Questions from our surfers, viewers, readers, seekers and workers.
- Along with -
Answers from our Ministers and clergy.
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QUESTION (09 January 09):
How do Channelers go into “Trans”? - MRK
| ANSWER:
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show, or been so engrossed in art or music that you were unaware of what was happening around you? This is not only being in the moment; in trance, or entranced, but becoming totally enamored as well.
A Personal Story: I was doing an art show on Laguna Hills Mall, a few decades ago, drawing a pen & ink picture when suddenly I realized that there was a crowd of people around me, watching! I was so enamored (in love) with what I was doing that I was entranced (in a trance). Certainly you can look back on your life and see moments when you, too, were in the moment and in trance.
This is a natural process, not to be feared. And as we move beyond fear, we can recognize the benefits that God has bestowed upon us by allowing us to “go out of” our logical mind and into our hearts so we could be in love (enamored) with what we are doing or being! Remember, “God is love”.
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QUESTION 2008/07/13:
What is the mystic part? I have been with Saddleback Church, studying "The Purpose Driven Life" with Rev. Rick Warren, for about 25 years. Your website says, “Jesus who has been labeled the "Christos" by Greek scholars and "Krishna" in India was and still is the Master of Love, our example, teacher and brother, but not our savior”. If you study the Bible you know that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our Messiah and savior. Are you studying some other Bible?
- John
| ANSWER;
One book, or one Man, no matter how Holy, cannot contain all the wisdom of God. Even a whole library or world cannot contain the vastness of it all. So, in this church, we learn to listen to and speak from our hearts, as Jesus did. He did not preach strictly from the Torah or the Prophets, did he? I believe that He spoke most often from the wisdom of his heart.
FIRSTLY: What is the "Mystic" part? The following statement may be found, elsewhere, on this web site:
"We are Mystical: We believe in direct experience or communion with God, the Angels and other spirit beings."
I realize that most Churches do not believe in anything much beyond the written texts in their Bible. However, I believe that Jesus was one of the greatest Mystics to walk this earth and His greatest message was simply to; "Love one another". Practicing this message, then, is what I believe is capable of unifying our nation and world in love, thus transcending all that we have known before. Doesn't this sound similar to His teachings? And, should we attain this state, many would call it "Heaven". However, I also believe that, indeed, as we move on beyond this life and expand in spirit, we begin to find more that heaven ... and even beyond.
SECONDLY: I am quite familiar with your church, as I am a native of Orange County and we lived in your area for nearly a decade, before moving up here where we don't have a 24/7/365 "rush hour", the air is clear, the sky is blue and we feel free to appreciate the spirits of Father God and Mother Nature and even commune with them.
I am also quite familiar with what the Christian Bible says, as I was born, baptized, raised and taught in the Presbyterian Church. However, as a growing boy, my heart often did not believe everything that the church tried to put in my head. Sometimes my heart felt otherwise. As I understand the Bible, Jesus taught people to follow their hearts, not just their heads or their Torahs. Thus, it has not been my belief, nor my experience, that the Bible is the single authority that contains the full extent of all knowledge concerning God or Jesus.
During the 1960s, I read a book written by Episcopal Bishop James Pike. As I read it my eyes were opened to the possibility of a Jesus beyond the Biblical accounts and a God beyond churches. Thus, I have since studied within and beyond the orthodox churches and the traditional Bibles and found, for instance, that the word "Messiah" simply means "messenger". Yes, the man Jesus was a Messenger, a messenger of God's Love for all of us, just as we are. And as He lived His life, He became master of no one; rather a brother to all. Also, I found, that the "saving grace" that Jesus brought and taught was the Power of Love Lived, not just talked about or contemplated. He was a shining example of what is humanly possible, should we also make that choice to become the Love that we are deep within, as He did. He knew that the soul never dies, only the human body dies, and this is what He taught as the "Everlasting Lige" of the soul. Others, after him, and those beholding to the heirarchy of their churches have taught differently.
All this was a part of the "Good News" (Gospel) message that the angels brought at His birth - for those who had their inner ears attuned to the higher frequencies of life, light and living in love. "Peace be unto you, for we bring good tidings of great joy that is for all people". (His own soul said "I bring you")
So, what is it that brings joy to hearts around the world? The experience of Love; given and received! I believe that His was a message of how to live a life of love so that joy and peace on earth might be attainable, at least individually, after all.
Have any of the religions, politicians, business institutions, militias or wars brought us these things? All of life's rewards come from within. He taught us that, also.
During my life, I have studied many other religions as well as historical, philosophical and religious sources concerning the life and times in which Jesus walked this earth as The Son of Man. He was a marvelous man - and I believe that He still is as he lives beyond his physical life. However, I also believe that we are also greater than and much more capable than we think or have been tought to think. He told us we are also sons and daughters of God when He said, "All that I do, ye may do also, and even greater things ...".
