Life: The Certainty of Uncertainty
No one can help you with your problem. God cannot help you with your problem. You must help yourself.
If there is light shinning in the room and you close your eyes and you’re crying that it is dark; it’s very difficult for another person to convince you that there’s light, except you convince yourself and you open your eyes. If you have grown up in a culture that teaches you that opening your eyes makes you evil, or will kill you, or will send you to hell, then because of your internal problem, you will refuse to open your eyes. You can’t blame anyone but yourself if you refused to see light because you closed your eyes.
Once you are born as a human being on this earth, you have inherited a terminal or grave problem. The grave problem is the uncertainty of the certainty of death. The certainty is that you must die one day. That is for sure. With that, there is no problem. But the problem of a human being is the uncertainty of that certainty.
The uncertainty is that you do not know when or how. The uncertainty is that it is out of your control when, and how. The uncertainty is that you cannot control the circumstances that will lead to that certainty. It could be circumstances of madness that leaves you sleeping on the street, naked. It could be certainty of poverty where you’re walking on the street and you’re eating out of the garbage can. It could be the uncertainty of no job and you have no food and you end up in skid row.
You could fall into bad hands; you could be attacked. Your fortune could disappear. Sickness can come anytime; war can come anytime. Therefore, the human being has inherited these uncertainties and these uncertainties produce morbid fear in the human mind all the time. Some people, and many people do this; choose not to look at the fear. They pretend that the fear is not real, whereas, this fear is real. You have a human body and that human body is going through a progression from a toddler to a child, from a child to a growing person, from a growing person to a teen. When you turn 18 you graduate from high school and you enter into college and from then, life’s responsibilities rolls and rolls.
There is no certainty, none! Mishap, accidents and misfortune; some people will fall into bad gangs and bad behavior, bad attitude and bad marriage, bad neighborhood and bad country, bad job and bad boss. Then you fall ill. Some will contract all forms of diseases, some very horrible. But this is the condition of every human being on the face of this earth.
In each person there is pain all the time, difficulties all the time, problems all the time, conflicts all the time, tensions all the time; these are all certainties. Those who have job are worried about when they will lose the job. Those who lost their job are worried about when the will get another job. Some people are marrying and some people are divorcing. Some are rejoicing and others are fighting. In this milieu, in this madness you have found yourself, and it is a problem because you cannot get away from it.
You cannot say oh, let me suspend being a human being for a month; let me put down my body and put down my skin and let me not worry about it. Then you have to brush your teeth and comb your hair, and then you have to shower, then you have to eat. Then you have to have clothing to wear, you need a car to ride. You need a house to live in and then you need to protect your family, you need to provide for them and everyone.
So on and on these uncertainties begin to grow around you and the weight begins to weigh you down. Even when you sleep, your sleep becomes disturbed because of the loads that you carry, and this load is the load of the problem of being a human being. When you see what happens to others you flinch, you grin, you say prayers like, “thank you God that you are protecting me”. You are saying that because you have seen what happened to others and you believe that God should protect you. When you say, ‘Thank you God that we have food,’ what you’re saying is, wow isn’t it too bad that there are people who don’t have food to eat? You are thanking ‘your’ own God who is able to provide for you, protect you from accidents and mishap; then you become religious, then you start to pray because you must have God’s protection.
But the problem, your problem, persists. You are a human being.
God is Spirit. Spirit does not need protection. God does not need shelter. God does not need food. God is not wearing a human body, you are. When you’re wearing the human body you are the one who created your own problem.
Therefore, we said at the beginning that only you could help yourself with your problem. God has not created the problem; therefore God is not going to solve the problem. The problem is your own. If you solve it and return to God, He will say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” If you do not solve it, you return back to the earth, you return back to your friends, the System, you return back to those people whom you have obeyed in the lusts of your body, whom you have obeyed in the wickedness of the actions of your bodies. The people that have moved you; you have worshipped, and danced to. The powers you have loved, and served. When you drop the body you return to them and they will also tell you, “well done thou good and faithful servant.”
But you will reside in darkness; you will reside in pain; you will reside in sorrow; you will reside in dungeons because you have not opened your eyes to see Light. You have not survived; you have not been born again; you did not make it. Therefore you will not see your Father, but you will see your father the devil. You will not see God, but you will see the god of wickedness of this world. You will not see God’s angels; you will not see the Angels of light, but you will see your evil friends who pushed you, tweeted you, thwarted you, and moved you around in your thoughts, in your actions, in your behaviors, in your desires, in your prayers, in the things that gave you joy, in the things that gave you pain; those with whom you have cooperated.
We have heard these saying before, “Whosoever searches for his life shall lose it, whosever loses his life shall gain it; whosoever remains to the end of these things shall be saved.” In these three principles of life, the Lord also has told us plainly, “Whosoever searches for his life shall lose it.” When you search for certainty in this life of uncertainty, which you know certainly will end one day back into uncertainties, then you have lost. You need to think a little more about what you will gain and also what you will lose. If you have gained something I’m sure you will know.
Those people who have won know, they know, because they know they have won. Those people who have not won also know because they know they have not won. But when you do not know whether you have won or whether you have lost, where are you? What do you know? As you read this discuss, have you lost or have you gained?
