MOTHER and FATHER DIVINE
Mankind cries out for something, they know not what, to lead them out of bondage, out from the terror that either surrounds them or threatens them. They lift their eyes to the skies and apparently GOD hears them not; for the religion that is the outgrowth of tradition and orthodoxy has imprisoned the Christ in every man, who is his personal Savior and Redeemer when allowed to express freely.
Thus when they look to a distant GOD, their beseechings cannot reach HIM as they do the GOD at hand. So the religion that makes GOD truly a present help in the time of need must be a practical religion and the only Salvation for humanity. The true and living GOD, FATHER DIVINE, of whom Jesus said would make His abode with us, has brought this practical religion to the universe; and in this beautiful Message He shows distinctly how Jesus constantly strove to keep His followers from searching for Him after what was termed His Ascension.
We Thank THEE, Our Glorious Savior!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber and FATHER'S Message follows the words of an inspiration sung by an angel after the proof reading of His Message Given Sunday at the Madison Avenue residence.)
(Song)
"Behold the Lamb-Likeness of GOD.
Behold the Lamb of GOD
Behold the Lamb-Likeness of GOD,
Behold the Lamb of GOD!
(FATHER Speaks as follows:)
Peace Everyone! That little composition in keeping with the Message that was given, is well worth considering. Behold the Lamb-Likeness of GOD and you will behold the Lamb of GOD.
At this particular instance I would like to say once again for your consideration, for I cannot stress this thought to vividly: that GOD'S Work and Mission, this your public worship and service, are the works of GOD put forth into expression in every activity. You have been taught by your respective religion, even from Judaism all the way down through Christendom and into this present dispensation in which you are now living, A.D.F.D., and even in the Kingdom of GOD:
"He that puts his trust in GOD shall never be confounded.
The only difference between you and your religious conviction and others, is that you take your religious conviction seriously and you are conscientious in your religious conviction to believe that it means what it says from a material point of view, and it is for the benefit of your bodies, for the unification of your daily activity, of your daily emotions and your profession and for everything that concerns you.
Even every thought, word, deed and action should be motivated by your spiritual or religious conviction. Then you are religious; You are controlled characteristically and dispositionally. You are controlled emotionally by your inspirations and by your aspirations through your religious conviction. Then you are expressing your real religious citizenry in the actuated words of expression, to tell yourself and others distinctly you are really religious.
To be religious, as I say, it should be in every organ, muscle, sinew, joint, limb, vein and bone, yea, every atom, fibre and cell of your bodily form. You should bring into actuality and into materiality from your mental and spiritual concept, through your supposition, that religious conviction of which you are speaking wherewith you have been converted.
Your religious conviction is whatsoever you are doing. Your religious conviction is to serve GOD Personally, mentally and spiritually, and from every angle expressible express your religion in activity. When this is done you are expressing a real scientific religion.
What said the Scripture, yea, the very first and great commandment, concerning the mystery?
"The first and great commandment is, Hear, O Israel! Our GOD is one GOD"
the GOD of your body, of your spirit and of your mind, as being termed your spirit, soul and body; the GOD of yours and all others; the GOD of every nation and the Creator of every generation. Aren't you glad?
". . . our GOD is one GOD."
Then I say, let your GOD come forth into expression in every activity and in every emotion and worship GOD in all of your awakened hours. Oh, how glorious it is to observe the mystery!
When you worship GOD wholeheartedly, you will even worship GOD when you are sleeping.
"Thou shalt love the Lord your GOD with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
This is the first and great Commandment, and the second is like unto it; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Some put it that—
"Thou shalt sere the Lord your GOD with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength"
which is equivalently the same.
Serve GOD with all your energy and with every tendency, with every fancy, with every pleasure and with all of your ideas and all of your opinions, wholeheartedly. Serve GOD from every angle expressible; then your religion is wheresoever you function.
