Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Peace in God's Plan of Fate

Meant as a contemporary sermon (spoken):



Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen  -Romans 11:33-36
                Brothers and Sisters, I urge you to have faith in the wisdom of the almighty God described above; a wisdom that results inevitably in fate. The term fate is not to be made out lightly; In God's omniscience, one cannot help in realizing the state of humanity. We see naught, and know naught compared to the infinite consciousness of God. Free will comes to naught in the all seeing eyes of God, eyes that see what is to come, and exactly how it is to go about; a great and definite future. Such is God: of whom none can surpass in greatness; the almighty, the all knowing, and the all present. From Him all originate, and to Him all shall return. And to a transcendent being of such magnitude, what can be a mystery? The Lord has a plan to prosper mankind, and deliver us from evil, so it is to fate we take comfort. As the weaver at the loom, God weaves our lives together, each an essential strand of fate, into the great masterpiece of existence.  For he knows all, every move we make, we breath you take; our lives are laid bare before Him. Before we were conceived and knit in our mother's womb He knew us and set us apart. In God's master plan, we all are essential; everything we do is foreseen and accounted for; none are wasted. Just by living our lives, God can influence us and our being.  Everything that seems to chance, every strange coincidence, God can use as a tool to fulfill our fates. All are lives have been ordained and written down, before our days had even come to past. Let us take comfort in knowing that what every we end up doing or experiencing in life does not fade to insignificance. Let us have Faith in the goodness of our God, and His plan for humanity; that we suffer naught in vain.  Let us rejoice for the mysteries of tomorrow; that our lives are like books, read page by page, revealing new wonders day by day. Let us not seek for complete control of our futures; for it is always in the hands of God. Focus not on the past, as it is a shadow of what we've done. Focus not on the Future, as it is only a glimpse of what we will do or not do. It is the present our hearts must abide in. Let those who are blessed praise the Lord, as fate is kind to one that day. Let those who suffer give thanks, for the Lord has a reason for one's suffering. Remember that the LORD watches over you--the LORD is your shade at your right hand (Psalm 121:5). He is never absent; from the farthest stars of the universe, to the smallest band that consists of our very being. At the heart of every Church, in the mind of every being,  such is God. From the Blood red sunrise of the day, to the mysteries of midnight. Age to age he stands; nothing is mystery. Such is our God, is it not? In his perfectly undivided attention to all creation and beyond, we have not escaped his infinite and unwavering attention.
                This concept of fate draws itself from times of old, and has been gradually lost in man's pride in progress. But to understand this concept of the ancients, we must embrace the roots our faith and our sin. We must first accept that our world is a world of incomprehensible, complementing opposites, that our lives are filled with sensations like hands running under hot water. As our minds scream with a burning pain, it has already perceived an almost unparalleled peace and ecstasy. We must realize that sin is merely a taint. As a man views the world through rose colored glass, sin is merely a tainted, incomplete view of God's incomprehensible majesty. From all came God and God is love. When sin tainted creation, it did not create things anew; it merely twisted our perception and cast a dreary, twisted shadow upon what glories God created. It is such conditions that result in our marred visions of beauty, such as the glories procreation. This world is merely the lens we see them through; and the Lord our God only wishes for us to see the closest of truths. to clean the grime off our lenses of life. The Lord looks at the heart, does he not? If our hearts be pure, and intent of righteousness, we shall be at peace with Him. It is in this that concepts of greed fall into inordinate shades of grey. Such things as greed is merely human perception; confined to an all too human perception of freedom. What confines us does not confine God; He cannot be confined. We are confined to our five senses and our consciousness. God bears no such chains. To His infinite perception, Free Will vanishes like the morning mists. From His eyes see the universe, free from the sequence of time and the bindings of space and matter. Each event in all human history that was, is and is to come lie before Him. Each mark we leave in this world, every thought we think, all we do; how can we change a pattern seen and set before time's beginning? How can free will exist in such great levels of perception? But as we are not God, we are blessed with these inhibitors of consciousness that allow us to perceive it. Therefore, I do not declare God's gift of free will as invalid, but a gift of perception; a gift for us and us alone. Man says Ignorance is bliss, and this ignorance of the higher, incomprehendable senses rings true for mankind. Look to birds of the sky, and the flowers around, they worry not, and still are fed and clothed as they do what they do. They worry not for they are not blessed with the consciousness we are. In the same way, let us be rightly so; let us continue our lives, knowing that there are no such things as accidents. Let us remember that this encompasses all aspects of our lives; of love, wealth, and spirit. Let us find peace in knowing that every phenomenon around us bears a reason for being, a reason above our immediate comprehension. Let God's plan of fate be realized in us all!
                But keep at hearts, brothers and sisters, Homo Vitae Commodatus non donatus est; man has merely been lent life, not given it. We serve God regardless, either as an opportunity for others to learn compassion, patience, and other virtues, or to be the light of the world Christ wants us to be. We belong to God; from God we depart, and to God we return, as sentient or ashes. Our lives are lent to us, as stewards to a manor. If one brings his manor to prosper in what is right and just, one is kept to do so. If it is left to ruin, then he shall be stricken down and given to the land to nourish itself after years of mistreatment. So let fate lead us not to indolence, as many have. For too long we have grown weary of our burdens. For too long we've grown complacent. For too long we have grown idle in our homes of worship, where we lose ourselves in an unguided religious euphoria, or within the masses that lose their sanctity. For too long, our faith has been within the slumber of death. We comfort ourselves in the illusion of peaceful chaos around us. For every effort we do for only ourselves is but delusion and comes to naught. For all who think one is righteous, thinks naught. For all who think one is in control, is naught. For all who think one is great, be naught. With a mind level with one another, we must come to terms with ourselves.  As stewards, we live our lives of duty and self discipline, as we can only hope to control the rest. Each moment of our lives is fleeting; nothing more than the mist in the air, every action, every thought, every memory. It is then, and only then, we can embrace peace in our fates.
                May the Lord be with you all, and with your spirit. We lift up our hearts; we lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God, as it is right to give Him thanks and praise. Now go in peace and serve the Lord.

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