We need to have a communication with God face to face in the here and now; the people need it!Exodus 33:10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.
11And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
12And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
13Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
14And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
16For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
17And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
18And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
20And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
21And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
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Based upon a more cerebral, scientifically provable and post-modern approach, I suspect that what we refer to today in English languages as God, which is not a name by the way, is apparently even bigger in scope than our predecessors ever understood.
And let’s give them, our predecessors, credit for knowing that there was something that existed that was bigger than them and also for passing along what they understood about the God phenomenon.
But let us carry the baton a bit further than they did, particularly given the new advancements and understanding that we have achieved in the 21st century, information that our predecessors simply did not have.
We have experienced the expanse of the ever expanding Universe, the heavens..., we have engaged in interstellar space flight, sent probes into outer space that have returned valuable information. In addition to the above we have the soon to be replaced Hubble telescope which is already peering towards the beginning of the Universe, space stations, and satellites in space that are gathering information.
And we will soon launch into space, The James Webb telescope, an even more advanced floating in space telescope than Hubble, that will permit us to look back to the beginning of time.We have measured and explored the deep, and as a result have garnered knowledge and information that our predecessors simply did not have. Doesn't it make sense then that we would have knowledge that our predecessors simply did not have even in deference to their claims of having actually met God (face to face). Then why haven't we, given all of our advancements, met God face to face yet?
I believe that we need to put the past behind us given that the knowledge and understanding of our predecessors was at best elementary.As opposed to relying on rudimentary understanding in order to make sense of what is undetectable with the human sensory apparatus, we need to update our framework(s) as well as the methodologies and approaches that we have been using in order to search for what is real, particularly as it pertains to God.
Having said that, we will have to pursue what is real or isn’t real with an open mind, while considering that all of what has been passed on to us by our predecessors may not be altogether accurate. Why should we do this? I suspect that we have traversed the same mystical mountain long enough, and now it is time to know and to get in touch with what heretofore has been 'the unknown mystery'! We need to solve the riddle.
In short, I believe that we need to communicate with the entity called God in the here and now, and we need to do so in a short period of time! And bear in mind that the historical descriptors and appellations that were used for God, just as I utilized, may no longer apply.
It is a fact that throughout history new descriptors and names have often been added and some dropped that pertained to God.
I truly believe that what we ought to be in search of is not ‘a God’, instead what we ought to be looking for is what is real, no matter what it turns out to be living, non-living or extra dimensional. I suspect that if the notion of God had not have been passed along to us from our ancestors, we would not have been pursuing after a God to explain the unknown. Instead, in a post-modern context we would we would likely be at work trying to understand what is and what is not real.
And our search in modern times would take place without any mystical or mythical practices or interpretations being attached to it. And, we would not want God to appear in a cloud today, for we have technologies today that would shield us from divine radiation, something that our predecessors apparently did not haveAnd what would be the upsides and the downsides of such an undertaking? Well, a lot of preachers might be out of a job, however, the majority of the people, particularly those who have staked their purpose in life on mysticism and religious dogma, will know the truth.
At the very least they will know that that someone in the time that they live in and with the knowledge and understanding that we have available has actually sought after the what is real as opposed to relying on truth according to myth, superstition, fable and what someone else said or wrote thousands of years ago!
And as I explained in a previous writing, the byproduct of discovering truth is freedom to know; freedom to think; freedom to realize; freedom to actualize; freedom to serve or not to serve; freedom to believe or to live your life minus the prospect or fear of some unknown quantity lurking about in the shadows that wants to hurt you when it may not even exist. What if there God was conjured up either by them or by their predecessors? Shouldn’t someone get to the bottom of this mystery?
Why am I so full of confidence with respect to pursuing after what in deference to those individuals who wish to stay with convention and past practices are saying and doing? It is because I am so convinced that there is something that has remained a mystery to us today that is very real and knowable. And, even though we have we have not done a very good job of defining it, given that is has been heavily influenced by religion and mysticism, it is in fact quantifiable and can be known..
And given the restrictions and sanctions that are imposed upon our minds for thinking outside of the religious box, one can never be sure that they know the truth when following after a religious model, particularly one that refuses to be scrutinized except by certain limited parameters..
“Whether God exists or not, God has worked for a lot of people!”
However, we need to be communicating with God or what is real via a two-way stream on a here and now day to day basis. Even in the Hebrew scriptures, portion of the Canon, humans were told to seek, prove and to find God (seek me early), the problem is that modern day have people have not engaged in modern day search to look for God.
Even today we still need to be in contact with and hear from our 'present helper' the ultimate source and resource, because things aren't looking too good for our future here on planet earth is it?
For example, just over an hour ago, I ran into a religious nut outside of the Martin Luther King Library in San Jose California. After we talked for awhile, I asked this minister a simple question. I asked, what is your name? He replied, my name has not been given yet. I said, using the Canon as an example, Jesus, John, Peter ... all had names! He continued to delve off into the mystical and I thought to myself, here we go!
Folks, we cannot continue to place our destinies, the lives of our children (he has been engaged in the process of proselytizing students outside of SJSU) and other loved ones in the hands of religious nuts like this man who clearly has gone over the religious edge.
Again, we simply need to find a better method of establishing communicating with what we refer to as God in the here and now, as opposed to depending on ministers, imams, modern day shamanists, double-heads, purported prophets and religious nuts to do so and then report back to us what God reportedly said.
When Moses and the children of Israel encountered what they believed to be God, they were on a journey just as we are on a journey through life today. These nomads were sequestered when Moses was instructed to ascend up into the mountain in order to have a direct communication with God. Now keep in mind that the people stood nearby, so that they would be convinced that God had descended and was in fact talking with their leader.
