DICTIONARY & ANECDOTES

GIFT, EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS A: What is yours? Is not your life itself a gift from God? Everything you have is a gift from God. Your life is a blessed life, be thankful. It is how we use the gifts we have been given which determines evil, not the gifts themselves. Even the present is a present.

GOALS: Align ones goals with the will of God, since whatever one prepares for is subject to God's ultimate plan. Many of ones behaviors, and thus beliefs, are in vain. Ones behaviors are often vain attempts at finding peace, love, and contentment, and thus God. Since God is what one is really seeking, nothing outside of oneself needs to change in order for one to find God. The only change necessary is change inside of oneself.

GOD, WHAT'S IN A NAME? Truth by any other name is still the one and only truth. The Bible, for example, uses several different names to describe God. However, truth is truth. Who discovered or witnessed the truth first is not important as it can be rediscovered at anytime by anyone who seeks it. After all, the only real truth is the one objective, everlasting truth. Giving a name to this truth does not change this truth.

In a way, God is generic. Look at the way distilled water is sold in the marketplace. Whose brand of distilled water is the most pure? Are they not the same except for the label? There are religious groups which have divided on the name of God, when it is the same God they are talking about! How sad this is! People often divide not on truth, but in ignorance. All in all, many people use the word "God" because it says allot by saying very little. The name "God" which is really a description rather than a name translates pretty close to "I am and will be what tomorrow demands." It refers to the creator of everything. Most people use the name "God" because if one had to describe God every time one used the word "God", it would take too long.

GOD IS LIKE THE SUN: God is like the Sun, it is always bright, but it gives us both day and night. The "day" is a metaphor for goodness, and the "night" is a metaphor for evil, the obstruction of the Sun's light by the Earth. The darkness of night cannot comprehend the light, just as evil cannot comprehend good. The darkness of night cannot comprehend the light because the Earth is in the way. This could be likened to a metaphor that God is always good and shining, like the Sun, but that if the Earth and earthly ways get between us and the Sun, we will no longer be able to see the light. Instead, we will be in darkness. Once enlightened, the Sun no longer sets, but rather, the Sun is always shining. Nevertheless, for those lost in darkness, there is good news. The Sun dawns everyday so that one might attach oneself to it and not fall back into darkness as night draws near. Attach oneself to the Son of God which is always shining.

God is our spiritual Sun. Because God's light shines throughout the world, we turn our fleshy leaves in faith and grow towards God. Spiritually, we branch, blossom, pollinate, and bear seeds, all for the glory of God. Without God, one withers in darkness, without direction or purpose.

GOD, WHAT IS? God is not the elderly bearded wise man that God is often depicted to be in art, certainly not in as much as God has been perceived in this world. Such a depiction of something no one has ever seen "face to face" could be said to be idolatrous. These anthropomorphic depictions are just a description of God as being infinitely wise, and infinitely ancient. God is not a God of flesh, but a God of Spirit. Anyone talking about the skin color of God does not know God or what God is. Although often referred to as "He", God is not male or female. Male and Female are conditions of the flesh. Flesh is temporary, God is forever. Just as one may think of "good" as any goodness one encounters, one may think of "God" as the overall, permanent force of truth, intelligence, and goodness in the Universe. God is the uncaused cause of everything.

Many people believe that God is everything in the Universe, but this is not so. For example, God created rocks, but God is not a rock. If asked, perhaps God might say, "I am not my playground, nor am I my home." Perhaps God might ask you, "Are you a rock? Are you everything you create?" If you would rather be a human than a rock, how can you call yourself equal to rocks? You might also hear people say that God is everything that is alive, however, are humans really equal to amebas? I don't think so. God governs the living.

Some say God is "all living humans", but again this is not so. Humans are a creation and are not permanent, as God is. We are made in God's image, so that we may know God and connect ourselves to God, but we are not ourselves God. The only way one may get God inside of oneself is to repent of ones evil ways and ask God to reveal truth to ones heart. If one does this, God gives one the gift of the Holy Spirit which leads one eventually to Jesus Christ. If one accepts the sacrifice of Jesus then one is able to graft oneself to God, becoming one with God. No other religion offers a way to graft oneself to God through such a sacrifice.

No one is wise but God. God is alive and is the intelligent energy supplying the collective sea of life and the master plan of such from which all life is possible. Your life is but a drop in the sea of God. God is the ultimate compassion and ultimate mind of all the universe. God is good for God obstructs not goodness, and God is the Ultimate Truth about life. When one finds and accepts God, one becomes like a living branch on the tree of God.

We are living proof of the existence of God. While "science" cannot prove the existence of God at this time, it cannot disprove the existence either. Science cannot prove love, but we all know love is real. To deny the existence of God is to deny that anything exists, or that ones life has any meaning since it is inevitable that everyone will die. Even if ones purpose in life was to reproduce, why bother? Why would one reproduce just to create something that must also die? Can you see the hypocrisy in such a philosophy? In the back of everyone's mind, everyone knows that God is real and that sooner or later God has to be faced, if only in death.

