{"id":16069,"date":"2017-10-10T09:39:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T13:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16069"},"modified":"2017-10-10T09:55:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T13:55:39","slug":"being-with-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16069","title":{"rendered":"Being with Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Exploring the Mystics with James Finley<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/being-with-ourselves-2017-10-10\/\"><strong>Being with Ourselves<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Tuesday, October 10, 2017<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0gOvNIoRUeg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Guest writer and CAC faculty member James Finley continues reflecting on the Christian mystic Teresa of <\/em><em>\u00c1vila <\/em><em>and <\/em><em>The Interior Castle<\/em><em>. Again, he invites you into a different kind of reading. Let your rational mind rest and allow your heart to awaken. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Teresa asks, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be a pity not to understand ourselves?\u201d The pity is we tend not to. Teresa is writing about healing the sorrow that arises from being exiled from our soul.<\/p>\n<p>Now let us return to our beautiful and delightful castle [which is our soul] and see how we can enter it. I seem rather to be talking nonsense; for, if this castle is the soul, there can clearly be no question of our entering it [since we are the soul we are going after]. For we ourselves are the castle: and it would be absurd to tell someone to enter a room when he was in it already! But you must understand that there are many ways of \u201cbeing\u201d in a place. [1]<\/p>\n<p>All of us are here (wherever we may be), right here. But the degree to which each of us is here right now\u2014in terms of a deeply awake, grateful awareness of the gift and miracle of being here\u2014varies greatly from person to person. Another way of saying it is that everyone who\u2019s married is married. Some people are more married than others.<\/p>\n<p>The issue is our tendency to get stuck focusing on what my father or mother, wife or ex-wife, children or friends, pastor or boss thinks of me. What if instead we could join God in knowing who God knows I am eternally in God, before the origins of the universe, and know ourselves hidden with Christ in God forever? If I\u2019m so caught up in perceptions of myself\u2014projections and wounds\u2014if I\u2019m caught up in this labyrinth of confusion, it eclipses my view of the God-given godly nature of who I absolutely, invincibly am.<\/p>\n<p>This is how Teresa of \u00c1vila starts her book, <em>The Interior Castle<\/em>. We\u2019re just on page two, and it\u2019s clear this isn\u2019t going to be a light read! But what\u2019s also clear is it\u2019s not theoretical. The pedagogy of the mystics slows us down enough to catch up with ourselves. How can we ponder the intimate immediacy of what matters most? How can we learn to not treat ourselves like someone we don\u2019t want to spend time with? How can we settle into a quiet, prayerful pondering about who we deep down really are and are called to be? And how can we be more faithful to it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gateway to Silence:<br \/>\n<\/strong>Fall deeper into love.<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>How Will I Know?<\/p>\n<h4>By Oswald Chambers<\/h4>\n<p><!-- \/.col-12 --> <!-- \/.row --><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\n<p><strong>Jesus answered and said, &#8220;I thank You, Father\u2026that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.&#8221; \u2014Matthew 11:25<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step\u2014 we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin\u2014 \u201cBut if we walk in the light,\u201d we are cleansed \u201cfrom all sin\u201d (1 John 1:7). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.<br \/>\nAll of God\u2019s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God\u2019s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don\u2019t say, \u201cI suppose I will understand these things someday!\u201d You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the \u201cwise and prudent.\u201d \u201cIf anyone wills to do His will, he shall know\u2026\u201d (John 7:17).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<p><!--\n\n\n<div class=\"mobile-sharing-button\"><\/div>\n\n\n--><\/p>\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploring the Mystics with James Finley Being with Ourselves Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Guest writer and CAC faculty member James Finley continues reflecting on the Christian mystic Teresa of \u00c1vila and The Interior Castle. Again, he invites you into a different kind of reading. Let your rational mind rest and allow your heart to awaken. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16069"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16070,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16069\/revisions\/16070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}