For now we see in a mirror, darkly

One of our biggest enemies; language.  No two people speak the same language.  Language is made up of more than speaking words, or signing words if you are deaf.  Language incorporates so much more; body stance, tone of voice, and mostly the filters through which we understand and communicate.  The last is the hardest for understanding what is being said by someone.  When we share something with someone our words aren't necessarily being interpreted by them to mean what we want them to mean.


An example.  I love you.  Is this a friend, or lover saying these words? If it is a friend are they saying they want to know me as a lover? Do they love me in a non sexual way?  Are they trying to get something from me by buttering me up?   Now you would think if the words came from a lover, they might mean I hold you as most precious, You are my world, I am committed  to you.  But depending on your past it might mean nothing more than a friend saying Your my best friend.  Sure I love you, but... No one who ever said that to me really did love me so these are just words.  Or I am unlovable and you are trying to make me feel good.  Wont work, I know I'm not worthy of love.


Everything we experience both spoken and not are understood through the filters of our past.  Everyone has them.  Some may have less filters than others because they realize how they distort the understanding.


One of my biggest filters come in the form of religion.  Everything is clouded by the religious people in my life.  I look at an organization that lifts the spirit and empowers the soul and I see all the things I was taught was wrong.  Do they believe in this or that.  But I was taught...  How can anyone call themselves a christian and not believe Jesus is the Son of God?  Sounds like a cult to me.  


I have found my spiritual connection and yet when I find others of like mind I question their authenticity.  How do they come by their understanding... Probably the same way I did.  Through trial and error. But this gives you an example of one of my own filters.  I see the world through a dark colored lens, distorted by the past.  So when I try to share something with someone I am speaking through those filters and they are listening through their own.   
And this is how wars are started...


Had a conversation with my sister the other day.  It almost blew up in our faces.  My religious filters are not as thick as they used to be, I am peeling them back layer by layer.  My sister  having grown up in the same religious background as my self has very similar filters, though she also has filters built from knowing people I've never met, or places I've never been and experiences we don't share.  I shared with her my desire to move to Conyers, Georgia  where Bishop Swilley preaches.  She started questioning the beliefs of the ministry.  When I told her they coincided with my own beliefs, she assumed that I wanted to go there to prop up my own belief system.  Have some kind of proof that my thinking was right,  which of course to some degree is true.  However, she doesn't believe my belief system is valid.  Using those religious filters, she sees me, wanting to join some cult.  (though she didn't say that, I'm reading her voice to mean that.  But of course now I'm looking through a different set of filters that are there to help protect me from harmful words.  She may have been thinking something different, though I doubt it.) 


Now as to the title of this blog.  It comes from, 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to     face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known .  This got me thinking.  Maybe this means something very profound.  Maybe it means that once the filters, all of them, are peeled away we will see each other as well as our selves as we are (naked of anything but our being encompassed by His light.)  We will see as we are seen by God.  Whole.  Perfect.  Good.


Bishop Swilley compared the GLBT communities to the story in Acts 11:5-18  Simon Peter had a vision of a sheet that came out of the heavens with every kind of beast on it and told him to eat. But every thing on the sheet was considered unclean by the Jewish law.   God said what I have cleansed do not call uncommon.  This works for GLBT community as well.  Others may call us names, see us and understand us through their filters, but God says we are Good.  Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.


When all is said and done, when we come to the next step of our journey we will know, as we are known, with out filters, Good before the Divine.

Spiritual not Religious Revival ... Jim Swilley

I've been listening to Jim Swilley a minister in Georgia.  A couple of months ago he came out to his congregation as a gay man.  His wife had know this before they were married.  Because of his religious upbringing he had kept this part of himself under tight lock and key.  Never strayed from his vows. Married twice, and with 4 children, he had built a ministry based on the word of God, the Bible.  To all the world the appearance of the perfect Christian family.  Several months ago he and his wife were divorced.  Not because of any indiscretion, but rather at the urging of his wife, who believed that though they taught a message of being real, they themselves were not living up to this  mandate. She believed that God wanted him to reveal himself for who he really was, a gay minister who spoke the word of truth as given by God.  Rather Bold assumption.  But, and here is the kicker, she was right.

Bishop Swilley, finally came out when he heard of the many GLBT youth committing suicide because of bulling.  He wanted them to know not only does it get better, but that there is a spiritual life to be had filled with blessings and grace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm not going to tell his story, you can find it at:   A Real Message for Real People   This and other videos are available, they share a secret that should never have been a secret.
God Loves Everyone Unconditionally.
There is a movement sweeping across the Nations, God is for everyone, just as we are.  I believe a Revival (renewal, taking us back to the way it was meant to be,  re-newing our acquaintance with our spiritual side, that part of connected to, actually a part of God) is sweeping through the lives of the most unlikely of vessels. The GLBT Christians.  I believe a Revival not seen sense the time of Christ is about to blow the Christian world apart, to be reunited as a body of all Gods creation.  I am so excited to know that I live in a time when the Christ will be revealed as never before.

The word Christian means "Christ like".  It does not mean judge, and executioner.  Jesus said there are two commandments I give you.“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.  Matthew 22:38-40 NIV  Just 2 commandments.  Leviticus isn't part of those nor are the other verses used by some Christians, those verses are like a millstone around the necks of people searching for the God that said he loves us (warts and all). 

1. Matthew 18:6
   [ Causing to Stumble ] “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a largemillstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
   Matthew 18:5-7  
2. Mark 9:42
   [ Causing to Stumble ] “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.
   Mark 9:41-43
3. Luke 17:2
   It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tiedaround their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
   Luke 17:1-3  

Check out  Jim Swilley's  message.  You will find hope, mercy, grace and Love.