You should know. If you don’t know, something is wrong. That means you are not asking the right questions of yourself. That means you’re not investigating your life like you should be investigating it. That means you don’t know; which is a tragic thing. If you don’t know whether you are making progress or whether you are making retrogress, what do you know?
Whosoever searches for his life shall lose it. You are searching for uncertainty. At the end it will end. It’s a life of uncertainty, a life of chance. A life that ends, so it cannot be real because one day it will end, not of your own making; you don’t control where, you don’t control when, you don’t control the reason, you control nothing, you don’t control anything. It could be a piece of rock, it could be a plane-flying overhead, and it could be a train running off its tracks, it could be anything. It could be a car, it could be in your house, the roof could cave in; you never know what is going to happen. This is called the life of uncertainty. The Lord said, “Whosoever searches for this life will certainly lose it.” What life are you searching for?
LOSE YOUR LIFE
“Whosoever loses his life shall gain it.” What a beautiful phrase! You lose, to gain. The scripture said, “Cast your bread upon the waters and after many days it shall return to you.” Give and it shall be given unto you. Whosoever loses his life shall gain it.
How can you lose that which you hold in fear? You hold your life in fear of losing it; in fear of it ending; in fear of it suffering, in fear of it disappearing; in fear of it being dilapidated; in fear of it being abandoned; in fear of not being recognized. It is the greatest irony that man who lives in fear of losing his life is asked to lose it. It is almost impossibility. That’s why the Lord said that it is the sign of the Prophet Jonah.
Prophet Jonah got into the boat seeking to escape from the word of God and the wrath of God. Jonah went into the boat; he paid a lot of money so he can enter inside the ship because in those days, if you have money you can have a cabin; like today in a cruise liner, the more money you pay for the same cruise on the same boat, the bigger your cabin, the better the location, the better your view. There are some people who go on cruise lines, their rooms are below the waterline. When they look out the window, of course they won’t open the window for them; because all they will see is the dark sea. If they want to see the open sky they have to climb upstairs to go look at other people. But there are other people in first class. People whose room is as big as this study hall, maybe 50 x 100 feet; they have living room, they have bedroom, they have double bathrooms in the same suite. But there are people who are there four to one room sleeping on top of one each other.
So Prophet Jonah went and paid to hide under the sea so that he would not even see sunlight. He was afraid of his life, so he got on a boat and started to run. But God was merciful with Jonah; a storm came and the people started to throw things away. It was only after Jonah was thrown into the water that he realized his freedom, his fear was over. God mercifully provided a way of escape, the fish; and in the belly of the fish he recognized himself and said, ‘well I better surrender my life, I better lose my life; so as to have freedom once again’.
‘He that surrenders his life, he that loses his life shall gain it’. We don’t want to lose our lives. Remember that we live in the fear of not losing our life. That is the chief occupation of our life. We drink medicines, we drink vitamins, we go to the doctors, we exercise, we eat healthy, we get enough sleep, we drive big cars, we don’t climb the rock, we don’t surf the ocean in case shark might eat us. We don’t do anything that will put our life in danger; we don’t jump out of plane with a parachute.
What if the parachute does not open?
We live life trying to prevent death. In our daily service to God we refuse to surrender. We do things, we tell God things, we advice God on things, we command God on things, we refuse to change our bad behaviors.
We say, well God, you have to accept these bad behaviors after all I’m sitting here waiting for you.
Therefore, I think I’ve done enough for God; God should accept me just the way I am now. We refuse to examine the uncertainties of the fears that prevent us from dying or entering to that life of certainty. The ego that does not want to die; pride and arrogance says I am good enough, I am great, I am getting ‘gooder’.
Who is speaking here, the examined life or the life that has no meaning? Is it you or is it the truth? What will the truth say about you? What is the truth about you? Do you realize your fears, your hypocrisy? Do you realize your own particular games that you play? Do you realize when you mean what you say and say what you don’t mean? Do you realize those games? Do you realize the pride that says I’m serving God well; therefore, God is pleased with me, yet you have not seen him come and tell you that? Have you stopped examining and changing yourself because you’re now perfect and you are grade twenty, and God is grade fifteen; you’re higher than God. You’re the judge of your life. You’re the judge of what is right, you’re the judge of good behavior, and then you begin to judge, to condemn, and find fault on others.
He that loses his life shall gain it . Unfortunately, until you become humble and you get on the ground, and bring yourself low then you cannot lose your life. Anybody standing straight has not lost their life; it’s only when you lay down and they put you under the ground, six feet under have you lost your life. But you’re standing, your driving, you’re talking, you’re walking, you’re planning, you’re deciding, you’re making decisions, you’re operating with your anger, with your frustration, with your hate, and your pride.
You’re the god that is seen. You’re the god of your life and you stand tall. Like the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, ninety feet tall, nobody can talk to you; you are made of pure gold because your character is clean and pure. If you do not lose your life of pride you will not gain the real life.