I cannot stress it to vividly, for it is a reality. I AM not just saying this now to convey the thought concerning the mystery of our religious conviction for any special purpose, but to show you definitely if you retrace your thoughts back to what I have been telling you, you will see even in actions I AM speaking and in deeds explicitly I AM telling you definitely, according to MY conviction, religion is not something suppositional for the superstitious, but your real religion, as it may be termed, and the way to worship GOD is to worship GOD in Spirit and in Truth, and be spiritual in everything you say and in everything you do. Make every act and every deed spiritual and observe it from a spiritual point of view.
When this is done you are actually serving GOD and you will be able to say more distinctly than the Psalmic prediction as a prediction:
"Serve the Lord with gladness, enter HIS Gates with praise and HIS presence with singing",
for you will say those things and will not merely say them as a prediction, but will say them in the actuated words of expression; for actions speak louder than words that are spoken.
Take these thoughts to consideration. You are serving GOD, as I said over and over again, in all of your business, profession, labor and trade; for GOD has converted your understanding, GOD has converted your ambition, your energy and all of your tendencies. GOD has converted you— spirit, body and mind— and brought even every particle part of your bodily form into subjection to HIM. Hence, when you go, you are going, for you are moving by the power of GOD and whatsoever you do, do it with the motivated spirit of Energy transmitted; for GOD in that which you are doing is actually reincarnated!
That is what I AM talking about! The practicality of GOD and the practicality of your religion! No longer something suppositional, no longer to be observed nor observe things superstitiously, but observe things as they are as a living reality; for GOD Himself has been made real tangible and practical. GOD Himself has been made a living factor and you can observed HIM and His activities, all of GOD'S activities, as a living reality made real, tangible and practical and as a sample and as an example for others.
Just look over this vast audience— how GOD through transmission by reincarnation has been embodied, yea re-embodied; has impregnated Himself in the hearts and lives of humanity; has been re-personified as a living reality, for
"The Word was made flesh."
Aren't you glad? And you are the flesh of which I AM now speaking of, your real religious conviction.Your every move or emotion is an expression of your religious conviction. That is what I AM talking about! Hence, you express it whether you are true or false. Aren't you glad?
Your religious conviction is demonstrated in your daily activities. That is what I AM talking about! Hence in all of your business, in all of your labor and in all of your profession, you are actually preaching your religious conviction and demonstrating your fondest imagination; for you are the demonstrator and the manifester of your fondest imagination that was merely an idea superstitiously until I reincarnated it, until I materialized it by you imbibing the spirit of it and causing it to be a living reality. Aren't you glad?
Now, let these Words be with you now, henceforth and forever. In all you say and in all you do, tell others the story more distinctly in actions and in deeds, even as I have told you!
What said I many years ago as a message for consideration, as an answer to the question of many, "How do you preach? or, What do you preach?" I said,
"I will preach Christ in words but more so in deeds and in actions,and I will put MY Spirit in them and cause them to walk in MY Statutes."
Isn't this a wonderful actuated sermon of deeds and expression to be seen and heard definitely, to let GOD be in your daily activities and be your true and faithful Servant transmitted; to handle you and handle all things that concern you; to do for you personally or materially? For GOD is in the bodies of men in a practical religion giving practical and scientific, actual service in every activity.
By this you can see and know definitely GOD to you is a reality. It is a reality because you can go to a dress shop and save money by buying dresses from dress shops that are preaching the religion of the Peace Mission! It is a reality because when you go to a soda stand you can save money by buying from a soda stand or any other business place, because those who are influenced by MY Mind and Spirit and are under the Peace Mission Movement and converted to it they are preaching the Gospel in the actuated word of expression so you can get something better and cheaper, and tells you in actions and in deeds that speaketh plainly!
Oh, how glorious it is to see the truth as it is portrayed and as it is conveyed! It is not a supposition, it is a living reality! By MY System and by MY Custom, yea, by MY Teaching of a practical religion, you can live on as little as five dollars per week, where you could not live on less than ten dollars per week in the most meek form or system of expression before I came Personally— the practical religion of Salvation in every activity and no longer to be considered superstitiously and from a suppositional point of view.