God can be likened to many concepts, but God is greater than any concept. God is in all that accept God. Perhaps the sayings, "God is love", "God is joy", "God is truth", "God is light", "God is peace," or even "God is it" is as close as one may come to describing the true nature of God. God is not only a God of love, but of justice as well. God is the great judge of everything.

God is what one is fighting, and what one is fighting for. Look at the word "GOD". Let's say that the "G" in God is for "God", or for "goodness". The "O" is a symbol of our round world. The "D" is for the "Devil". Since we live in the world, we are living between good and evil. We should choose the side of goodness since it is the only side that is everlasting. To get to God, overcome the world.

We exist in all dimensions but only perceive the first three. Perhaps, if one was able to understand life from the perspective of other dimensions, one would have a better understanding of God. God created the reality one may perceive and the underlying reality one may not.

GOLDEN RULE, WHAT IS THE? Some say that the Golden rule is: "He or she who has the gold, rules." This is the Golden rule of the Devil. This is simply an observation which shows that those who have money have power over those who desire it. This should not be confused with the more truthful Biblical Golden Rule which is basically, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." To further elaborate on the Golden Rule: Whatever you do to another, you do to yourself. Whatever you do for another, you do for yourself. In a way, you and those around you are one in the same. Whatever food you gather and consume with your right hand, does it not also nourish and benefit your left? And if harm should come to your right hand, must not your left hand work even harder to provide for the body? So it is in truth.

Love God with all ones heart and love one another as one loves oneself. Before one can do this, however, learn to trust God and trust one another. For trust is a belief and love is the behavior which follows from trust.

If a sinner should recognize his or her error, repent, and lead a life of goodness working hard to help others, would not those others speak good of that sinner when his judgement day came? But a sinner who never recognizes his or her error, nor seeks forgiveness, nor tries to make amends for his or her error, will have no one to speak on his or her behalf and will be dealt a much more severe penalty on judgement day.

GOOD, WHAT IS? Only God is good. Good is the right path one seeks to take through life. Good is truth, accuracy, and alignment with God. It is good to help others. To help someone is a godly act for it is unselfish, especially if one is helping someone find the truth. Through goodness, all good things come. If one was to simplify "good" to its purest form, getting rid of the extra "o" one would have "God".

There is no goodness apart from God, for goodness begins where self-interest ends, and self-interest ends in God.

St. Augustine wrote, "He that is good is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king."

GOOD ROOT, THE: The good root is a metaphor for God from which all goodness grows. There is only one good root.

GOSPEL: The translation of "gospel" is "good news". This "good news" is contained in the four gospels, or accountings of the life of Jesus Christ, which are found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who were four of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. It has been said that Jesus did not rise from the grave to preach the gospel, he rose so that there would be a gospel to preach!

GRACE: A gift from God which allows one to be in God's favor. No one deserves God's grace, and yet through God's compassion it is available to anyone through Jesus Christ.

GRINDSTONE OF IGNORANCE: There is an old story about an ox harnessed to a grindstone in a mill house. The ox went round and round pushing the grindstone day after day. It worked as hard and as fast as it could. At the end of the day the ox would say, "Wow! I have gone far today!"

Are you spending all of your time in the mill house? Are you chasing your tail? Are you a slave to the mill house grindstone? Do you think you are going somewhere when you are just going round and round? If you really want to go somewhere you must free yourself from the grindstone of ignorance."

This world is a mill house of ignorance, and the ways of this world are like the ways of the ox harnessed to the grindstone. As long as there are oxen willing to push the grindstone, there will never be freedom in this world, and in fact, the profits the oxen generate for the mill house keeper will only serve to buy the oxen a tighter harness.

GUILT, WHAT IS? Sorrow and self blame for past wrongs. Guilt is a realization of ones error, but is more often an excuse not to allow oneself to be forgiven. Jesus came to take away the guilt of everyone who believes in him so that they might be able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven even while they are alive in their flesh. Thus, true Christians do not appear "guilt ridden", on the contrary, having been forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they should be joyous.

GUNS: There is a bumper sticker that says, "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." Indeed, weapons are necessary for protection and to enforce laws. That's why police have them! But the police are not always around when you need them. What then? Are you going to let yourself die defenseless when someone comes to take your life? Not only that, but what will you fight with when a revolution or war breaks out? Can you imagine what a government might do if it knew it could do anything it wanted to with no fear of being overthrown? Don't get me wrong, I don't think you need a gun under your pillow, but guns themselves are not evil.

Anyone who has been robbed at gunpoint could tell you that "whoever has the gun makes the laws". The right of the people to bear arms insures that the laws which the government makes are "by the people, for the people" rather than "by the government, for the people". A government which cannot be overthrown by the people is not a government "by the people for the people".

TABLE OF CONTENTMENT
GLOSSARY