The Stories… Are Yours…

TUES., JUNE 22, 1993, 5:56 AM
FARM, STUDY

The Bible is a story, made up of many stories. There are Biblical scholars, some of whom study long and diligently and truly understand the circumstances and the context of the stories better than you do. A few of these also are mystics, which means that they come to truth through Me rather than through long, hard study. Many are conscientious scholars whose works are serious but rather devoid of spirit. And a few are basically pretentious asses, flaunting their scholarship as if it were more important than faith and trust in Me.

You are not such a scholar, and I don’t want you to be such. Instead I give you permission to read these stories and interpret them for yourself, with My help. It is wonderfully mystical for the same story, apparently, to have different meanings for different people. The ultimate purpose of these stories is to touch and enliven your spirit. Do I say this to everyone? Must everyone believe this and hold it as the major truth? You know Me better than that. What I will say is that it is a legitimate spiritual path and the one you should be on. That is sufficient.

The creation story is about huge, earthly events, but it also is about this tiny organism on your desk, traveling in its own way this day in time. Of what cosmic value is this wee bit of inching life, which for a few moments was in your consciousness, and now is gone? You are part of a vast panorama of life, and you shall continue to be unaware of most of it. And there is a living relationship with this planet, earth, including much that technically should be called lifeless.

One creation story tells of humans as the last life form created. The human is the culmination of My creation. But does this mean that all the rest is for your benefit or are you to be just a functioning part of a greater whole? Is your superiority to be flaunted or should it make you the most able steward? The other creation story has the male human created mystically out of the earth, being put in charge of all of the subsequent animal creation. Is this for dominance or for helping to retain the best balance? If woman is created out of man does this make her superior, inferior, or just different? There will be varying interpretations, surely.

Why did I, as the Creator and Sustainer God, bless and approve Abel’s offering from his apparently domestic animals more than Cain’s, from plant sources? Is food from animal flesh superior, as your culture has valued, or did I have some other purpose in this unequal blessing? Did I want Cain to kill Abel, so that evil might begin to flourish in the earth? Surely I was aware of what was happening and of how Cain would respond. I tell you… never assume I am other than all-powerful and all-knowing. I tell you that My actions must always be judged from this perspective, which makes some of the stories come out differently from the more usual interpretations.

The flood story is meteorologically silly, but it is a powerful tale of My capacity to destroy AND to select those who shall survive to do My will. On this very day there are many humans who apparently are dying. Many of these will die, for death is an equal partner with life, in the physical sense. Yet some will survive, and the earth will be made better by their continuing life. The story goes on, and Noah besmirches his righteousness with drunkenness and an unfair curse. Likewise, today some whose lives are saved will live on to do harm to others. And yet… out of the mud grows the lotus… a truth, even as it is not Scriptural. From good comes evil, but also… from evil comes good.