It may b e termed superstition when MY Followers according to their religious conviction would sacrifice everything before they would join insurance. It may be a religious superstition, as it may be termed, but that is their religious conviction put into actual service to and for the benefit of the children of men.
Then I say, it is a practical and actual, visible and tangible service being manifested universally, and all shall eventually see and know definitely the only true religion is the religion of practicality, the religion of reality and not a religion of imagination!
When humanity finds out that the True Religion, the spirit and the meaning of it through all generations actually meant to be put into practice and be of real service to to humanity personally, they will recognize the Doctrine of which I AM daily stressing. They will live according to MY Teaching and they will bring themselves into subjection.
In all religion you find it was GOD transmitted to the religion to teach them to do better among themselves and others, to express GOD in Love and Mercy and Compassion. All of this was and still is the transmission of GOD to humanity. Though they think at times GOD is in heaven some place far above the planets and all of the stars, far away geographically, so far it would take light rate speed to descend a million years to reach some of the far distant planets; and yet they say GOD is far above those places. They are not teaching and preaching the reality of a real Redeemer and Savior!
Therefore I say,when it is put forth into expression and you have called all of your GOD down from that suppositional heaven, and you have HIM within and among you once, now henceforth and forever; they cannot understand the mystery, and yet they tell you to do better and be better by their respective religions. You cannot do better and you cannot be better for they have the ONE Who will make you better way up in heaven!
What said the Scripture concerning the mystery?
"GOD is not afar off, but GOD is a GOD at hand."
Truly might have Jesus declared the same by inspiration when they came seeking Him and thought He was in the tomb;
"Why seek ye the living among the dead? Go and tell My disciples to meet Me in Galilee,"
I did not say, tell My disciples to meet Me in heaven, like you say your dear old mother told you; I said:
". . . tell My disciples to meet Me in Galilee."
And when at the Ascension in the parable-ated vision of expression He was ascending apparently, according to their version, to heaven, they heard a voice from heaven saying;
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up in heaven? This same Jesus, as He went shall come again."
Therefore, He deprived you of or called your attention from the grave, and He also called your attention from the skies! Aren't you glad?
Why stand ye gazing up into the sky or into the heaven? This same Jesus, as you see Him go, shall come again! And this was a visionic, revelationic prediction of the Ascension of Christ from the mortal version, but even in such a revelationic and visionic prediction, I still declared by inspiration as a revelation to them;
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye there gazing up into heaven?"
It is a privilege to live in such a recognition realizing GOD Himself is with you and always has been with you, and will be with you forever more; for what He had said before was well worth considering and you should stress it in your memory;
"Lo, I AM with you alway."
If this be true, then even in that Ascension you did not think He had left you completely but merely left you visionally or revelationally according to the mystery; but even from that angle of expression, He did not tell you to meet Him in heaven. He told you definitely;
"I will come again."
This was the consolation and this was the information to give you and give others to stay here and refuse to go anywhere; give you to know you should not go down to the grave looking for Him down there, neither should you go to heaven looking for Him up there. You see, I barred you from either of these two places, but in Galilee I told you to meet Me and then I told you more distinctly:
"Why stand ye gazing up into the sky (or into the heaven, whichever, as some of the speakers put it)? This same Jesus as you see Him go, shall come again."
GOD never did mean for you to go up into heaven, and He never meant for you to go down to the grave! Aren't you glad? You know it! You know it definitely by what Jesus said:
"No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
It is plain to see the people have made mistakes. Can you not see the mystery?
"No man hath ascended up to heaven . . . "
Then let us keep all of our energy, ambition, our mind and attention here on the earth plane, and let us have a real religion, a religion as it may be termed, of practicality and a religion of practical service for humanity in the actuated words of expression, that cannot be criticized or condemned for GOD Himself is in it with you and shall remain. I thank you.
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