Sabotage.

Bowie Clone and Upside Down.

The latest Satanic stab in the back.

Death.

And we thought it was about Rock Hudson.


Photo Credit: David Bowie.

The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit.

God's Breath.

The Breath of Life.


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Love Him.

Amid

The tangled turmoil

Of Youth.

Realizing

You are Gay

Will prove

A test of

Courage

And of

Strength.

But knowing

Who you are

Will be

A Rock

Between

Desire

And Faith.

And in the end

What Saves

Is One:

Love Him.


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Love.

                            

How can we bring love where there is hatred?

First of all we must uncover the fear which is at the root of hatred.

Then we must address that fear.

We can remind them that God is Love.

We can encourage them to pray (for their enemies as well).

We can open our hearts and show unconditional love to everyone.


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Companionship.

                            

How can we bring companionship where there is loneliness?

We can remember to call someone on the phone.

We can visit someone we would normally ignore.

We can speak to someone who is left out.

We can overcome our prejudice.

We can refuse to rationalize our neglect.

We can pray for them.


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Affection.

                            

How can we bring affection where there is neglect?

First we must overcome our fears.

Then we must open our hearts to others.

We must respond to invitations.

We should not shy away from intimate contact.

We must remember those whom we neglect.

We must pray for others.


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Strength.

                            

How can we bring strength where there is weakness?

We must be strong ourselves.

And this does not mean forceful or violent.

We must be consistent and reliable.

We must not be afraid.

We must not judge or look down on others.

We must be patient.

We can appeal to God for strength.


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Courage.

                            

How can we bring courage where there is fear?

We can show courage ourselves.

We can contradict imaginary fears.

We can encourage understanding where there is prejudice.

We can remind them that there is help available.

We can remind them that God will help.

We can encourage them to pray for help.


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Understanding.

                            

How can we bring understanding where there is prejudice?

We can encourage contact between the parties.

We can encourage them to have open minds.

We can contradict stereotypes and misperceptions.

We can encourage humility where there is egotism.

We can remind them that all people are equal before God.


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Forgiveness.

                            

How can we bring forgiveness where there is judgement?

We can remind people that if they are judging others they are also judging themselves.

We can refuse to hold a grudge.

We can bury the hatchet.

We can start again.

We can encourage people to pray and experience the forgiveness of God.


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Faith.

                            

How can we bring faith where there is cynicism?

We can tell of our own faith experiences.

We can tell them how to read the Bible.

We can encourage them to pray.

We can show them the positives of religion.

We can ask for forgiveness.


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Hope.

                            

How can we bring hope where there is despair?

We can encourage people to look at the positives instead of the negatives.

We can tell them stories of unexpected good fortune.

We can tell them of miracles.

We can teach them to pray to God.

And He will give them hope.


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Peace.

                            

How can we bring peace where there is war?

We can initiate dialogue between the warring parties.

We can encourage forgiveness where there is injury.

We can mediate with wisdom and patience.

We can listen.

We can address each others' fears.

But if all these things fail we can pray to God for both parties to see the light and make peace.


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Light.

                            

How can we bring light where there is darkness?

We can apply the light which is the wisdom that we have learnt during our lives.

But ultimately the Light comes from God.

So in order to see clearly we must pray to God and form a loving relationship with Him.

Then we will begin to see clearly.

And only when we can see clearly can we bring light to others.


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Here I Am.

                                        

Here I am, Lord.

Ready to do your work on Earth.

And what is your work on Earth?

To bring light where there is darkness.

To bring peace where there is war.

To bring hope where there is despair.

To bring faith where there is cynicism.

To bring forgiveness where there is judgement.

To bring understanding where there is prejudice.

To bring courage where there is fear.

To bring strength where there is weakness.

To bring affection where there is neglect.

To bring companionship where there is loneliness.

To bring love where there is hatred.


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Water Carriers.

                            

One of the volunteers at church commented that we all carry water with us these days.

She was referring to the bottled water that everyone consumes daily.

In response I reminded her that we all carry water in the garden due to water restrictions brought on by global warming.

We also expect bottled water at a restaurant or cafe before a meal.

I suggested that we are all Water Carriers because this is the Age of Aquarius.

The volunteer responded by informing me that she was an Aquarius herself.


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Come!

Come!

Out of the darkness

of violence and evil.


Come!

Away from the devil

and his works.


Come!

Over to God

and His Angels.


Come!

Into the Light

of tenderness and love.


Photo Credit: Pinterest.

Gay Joy!

Out of the Closet.

Glamorous Glitter.

Betrayed by Rock Stars.

Kings of the World.


Smitten by Pestilence.

A Social Pariah.

Damned by Religion.

Spurned by Straights.


Battling Prejudice.

Gay Demonstrations.

Gay Marriage Rites.

The Age of Aquarius.


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Heaven.

                  

Contrary to popular opinion we do not have to earn our place in Heaven.

God puts us in Heaven out of sympathy for our suffering on Earth.

And everyone suffers on Earth.

So, rather than being excluded, gays and lesbians are the most qualified for Heaven because of the great suffering they have experienced on Earth.


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Joy.

                            

In my experience joy comes from God.

It is something you experience spontaneously when you make contact with God.

It is not something you can manufacture.

You cannot control it.

You cannot bottle it or sell it.

So be content to let God decide.

He is so much more wise than us.


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The Tower.

Why do men

make war and business?

Threatening all

and taking risks.

We succumb to fear.

And forget what's dear.

Our minds controlled.

Our wallets sold.