Thanks for taking the interest and the time to explore "outside the box" and possibly "outside the Book". I believe that even truth is living, growing and infinite, just as the One who created all truth.
Finally, I must add: You are certainly as entitled to your beliefs as I am to mine, as no two of us will ever agree on everything.
Rev. John M. Kohlenberger
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QUESTION: (2008 07 19)
What is the difference between "Spiritual" and "Religious"?
I have always thought I was religious, but talking to my sister, the other day, I found that I might be more spiritual.
| ANSWER:
I would say that in general, the term “Religious” has more to do with churches, mental training and traditions, while the term "Spiritual" has more to do with your own inner feelings, within your ever beating heart of love. Religions tend to teach you to follow their unique dogma and doctrine while spirituality teaches you to find and honor your own unique self response abilities, which are your particular gifts of spirit, from God.
Rev. John M. Kohlenberger
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QUESTION: (2008 08 23)
When does "Life" begin?
This is a question that our 2000, 2004 and 2008 political candidates have wrestled with and at the same time think that they have the once and final answer to.
| ANSWER:
God is Life, Light, Love, Truth and Beauty, ever loving, expansive, renewing, and thus changing. This is how Mother-Father-God is the “constant” within all life. So, Life has always been and shall ever be, and in many forms, without end. If it were any other way, how would we know that? Thus, the energies we call Life are everlasting and cannot be created or destroyed, physically. This is one of the basic views of Spiritualism and also a law of Physics.
Now, most people who ask “When does life begin” think of it in worldly, material, physical terms only and believe that the human body is the total extent of their "life" and “being”. They believe that this is all they "have", until they can buy more of the world and fill up their life with “stuff”, or die into their heaven where they can finally know their soul. While buying up the world may fill your house and life, do these actions really bring fulfillment? We all have souls here, just dying to be fulfilled. Many people believe that without a body there is no "life". Tell that to the soul of one of your dear departed loved ones!
Or, tell that to an atom. Atoms "live, move and have their being", just like God, for they too are “sparks” or portions of God. The cells in your body are living tissue composed of those lowly atoms, living their "life" in their own way and on their own terms, coordinating and cooperating with each other so that you might have a living body to use on this plane of existence. The life of the infinite God is everywhere at once, even when we see it manifest in a moment in time and space in the individualized physical form of an "atom" or “cell” or tissue, an organ or an organism. So when was that atom born or its sub atomic particles ... or the Universe, for that matter? Oh, our scientists like to give us numbers of years – and that figure keeps expanding, just like the earlier description of God.
Outside our earthly thinking and gravity, there is still spirit, but there is no time as we know it. Science knows this. Thus, the life of each human soul has always been, so one cannot pick a specific moment in time when suddenly human life began or that an individual human life begins. Even before conception, each soul dreams of and plans its journey into a human body and life, with the help of God the Angels and loved ones, to experience materiality for some period. That moment of conception then gives one or more souls a new opportunity to have the magical, some times mystical, experience as "human" – being life and love in materiality. So it is that one or many souls may or may not be hovering near a given fetus in anticipation of gaining and "living" that opportunity; for a second, a year, decade or a century in the experience of a lifetime, called “Being Human”.
These hovering souls are a part of what has been described in religious texts as "the heavenly host". Loving souls accompany every birth and every death upon this earth. Ancient traditions claim that incoming souls may inhabit a body (incarnate) any time after approximately the first trimester and as late as up to a month after the physical birth of the soul's vehicle; its human body. This body is the soul’s “space suit” and "Temple" that enables it to experience planet earth and to practice its spirituality to the best of its ability in physical form. This is why many religions celebrate the birth of a new born at a date some time after the physical birth, so they know that spirit and matter have married and that the soul is resident for its chosen lifetime, “until death do us part”.
The "Life" of God is the alpha and the omega and everything in between, forever in a dance of love as it weaves in and out of both materiality and spirituality; always with one foot within each of these realms, plus many other realms and realities that we may only dream about. But these will be ours to experience on what we call our "future", beyond this "now"; in another "now".
Rev. John M. Kohlenberger,
Rev 10 September 2008
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QUESTION: (2008 08 24)
Should we defend, defeat or disuade evil?
This is an interesting question that our 2008 political candidates have been asked and thus wrestled with. Some think that they have the once and final answer. But in an infinite universe and a Life Everlasting is there such a thing as a finite and final answer? Let's explore a littl bit together in the spirit of light and love and see where we go.
| ANSWER:
Yes, there is a once and final answer to everything and that is "God" or "Allah" or "Yhwh" or what ever you believe the Loving Creative Energies to be. However these energies are so vast, alive and move so quickly that you cannot pin them down to be just one thing in one place or just one answer. Wouldn't that make life "simple" if this could be? However, If life was always this simple, what would be the point of living? It would be a dull world, wouldn't it?
