Some Reflections On A Visit

FRI., MAR. 17, 1995, 6:11 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your time of visiting with a son and his family has passed, and now you must turn your energies to tasks here at home. Yet the visit should be evaluated, and I am pleased to help with such. Family relations are important in earth life.

Fundamentally there was much good feeling during the time together. They have respect for you, as parents and grandparents, and you are proud of them, as grown children and developing grand-children. There is love that is evident, in both directions. Michael continues to work hard in a business that he has created, a business that provides a service to homeowners and a good return to him and his family in money for living. You would not spend money in all the ways that they do, but you are of a different generation… and they seem to be able to meet most of their various payments, without calling on you.

The first evening beer and wine were consumed in slight excess, and this allowed words to flow which revealed some fundamental differences in how you relate to Me, the Triune God, and, therefore, how you are in relation to each other. As I have admitted, the downside of this diversity I have created and continue to create is that there are differences that seem important enough to divide father from son and son from father. And certainly I am responsible, for I have led Michael and his family into this fellowship of Christians, who have willingly converted to Orthodoxy, one of My oldest traditions. And… I have led you and Lenore to this Reformed tradition and then come upon you with these mystical Teachings, the content of which clashes with some of the orthodox teachings and traditions. The wine, a symbol of My essence, as the saving Messiah, allowed conflicting truths to be shared… and I found it to be good.

Why would I say this? Isn’t family harmony important? Well, Michael was raised in the tradition that is comfortable and right for you, and he is now satisfied with a tradition that is quite different. He went in both directions from you, and has settled on this one. It nurtures his faith and him as a functioning person in a way that yours would not. His life and the life of his family is entwined with this congregation and this approach to Me in a way that surpasses yours.

You see and feel this dedication that he has, and it is not contagious in its form and in some of its content. You are pleased that his relationship to Me is so solid and continuing, and that his family shows more unity in their allegiance to their church even than yours did. You feel, however, virtually no pull to such a style of worship and to what seems so foreign a tradition. You and he are simply on different paths of spiritual growth, both of which lead back to me, however disparate they may seem. I am with both of you on your faith journeys.

And… I am with many who flock to the Vineyard, in its various locations, who worship Me in ways different from both of you. Many of these are honestly and truly being led by Me to minister to others and to be ministered to in these decidedly non-Orthodox ways. For you, this is about as attractive and compelling as the Orthodox service, standing. Ah Me, you have seen and felt the range of My paths and feel pleased with where I have placed you.