Posted on 10 October 2017, 10:22

If we search our hearts, we may find Stephen’s prayer, simple as it is, the key to “enlightnment”, “being born again”, “bodhi” ….

“Lord, let me forget that I am me,
Let me know that I am with thee,
Let me not separate myself from thee,
Because I am me.”

God has been described as “That in whom we live and move and have our being.”  This is what the mystics of all religions have proclaimed, and is implied in the teaching of St John’s Gospel, and the mysticism of St Paul.  In other words there is nothing but “God”.  Quantum mechanics proclaims that the universe is a mental universe, and that the apparent solidity of matter.. is only apparent, atoms being largely composed of nothingness, and massive buildings can have radio passing through them as if they were not there.

The science of ecology reminds us how everything is dependent on everything else. Carbon dioxide released here has effects there.

US culture fosters a belief in rugged individualism, and conceives freedom as denying that we are all dependent on each other and the rest of the world.  That denial would be a good description of sin, or seeing ourselves as separate from, and independent from the whole.

The whole is a little like the Internet, and its cyberspace.  Ask it a question, and an answer comes immediately from millions of computers around the world, from who knows where? And who knows when or why the information was keyed in?

Richard Rohr describes sin as addiction, always denying the fundamental truth that we are “in God”.  It is only when we are in our personal “fox hole” that we “let go and let God”.

But when we do so, inspiration and love gush forth.
32.  Twenty-third psalm.

Stephen: I will not stay long, therefore I will just talk. You will find what I say will answer your questions, even though what I say you have often heard before, and often you have spoken:
     
Where you lead, I will follow:
if it be your will, then I will follow,
for you are my shepherd,
and you do lead me beside green pastures.
you do lead me beside still waters.
you will always lead as you have,
through death and through life,
and I am here because it is your will.
Teach me, O Father, more that I should follow you and not Look either to the right or to the left,
let me be one who would follow and walk in your footsteps.
Let me not be concerned with the fact
that I do not know where your steps lead,
only that I may trust and love you.
For if I do this, I need have no doubt
of the destination being according to your will.
For where else would your steps lead me, other than the path that you yourself travel on my behalf, that I may follow.
If I know this, then surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell with you.
Sometimes on this path I may feel the cold of the wind,
and if I look to the left and see those
that stand by my left hand,
I may wish that I be with them.
Other times I may look at those on my right hand,
and I may wish that I were with them.
But always, Father, my foot is drawn and I must follow.
Let me see that where my feet are drawn,
this is not penance, but my path.
God bless you both.

Jesus: Your fruits are your own integrity, not the action of others. Let us be judged by the Father and not by ourselves.

30. Salvation.       

Michael: Could you talk of Salvation? Could you narrow things to this question, to clarify in my mind the meaning of this word?

Stephen: Salvation, to use the concept which we used earlier:

Salvation is to be saved from being stagnant:
to keep the purity and the clearness.
Do not mistake the word ‘purity’,
For as with sin, purity is a relative matter.
To flow and to progress, to be at the point where you are now and to continue further to the points
where you were or shall be.
To come eventually back to the Source
with the mis-arrangements rearranged,
The Christian message is clear on Salvation.
For Christians, this can be the only concept.
Think of this though.
Before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus,
the Christ, all will not be Christians,
And yet Christians and non-Christians
Will be saved alike according to their purity,
according to their lack of sin,
according to their love,
for this is the message that even you would understand as   Christians from your own Scriptures.
The Lord himself said:
that even though they may be Gentiles,
if they feel the way of the Light,
and are faithful to this way,
and are pure in their heart,
and they love others as they love themselves,
they shall have a greater call on salvation
than the priests and them that keep the law, but in their hearts sin against their name, and against themselves.
When you have all come to trust me more,
I shall speak further of these things, not just I, but those that you will listen to;
but first be sure in your own hearts that you wish to hear,
and that you understand whence this comes. Bless you all, and pray for me.

Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.

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For more on Stephen go to www.thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02

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