Getting OLD?

Getting OLD?

          When I was young, a long time ago, I went to my grandparents for stories of how it used to be; for wisdom, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Advice on love and a lasting marriage, “Find someone who’s faults you can live with and one who will overlook yours, because we all have many.” And mostly because they were comfortable and easy to be with.

          Today the kids come with their smart phones and I pads. They talk, text, play games with others. I have to ask them what is the difference between an x box and a notebook, how to take a photo with my phone and then how to put the picture on my computer. They don’t ask me, I have to ask them. Quite a difference. Now grandparents are just OLD.

          OK. I can live with that. What bothers me the most is the poor health of my elderly friends. 40 may be over the hill, but they seem to deeply believe 70 is a death sentence and they give in to all kinds of ailments. Some are just normal complaints, “I didn’t sleep more than 3 hours last night.” Or, “I can’t shake this cold,” to very serious life threating disease. What can you expect? No one lives forever. Having said that, let me ask you, “How is your health? I think everyone should enjoy healthy living until the day that we, as the Bible puts it, give up the ghost.

          If you aren’t a big fan of the Bible, there are scientific facts that prove our body renews each cell constantly and every 7 to 10 years each cell in our body has been replaced. How can we grow old, feeble, decrepit, sick and die, when there are young vital, new cells invading our body and struggling to keep is young and healthy?

          I think that I have a valid answer. Sinner and Christian alike believe in opposites. The sinner doesn’t believe anything in the Bible because, “How can God be good and allow us to suffer”? The Christian says, “I believe everything in the Bible. Satan tempted Adam and Eve. They sinned and were sent out into the world, the males to struggle to put food on the table; the female to suffer agony in child birth; and both to be miserable and unhappy.” After all, if God is all good, an opposite would be all evil. The race consciousness has perpetrated this hypothesis until people thought it must be true. It became a normal part of life and suffering is expected, and no one bothered to notice how foolish it sounded.

          The Christian believes in God and Christian and sinner alike both just as sincerely believe in a power opposed to God. How can good and evil both be true? We see sickness, sin, despair, and death all around us. Our neighbor has been a shut-in all winter. The old man down the street coughs and wheezes when he walks a block. We can’t just shut our eyes to the mass murders or the innocent child with the painful disease. We have to blame it on something. So we make Satan the fall guy and go on about our business.

          We see what we believe and we believe what we see. We are what we believe. We say this is the truth. I believe it. I accept it. How can we relate scientific facts and religious facts to what we see?

          First I want you to understand that you aren’t sick necessarily because you have sinned. Although sin is its own punishment…it isn’t our Father’s nature to punish. You are sick because you assume that God has relinquished His power to another being: the devil. Never! Don’t blame yourself. Don’t blame the church for false teaching. Don’t blame the Christians who say they believe in God and ignore the facts. Forget blame and focus on the Truth.

          Jesus said, ‘Which of you convince me of sin”?  “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Is there pain or suffering there?            “Know ye not that ye are gods”                            “You are the temple of the living God.”                “Take up thy bed and walk.” The things that I do you can do and more.”  ‘Behold, thou art made whole go and sin no more, lest a worse thing comes upon thee.”                                “Ye judge after flesh….I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me.” “My doctrine is not mine, but He who sent me.” And all that Jesus asks of you is, “Will you be healed?”

          This isn’t all that the Bible tells us about God’s will for us to be healthy and happy. Jesus came to teach us how much our Father loves us and we have ignored His message. We grow old and sick only because we can’t believe that in all the vastness of eternity there is only good because God is infinite Good. That Good is not withheld until we die and go to heaven, it is ours whenever we decide to accept the gift.

          With the Christ within keeping you healthy; and God filling the space around you; and scientific facts telling you that your cells are restored; and realizing that God made the cells and replaces them; you should understand how much good you must overcome before you can become sick or old and sick.

          The Christ within is greater than any negative appearance. You first get the spiritual idea in consciousness direct from the divine source, and then you begin to demonstrate in the outer.

          Which is the ultimate Truth, which is the Reality I live by? Is it appearance or is it God?
          954 words                                     Loretta Ellen Edwards