Paul… And… Ruth

THURS., AUG. 9, 2001, 9:03 AM
H.E. LIBRARY, PULLIAM

I, your ever-friendly Holy Spirit, can tell you some things about My servant, Paul, whose Letter to the Church in Rome has been the focus of your morning Bible Study group. The underlinings in your Bible tell you that you have “studied” this some times before, with the marginal dots and checks reminding you of the memorable portions. Unfortunately your memory “part” of your mind is functioning less and less well, so that even the most important affirmations, for you, are difficult to recall.

Paul was a “both/and guy”! He was still a devout Jew, proud of his life as one who kept the Laws and related well to Me, as a God Who required ritual… over innovation. Yet I, as the Risen Christ, had encountered him and, in effect, had “commissioned” him to be a herald for Me, as the Son of God. I told him… “Love Me. This is all you have to do to follow Me.” (Of course this assumed that love was so “powerful” that it would direct him to just the right actions and behaviors… and away from the undesirable ones.)

As Paul wrote to the fledgling Church in Rome he affirmed what they had to do, but he also had to admit that following this Way of Love was hard for him, too. He was (or had been) a good Pharisee, so it was natural for him to (almost) “order them”… to TRY HARDER. But… try harder to LOVE? And this, of course, included… Try harder to accept that My Love for him, as the Risen Christ, was free and available… it just had to be accepted.

Yes, he does “communicate” that just “accepting love as a free gift” is too easy. He “buffers” this with the affirmation that love motivates him to do what is “right”… but what if what is now “right” is not the same as “right” in Jewish practice?

You have some similar struggles. Is your love for this Triune God (including Me, Who communicates so lavishly with you) sufficient to lead you to all of the “right” behaviors and “non-behaviors”? Or… if you admit that you haven’t behaved in some “right” way, does this indicate you don’t love Me enough… and therefore I withhold love from you? Or is My sufficient love for you everpresent, but you sometimes turn away from it? You’ve identified with Paul for many years. You are welcomed to “his Club”!

Now you also are starting, again, a journey with Ruth to A World Beyond. You are not nearly as aware as she became of the “movement between worlds”… this earth scene and the “possibilities beyond.” You are closer to this actual “transition” than you were when you last read and marked these pages. Ruth was privileged to have these “back and forth” experiences, as only a few humans enjoy. But she wrote about what she experienced and the meaning these had for her. Yes, it is time for you to revisit her “story” and let it help you ponder your future, however it may develop.

Your perception, from what you have read so far, is that if your spirit is attuned to Me and the “worlds” in which I move, the “transition” from this world to another will be both conscious and “easy.” This does suggest that the more truly you do accept and look forward to another spiritual experience in another realm, the more probable it will be that this is what will happen… and you will be quite aware of how you have gown (or not grown) spiritually…and… what comes next?

So… am I, Holy Spirit, leading you, yet again to share Ruth’s experience and interpretation? Of course. Are you, hence, closer to “coming across”? Each day you are closer, but you needn’t be concerned about months… or years.