What was the difference this time? Why weren’t the people simply encouraged to enter into prayer into customary prayer, or why wasn’t a Priest dispatched to read the Urim and Thummin, and why did God request an occasional a face to face meeting with all of the men of Israel something similar to what was taking place this time with God the people and Moses?
The God of the old testament apparently believed in having face to face meeting with humans then, so why hasn’t God called for a meeting directly with us today? Could it be that we are looking to hear from God on the wrong frequency?
Again get the imagery here, neither the people nor Moses got down on their knees to pray in their respective secret closets, neither did God send a human with a message to give the people.
Our nation, and every other nation of the world I suspect needs to have a similar meeting, face to face with the Almighty, because neither our religious or political leaders cannot be trusted.
No tricks Moses, just as I would have wanted to do, wanted to see who or what was speaking with him, right on Moses! God rejected his request however, and explained that if Moses were permitted to look upon IT, that he would die. We learn several things from what God said, and the first is that God is viewable.
We learned from Moses’ experience, that with the proper precautions, that by using the human sensory apparatus, that God is or was capable of being viewed. We also learn that God is or was amenable to direct communication outside of one getting on his knees, bowing or lifting up holy hands until heaven. Humans can communicate with God outside of prayer!
“And, even if God is saving us from ourselves by not permitting us to look at IT, imagine what it would be like to simply have God to tell you that. Moses apparently had the opportunity to hear God speak using intelligible human language.”
I am puzzled, and I often wonder why we as a people have become so complacent, to the extent that we have not called for a meeting en masse with God (not the same as MegaFest, going to Mecca, having a church Revival or some such gathering). I wonder if similar to what the children of Israel apparently said to Moses, we don’t want to speak with God directly and we will hear from you, if our people have been conditioned to not want to speak directly with God, or is it out of fear that God really does not exist that they do not want to speak with God?
Now if this event actually took place before with Moses and the people as it has been recorded, it can certainly happen again, that way it would not appear to have been contrived or embellished by the actual writer who reported this story.
I am puzzled over the fact that in a post-modern world, if not before, that neither we nor our predecessors have come up with an updated replacement text for the ancient Canon (as well as other sacred books). Where was the outcry when Constantine thought to create the Canon! Where is today’s Constantine? Who is today’s Constantine, perhaps I am he!
What we need is ‘here and now book of verified encounters with God’, one that can be downloaded directly into the human brain and that could better help post-modern individuals to understand God not romantically, but in a post-modern 21st century context. The book(s) that we have relied so heavily upon, out of the past, are outdated and error prone.
The writer of the book of Revelations explains that it is fully God's intention to dwell among humans once humans evolve. So why aren't we chomping at the bit to live with God today, instead of just talking about doing it? If you are like me, you are tired of annual, monthly and weekly religious practices, festivals and teachings that point to a future period of bliss.
And if you are like me, you have had enough of the guesswork that we have all become accustomed to when attempting to translate predated historical sources. The end result has led to hundreds of conclusions about information that has come from the same sources. So how many more millennia, centuries, decades or years will we keep this up, particularly if we believe that God is present, and will hear from us and grant or petitions?.
Should a universal prayer for clarity by all of the interested parties on Earth be made? Many individuals will say of course not because you are the one that is mixed up Reverend, because “I happen to know what is true”, based upon what I have read and my own personal experiences.
According to the writer of the book of Exodus (perhaps Moses), God treated Moses as a friend, having explained to him, that there was a place beside God upon the rock. Perhaps we need to go back and find this rock again, and reconsider the typical religious position about what the rock happens to be? For isn’t it time for us to find that rock and to go and stand there ourselves.
I suspect that what will help us the most, is if we were to free ourselves from past conventions and set out on a new course of discovery in terms of finding and interacting with what is real: that should be our new approach!
More than all else, I can see that we are going to eventually have to put all of our once sacred texts into their proper historical contexts, so that renew the business of pursuing after what is provably real.
I for one am for putting aside all of the lexicons, commentaries, concordances, biblical aids ..., skipping over all of the other well known doctrines and going straight to the source to get a once and for all answer!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
Addenda: Once the communication link is established between God and man, can you imagine some of the questions that we will have for God. Here is a short list of some of the questions that humans might have for God or what is real once we connect with the God phenomenon:
1. What is and what is not true?
2. What are you?
3. Where are you?
4. Where are my deceased relatives?
5. Will I ever see my deceased relatives again, and will I want to see them again?
6. Am I going to die?
7. Is there really any such thing as Heaven or Hell or a resurrection?
8. Are the former, heaven, hell and the resurrection man made conventions real?
9. Can you take away my pain and heal me once and for all?
10. How can I get rid of present day governments, its leaders, a pastor, spouse...?
11. How can I get my kids to behave...?
12. How can I garner a sufficient amount of food, clothing …
13. My older brother would request an interplanetary trip in outer space.
14. What am I really suppose to be doing here?
15. Finally, I suspect that I would want to know what other things can we do that up and until now have been beyond human comprehension? How did you do all of this, where have you been, why have you countenanced the suffering of so many humans beings for example black people and the people who were crushed in the Twin Towers nearly a decade ago?
And after all of the other serious questions have been sufficiently answered, and I know that there are many more, I would ask God whether or not he could hook me up with some good looking chick (preferably a sister girl, one that is not too pushy or bossy? And did I say, good looking - I am not getting any younger? Hmm baby!
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