Walking barefoot and doing something healthy? What’s the connection?
See you here tomorrow.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
My soul is like a river flowing, surprised by experiences that its own flowing brings. And so it is with this Blog called Gentle River Journal.
Tomorrow I plan to write about walking outdoors without shoes – barefoot in the grass or garden or wherever. This is something I have become interested in doing ever since seeing a book that my wife brought home from the public library. The title of the book is Earthing, by Clinton Ober, Dr. Stephen Sinatra and Martin Zucker. The title caught my attention, and subtitle is quite catchy also: The most important health discovery ever?
Walking barefoot and doing something healthy? What’s the connection? See you here tomorrow.
0 Comments
A few days ago a friend from 20 years ago came back into my life. This person knew me when I was a Pentecostal minister and I think he may have made an assumption that I was still somehow involved with a Christian church. I grant that he has changed quite a bit over the years, nonetheless, I see him still very attached to Christian dogma. I am not.
He wanted to send me two books that he thought I might like to read. I told him that I am very selective now what I read. I asked him to provide the titles and authors of the books that he wanted me to read. He did; and I did go online to have a look. My friend has changed, but in my estimation not much. He has merely shifted to different Christian dogmas. I have walked away from Christianity. I longer fit within the brand of any dogma that I know of within Christianity. It was the communication with this old friend that led me to pull something out of the Padgett Messages to share in this blog yesterday, the message by George Whitefield received by James Padgett back in 1916. I don’t believe Mr. Whitefield would fit very well today wearing a Methodist hat, or any other church for that matter. I could have chosen to be influenced by my friend’s contact. Instead, I chose to continue on the path of my present journey. August 8th, 1915
Received by James Padgett I am here, George Whitefield – I was a preacher of England and a contemporary of John Wesley. I am in the Celestial Spheres where are only those who have received the New Birth that has been written about by other and more ancient spirits. I merely want to say that I am still a follower of Jesus, but a little different in my knowledge of what he was and is. I do not now look upon him as God, or a part of God, but as His true son, and the greatest of all the spirits in the spirit world. There are none to be compared to him in beauty or spirituality or in his knowledge of God's truths. I used to preach to thousands about his vicarious atonement and his blood sacrifice, but now I see his mission in a different light. it is not his death on the cross that saves men from their sins, nor his sacrifice that appeases the wrath of an angry God, but his life and teachings of the Divine Love bestowed on mankind and the way to obtain that Love, that saves men from their sins. There was no need to appease the wrath of an angry God for there was no angry God, only a Loving and Merciful God; and when men think that unless they turn from their sins they will be forever burned in a fiery hell, they are the dupes of preachers such as I was and will never get the Love of the Father by such teachings. God is Love, and men must know it - and His Love is for all of every race and clime. I see now, what a great mistake I made in my conception of God and of Christ's mission on earth, and how much harm I did to mortals in my preaching and how I slandered the Father of love. But I was honest in my beliefs and taught as I thought the truth to be, yet that does not alter the fact that many a mortal after he became a spirit, was retarded for a long time in his spiritual progress, because of these false beliefs, which in order to progress he had to give up and start anew in his efforts to find the truths of God. And as I worked hard and preached eloquently to make mortals believe these injurious doctrines while on earth, so now I am working hard and preaching eloquently to make spirits who come over with these beliefs, unlearn them and see the truth as it is. I am in sympathy with the movement which the Master is now making to spread the truth of these spiritual things on earth and am ready to follow him in all his efforts to bring about the salvation of men not only from sin but from erroneous beliefs. So I come to you tonight to express my sympathy and interest in the cause. Let your work proceed, and do your best to make known to men the great truths which the Master shall teach. We will all join in the work and do everything in our power to speed the great cause of men's redemption from sin and ignorance. The man must have the soul development by obtaining the Divine Love, because you cannot inspire a man to preach grand and sublime spiritual truths unless he has the capacity in his own soul to feel and understand the truths. I will not write longer tonight. I am your true friend, George Whitefield Last evening and early this morning I was in a state of reconsidering what I wrote yesterday in the Introduction to this blog. It is about James Padgett. I had a feeling that someone reading what I wrote and who knows my love for the writings of James Padgett may have had the impression that I was laying aside James’ work. This is far from the truth.
What I was trying to say and evidently failed, is that I want to experiment in this blog with my own voice; to see through writing what will come forth from my pen. I want to see how far the truths within the Padgett Messages have penetrated and changed my soul. From time to time I will quote direct from the Padgett Messages, but I do not want this to be my main emphasis. To show you what I mean by saying this, I already know what I will post next. It will be a message received by Padgett that I want to share and write about. As I began to type the first entry in this new blog, something stopped me. In my peripheral vision I saw movement outside my window. This caught my attention. When I looked I saw a small mouse squirrel on the trunk of the Alligator Juniper tree located about 10 feet from my desk deciding whether to go to the ground. After considering what to do for a few moments, he turned and quickly scurried up the tree. Perhaps he saw me looking at him. But, then, he may have been a messenger as I begin this new adventure writing for a blog.
My feeling is that the message of the squirrel is that I will at times be tentative; I may at times be in a place deciding whether to go further, or to withdraw quickly to the safety of inner silence. Writing has a way of exposing what is inside a person – at least the sort of writing that I aim to do in this blog. For many years I have been writing and publishing things that another person wrote, namely James Padgett (1852-1923). Mr. Padgett wrote a lot, but he never published any of his own work. He was a lawyer that lived and worked in the Capital of the United States; and yet he is an unknown figure in American history. His friend, Dr. Leslie Stone, a Chiropractor, did publish the writings of James Padgett, beginning some 20 years following James’ death, and Padgett’s work not completed until after Dr. Stone’s death in 1967. Padgett’s writings are in fact letters or communications that James received from a variety of dead people – so-called dead people – individuals now living in the spirit world. But here I go again! Writing again or already about James Padgett and his writings! I now see that in some way I scurried back up the tree to disappear! Well, to be honest, Padgett’s writings have consumed my interest for more than 6 years; it is evidently going to be difficult for me to stop giving so much of my attention and energy to something I love with a passion, namely the Padgett Messages. So again I say, and so trying once more, I aim to write in this blog from the place of my heart, my soul. I hope you who are reading the first entry in this new blog will return to see what it is that I may write. This reminds me of something I read that Robert Frost the great poet said: I do not know how a poem I am writing will end; it is as much a surprise to me as it is to the reader. [Frost may not have used these exact words. I am going from memory of what I think he said. But I feel the intent is correct.] |
Joseph
My life is the book that I am writing. Chapter 83 Archives
May 2018
Categories
All
|