in fact, never took place?
Ellie: Because I can’t. I had an experience I can’t prove, I can’t even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real. I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever; a vision of the Universe that tells us undeniably how tiny, and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are.

A vision that tells us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not, that none of us are alone.

I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and the hope, but… that continues to be my wish.

Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:21am EDT

By Peter GraffLONDON (Reuters) - More than 130 Muslim scholars from around the globe called on Thursday for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying “the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake”.

In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars said finding common ground between the world’s biggest faiths was not simply a matter for polite dialogue between religious leaders.

“If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world’s inhabitants,” the scholars wrote.

“Our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake,” they wrote, adding that Islam and Christianity already agreed that love of God and neighbor were the two most important commandments of their faiths.

more Reuters …..

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. - Mahatma Ghandi

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