I was out sick today catching up on sleep and some much-needed reading and pondering time. When I flip from second/third shift and then have to come in around the time I am normally getting to sleep for an industrial hearing test, it does a number on me..... When I have lost 25% or more hearing in the upper ranges of my right ear only, I know there are bigger problems I am dealing with...... There is a story behind that......
Anyway, I had Visions of Glory lovingly stolen away from me by someone I love, so I delved into by next favorite work outside of scripture. Visions of Glory is my most favorite not because it is an over-the-top scholarly work, but because it is an amazing spiritual expose - a map, if you will of what is coming in the short term. Stuff we will see in our lifetime. It talks of someone faithfully navigating the physical and spiritual trials that are coming in the tribulations of the following seven years. The things that will lead up to the Second Coming in power and glory and with world-wide fire (not necessarily the coming of the Savior to Jerusalem).
There are various capacities to learn and to understand. I understand my general understanding to be at about a B or B+ on the scale. Spiritual understanding, I am in the A- range. This book, written by Vern Swanson that I read today on the Holy Grail, is written in the A to A+ range - so I really have to stretch to get it. When I read, I like to completely wrap my mind around the material. In order to do so, I have to be at a level where absorption is high. Vern's work is just amazing - and on a whole other plane. When I meet people who I care about (which is most everyone), I have to understand them completely (I use the term "drink them in"), so I use a lot of emotional energy in my interactions with people. I am very high energy when it comes to dealing with people. I like dealing with people who are empathic and who absorb energy and feeling on a much higher level than mere words. When I meet someone who can, it is kind of intense. Spencer speaks of this in Visions of Glory......
Anyway, enough rambling. The takeaway from the book by Vern Swanson today is that Jesus and his family in Galilee were probably people of means, but they had taken vows of poverty. In other words, their earning potential was probably higher than most, but they lived a simple life. In other words, they had sufficient for their needs, but chose to live at least a terrestrial law and gave their excess to the poor or to the building up of the Kingdom of Heaven. This terrestrial living takes a mindset - a purposeful life. A purpose-driven one - not just one of consuming every morsel that falls into our hands, upon our own lusts. It takes sacrifice. When God knows that He can trust us through this mind-set (no back-sliding), then He will endow us with wealth, if that is His purpose, for he knows that we will use it wisely - and not for our own purposes. I also enjoyed the ideas put forth in this book that Jesus lived and walked and taught the people of England during and most likely after his mortal life. My mother constantly alluded to this fact when I was growing up.
One last tidbit here. Telestial and Celestial both end in tial. Terrestrial, the middle state, has terres - referring to earthy or of the earth and ends in trial. Not that the ending literally means trial - just that this may not be coincidence in the English language of the occurrence of trials along the trail leading to a terrestrial existence. It is a time of preparation and difficulty.
Those who are not wiped out in the initial things leading up to the transition of this earth from telestial to terrestrial, will - of necessity - have to pass thru nearly overwhelming trials in order to qualify for that existence. Prepare for it - then live for it. Your placement and existence on this earth at this time is no coincidence. Believe in that - and prosper. Glorious things await us.
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