Many people are going the wrong way from God. We are absolutely going the wrong way. We are strengthening our arrogance. We are strengthening our bad behaviors. The word of God has no more effect in our soul, it doesn’t touch us anymore, it doesn’t change us. From last year to this year we haven’t become better people. Rather we have become entrenched in our ways.
How are you going to make progress with God? How will you gain that life that only comes when you lose this life? How many have dropped pride? How many have dropped their life? How many have surrendered to God? How many are not gods that don’t get upset when others don’t bow and worship them? Have you changed really? Has your character changed? Has your attitude changed? Has your behavior changed? Has your ways changed? Will God say that you have changed? Will the Host of Righteousness know that you have changed? Will the angels of God know that you have changed? Only you know, but on that day, those who truly lost their life in this world shall gain it from Christ.
REMAIN TO THE END
When it is said, “whosoever that will remain till the end shall be saved”, we think it’s like somebody who goes to the baseball game. There is a tenth inning and there is a twelfth inning, it is 10 hours later, and you remain till the end. I think that person is a fool. Hanging in till the end of material life is not what is meant. It is said, ‘He that remains till the end of all these things’, but what things?
The Lord said; “I have overcome the world.” Be of good cheer because I live, you too shall overcome the world and shall live. Be of good cheer! Be not afraid, it is I! The Bible says, ‘a broken and contrite heart O God Thou would not despise’. Jesus Christ tells us, ‘he that asks, receives; he that seeks, finds; and he that knocks, it shall be opened.’ The place of safety shall be opened for those who seek from a contrite heart, with sincere effort, honesty and hard work, searching for the Kingdom.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you. All scriptures point to one thing, sincere effort is needed to overcome the world of uncertainties and to find Certainty, the Kingdom of God; but sadly, many are not serious.
Why are many not serious?
Many of us think that there is some osmosis by which we would get the Kingdom of God because our brother, our dad, or wife has the Kingdom of God. It’s in our religion; it’s in our family; the oracle, the ark, the ark of God is in this house, and therefore you’re protected. That’s why God took the ark and destroyed it.
You think there is a charm, talisman, mantra, or magic word. Many people don’t have independent zeal for God. No commitment to search for meaning. Many do not love God enough to search for Him on their own. Many are like zombies, there is no independent strength; there is no independent knowledge of God; there is no independent desire to find Him.
That’s the question, he that remains to the end; that doesn’t mean till the end of time when Jesus will come and carry everybody in a big blue jet to heaven. It doesn’t mean that.
In yourself do you have God’s love to guarantee you that even if this whole world goes under the sea, that from under that sea you would continue to search for the Kingdom? If your wife divorced you; your daughter ran away, and your husband marries your best friend or his, will you continue to find God, despite all odds? Do you know that? Do you know that certainty in yourself? Can you pass the test of Satan? If hunger comes your way, will you not run away and go find food? If conditions changed for you, can you hold steadfast, do you think you have the strength to remain in your search for God by yourself?
Many people stopped searching for God because something happened or for what someone said. They stopped because they have not overcome the opinion of man; they have not overcome the pressures of this world.
How many of us will not steal when hunger comes? How many of us will not sell our bodies because we have no food to eat? How many will pay the prize and sacrifice and suffer pain; lose child; lose husband; lose house; lose everything for the purpose of finding God; that’s what it means he that remains till the end, end of what? End of all loses. It is said, ‘Loss upon Loss’; if you lose family, will you remain faithful?
How many will serve Christ when families are around? How many will choose Christ over everything of this world? “Loss upon loss until at last comes rest.” No one can serve God without sacrifice; sacrifice of loss; do you have an independent strength to serve God till the end of your life if everything that makes it possible to serve God is taken away? Will you continue, despite odds, in your search for God? As an individual, a human being and somebody who will die one day, can you remain faithful despite all circumstances of Life, to search for God’s Kingdom?
St. Paul asked the same questions, “what will separate us from the love of God”? What are those things that will take you away from Christ; can you find and overcome them? If you overcome them, then you have overcome the world, and then the world will not push you away from Christ. But if you do not know what will take you away from Christ, how are you sure that when the time comes you will overcome?
What will it take to lure you away from Christ? What will it take for all your so-called righteousness pretense to fly away and the devil in you come out? Will you pass that test? The test will come to see the quality of your heart. When the day of testing comes, or do you think you will not be tested? Have you thought about the test? Are you thinking that things will continue to be sheltered for you in Christ?
Please understand that you will find Christ alone, as you will die alone, and you will search for Him despite odds. Your wife will pull you down, your husband will pull you down, your child will pull you down, your family will pull you down your parents will pull you down, your children will pull you down your religion will pull you down. All those things are obstacles. The world, the job, the circumstances, all those things are obstacles, but he that loses and loses and loses and loses and loses, and loses until finally you lose your body.
The final battle is in the body; also you lose that too, to receive life eternal. When you have lost the body you have now received that which cannot be taken away, that which you will receive from God is eternal, is Spirit, is life, is Light, is Grace, is Certain. The new body, your new form, your new life will be that Certain life that will never end. The Certainity will have no fears; the life that is forevermore.
Peace on Earth
April 2nd, 2024Topic: Uncategorized Tags: None