Our principles grown stale and old.

We make a killing,

Make a sale.

And with our skills

We long to scale

The heights of commerce

And of power.

To reach the summit

of the Tower.


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Reincarnation.

                   

What happens when we die?

Some say that we are reincarnated.

Others say its heaven or hell.

In fact both are wrong.

Why?

Because both of these are human constructs.

In life we do not experience Natural Justice - rewards for good behavior and punishments for bad behavior - which is a human expectation.

So we have projected this expectation into the afterlife creating reincarnation or heaven or hell.

Both rely on the expectation of Natural Justice.

But Natural Justice is a human creation.

It is not part of God at all.

God is all good.

God is our loving Father.

And a father does not condemn his children.

God helps even those we would call evil.

God punishes no one.

Therefore there can be no hell.

And perhaps there is no reincarnation either.

Certainly not a reincarnation which balances out our karma.

So what are we to think?

God is good.

He is wholly trustworthy.

He will not punish us.

Put your trust in Him.

And all will be well.


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Putting the Bottom Back In.

                            

When Jesus preached forgiveness and love he well and truly blew the bottom out of the Pharisees' religion of rewards and punishments.

But after Jesus' was crucified his followers and priests put the bottom back in.

I believe that Jesus taught that everyone was forgiven and loved by God, that no one was condemned and no one would perish.

But later writers, beginning with St. Paul, returned to the crude religion of rewards and punishments, including heaven and hell.

This was reinforced at Nicaea after Christianity became the State Religion of Rome.

The inclusion of The Book of Revelation as the last word in the Bible was the last straw.

I believe that God punishes no one.

Therefore there is no Judgement - Personal or General.

And there is no hell.

But no doubt if we preach this religion of forgiveness and love the powers and authorities of this world will seek to reinstate the carrot and stick religion of rewards and punishments, heaven and hell.

Because it is this religion which ensures their power over the masses and maintains their position of privilege in the world.   


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Mercy.

                            

Jesus said, "'Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy not sacrifice."  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.'"  Matthew 9:13 (NRSV)

What could this mean?

It means that God does not judge us.
He wants us to show mercy.
As He does.

And He does not judge sinners either.
He shows them mercy.

So no one is condemned.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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Negations.

Satanists in rock music deal in negations.

(Note the resemblance to Simon Templar - The Saint.)


Photo Credit: David Bowie.

Your Sins Are Forgiven.

                                     

How many times did Jesus say, "Your sins are forgiven"?

And how many times did he tell parables about the Lord writing off debts?

In The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant  (Matthew 18:23-35) a slave is forgiven his debt but refuses to forgive another slave who is in debt to him, for which he is rebuked.  Jesus likens this to the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, rather than battling evil and sin and trying to destroy them, we should be forgiving them and telling them that God will show them mercy.

God's mercy is infinite.

And His forgiveness is eternal.


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Peace.

                            

We were watching The Hollow Crown - Shakespeare's historical plays - and one of my friends said, "Henry VI was a weak king - he wanted peace all the time and he was always in church praying.  Of course this just caused more conflict and war."

This is a common attitude in today's world - we think a leader must be strong, even violent to keep the peace.

But this is Pax Romana - peace by force.

We think that the teachings of the Prince of Peace just won't work.

But has anyone ever tried them?

To turn the other cheek and return good for evil.
To have compassion for your enemies.
To show mercy.

These are the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

If we cry out to God will He not rescue us?

By some miracle we are saved.


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Reconstructed.

                            

During the 1980s we saw devils in heaven and Hippies in hell.

This, of course, is backwards.

It owes its nature to the inverse practices of Satanism in rock music and entertainment combined with the counter-revolutionary politics of Ronald Reagan.

Unfortunately the Hippie Generation were forcibly reconstructed.

All that remains is having a good time and holidays.

Any remnant of idealism is long forgotten.

But the ideals of peace and love that typified the Hippies were in fact closer to the nature of God than either the Traditional Church or the popular culture.

This, of course, is provided you can discriminate between peace and love and sex and drugs and rock and roll.

The Hippies rock legends disguised their diabolism as the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the decadence of the 1970s.

They were in fact no better than their X descendants.

But this is not the fault of the Baby-Boomer Generation whose idealism and spirituality were betrayed by their rock legends.

My prayer is that this idealism and spirituality can be resurrected without the parasites of rock and roll.

To do this we must distill the essence of Hippie idealism which is: peace, love, equality, compassion, non-violence, integrity, tolerance, and multi-culturalism.

From the detritus of rock music which is: promiscuous sex, drugs, decadence, anti-social behavior, indulgence, escapism, negativity, suicide, and hate.

Only then will the Age of Aquarius begin.


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A Rock.

Once your decision

is made:

To stop the flow

of wayward thoughts.

You must be

A Rock.

Against storms

and tempests.

And the wash of dreams.

To turn your life

towards the Light.


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Silence.

In the silence

Of the forests.

In the mists

Of the mountains.

In the rapids

Of the rivers.

In the depths

Of the seas.

In the azure

Of the skies.

In the green

Of plants and trees.

In the colors

Of flowers.

God's Cathedral

Can be seen.


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Misery.

                                     

"For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?"  Matthew 16:26 (NRSV)


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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The Truth.

                            

Many fear God's wrath.

Many fear judgement and hell.

But this is not the truth.

The truth is that God loves you.

No matter what you have done.

No matter who you have been.

God loves you.

And He is waiting for you.

Waiting to embrace you.

Waiting to bless you.

And lead you Home.


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