Life is a multi-directional street, thus it includes both God and doG, as well as live and evil ... or devil and lived. Many ancient wisdoms hid their secrets in words and phrases that were reversed (as I just did, here). So our heavens include Saturn, Venus and Mars, just as life includes Satan, Love and War as our teachers and guides to help us learn from and experience the best that life has to offer, These are not necessarily our adversaries, though God in His Infinite Wisdom and Love has given each one of us the freedom to see them that way. These have been approved by the love of God, to exist along side you and me. Certainly you can label your fellow neighbors in Gods Kingdom upon Earth as enemies or adversaries, but you also have the freedom to see them as friends and helpers that can give you understanding and even aid you in finding "the peace that passes all understanding", as you keep in mind that "what we least understand we fear the most"!
What we resist will persist, for we hold on to it to fight, rather than letting it go in loving allowance. Thus it becomes our "partner" in life. So it is that this world currently seems to be married to weapons, fighting and war, as we hold to our old ways and fail to look for new, thus failing also to understand our brothers and sisters around the world.
We are here to learn to grow up and rise above; to become more what we were born as. It is our opportunity in this earth experience to take our old stumbling stones and start building paths of love to peace with bridges to other areas of the world, rather than setting walls around them and calling them "enemy". These so called enemies are put there by God so we may learn new responses to old situations, what I call "new self response abilities"; another opportunity to build "the New Jerusalem".
Fear not and judge not and you will cease to find reasons to fight. Fear, judgment, wars and fighting only feed the energy of "evil" that you and the other are both engaged in - even when you want to believe you are "doing this for good".
I believe that our "mission impossible", should we choose to accept it, is to learn to love it all. For everything is God, in the sense of some energy; sound, taste, smell or form ... or other. Without First Cause, none of this would be, not even the "good stuff".
Isn't it easier and more pleasant to love than fight?
- Rev. J.M. Kohlenberger
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QUESTION: (11/27/2008)
Why is there Terrorism, if God is so good?
| Answer!
The spiritual value of the truly “spotty” terrorist attacks around the world, that we see on our news, is meant to inspire the rest of us, that believe in life, light and love, to pull together in love and joy.
Of course, terror has existed as long as there have been humans to feel it; even though you can see, hear and be touched by horrendous events, the feeling of terror is always "in here", not "out there". What has changed over time, so we think that we are in a uniquely different spot than any other time for humanity is that we now have world-wide communication, which many previous generations did not and could not even know could exist. Thus we see events around the world, for the first time in many millennia.
This is a part of the increasing awareness of humanity’s soul, for each and every one of us, which is intended to lead each one of us to increased wisdom and love as we realize that fear does not protect anything at all. There comes a point and situations when the Government cannot protect everybody. Thus, this is a time to put fear aside in order to fing peace within as each one of us learns to put our earth bound egos aside so that we may help each other raise above all that weighty "material".
Namaste, Brother John
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An Illustration of Good and Evil, Dark and Light working together for the Glory of God.
"The greatest wisdoms are hidden within dilemmas and dichotomies." - An Old Chinese Sage
View the picture to the right. What do you see? Do you see a violent storm or peace and quiet. Is it a beautiful sunny day with a beautiful sunset or is it dark, threatening and foreboding?
The decision is yours! For everything you need to build the kind of reality that you want is at your disposal. God has made it this way - just for you and you and you ... and me; so we can build our own heaven or hell, or even something in between. This is Love Manifest!
In order to give all this latitude, in a complete world, there must be differences and diversity, including good and evil right along with dark and light, night and day, male and female, positive and negative, each with its own lessons to teach and to learn. These dichotomies are the poles of the battery that power our world.
White light contains all color, as does complete black. But without variations between these extremes we could not know darkness, shadow or even colors. Only the contrast created by the absence of light, casts shadows. Thus we can know light all the better. And the colors we see are the light not absorbed by what it is we look at. And so we walk through light and dark as well as good and evil at once, and with great purpose. For each one of us are Students of the Divine and that energy is so vast it will take us forever to discover it all, with all of its light and dark, as well as what we call good and evil.
As illustrated in the Yin-Yang symbol (see our Logo page) you can see how dark contains the seed of light and at the same time light contains an element of darkness, for the two are not truly in competition, as they are cooperating, Neither one can completely overtake the other or there would be no thing.
When you stop focusing on only one of these, you may begin to see that the two work together in a dynamic balance, called life, that is always leading to greater and greater expansion of consciousness, learning, understanding, experience and love.
All is in Divine Right Order, after all - even when you can't see it!
- Brother John K
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| The balance of Sky and Earth, Dark and Light. Click on image to enlarge it to its full glory. |
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