It’s All About Love by Doug Hazelbaker
I was born to parents dedicated to each other, a love stronger then the tides of the ocean and the winds of the earth. There love was shown to me in ways that can’t be expressed but only felt. I was nurtured, protected, and I felt safe and secure. My dad was the strongest most intelligent man I think ill ever know, and my mom is the kindest most compassionate woman who ever walked this earth (her mother is an exception). I spent every Wednesday night, every Sunday morning and every Sunday night in church. From that you would think I learned the gospel, the teachings of God, the blessings of being saved from hell and damnation. What I learned was to watch my Dad suffer from migraine headaches preparing for church and my mom suffer to support him. When I was 14 they moved and became free to be just good god loving people.
I will be 60 in a couple months, I don’t feel like I’ve missed much since I was 14, as far as religion. I believe I was given all I needed from the day I was born, and every day after. I was taught that I am perfect in god’s eyes. My brother saw what my Dad knew, and was able to put it into words. He heard my Dad say to him, “Your right Cliff”. I’ve never read the bible , I cant quote king James version or the New testament, but I know there were two next to Jesus on that cross, one mocked him the other repented to him. I believe both are in heaven, as I will be.
Well said Doug. I feel so free now that I don’t feel guilty about not going to church.
The guy that mocked Jesus went to Heaven too?
I love reading what you said here Doug. It places the emphasis on what Jesus did and not what we do.
Steve, if we are to believe that Jesus accomplished what he came to do on the cross, then where else would the mocker have gone??? The church (organized religion) mocks Jesus daily by what is preached from pulpits. When someone tells you that you have to do something, anything to make it to heaven then you are mocking what Jesus did at the cross and saying it definitely was not enough. If I, we have to do anything then it is saying He did not do it and failed. If that is not mockery then I don’t know what is.
Wake up people…….Jesus came to redeem the world and He either did it or He failed. I believed His mission was accomplished fully.
Judy, I have been out of church for years after having attended for close to 25 years and I as well have absolutely no guilt. And rightly so.
Were else would he go. Would a God of love condemn his soul to an eternity of darkness, or punish him to some eternal Hell? I think not, I believe he was enlightened of his sins and welcomed into the arms of jesus, as we all will be.
This conversation centers around what appears to be a piece of real estate called Heaven, apparently a physical ‘place’ we go to when we die.
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But, what is HEAVEN? Its meaning is ‘uplifting’. It is the place where God dwells. So, what is God? He is spirit, so his dwelling place must be spirit. If he dwells within us, as we KNOW he does, then surely heaven is also within. From experience I know this to be true as many times when I turn within, those uplifting FEELINGS of love joy peace and happiness overwhelm me and begin to flow like streams of living water able to give life to others in need. This is heaven – it’s that ‘eternity’ feeling.
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Why was man created? To be a dwelling place for the most high God, the Almighty. Through us He can manifest Himself. JC said ‘ I and my Father are one. If you have seen me (spiritually) then you have seen the Father, and we are KNOWN to you’
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Unfortunately because we have not yet recognized our true identities as spirit beings, created in the same substance as our REAL Father, we are limited to our humanity believing our flesh and blood parents to be our identity. This may be so for the world we have made for ourselves, but our spirit within tells us another story if we are but willing to go there and ‘hear’ what the spirit within is saying to us. I know that Cliff and many others we know who have left this earth are waiting for us to break into this eternal world within us, overcome death with LIFE, and bring us all together into that HIGHER Kingdom where the nature of the lamb is King, where there is no death and no tears but where we dwell in unity and love in the ONENESS of Christ. We can go there now,
I personally dont believe it is a “physical” place we go to when we die. I believe it is a spiritual realm we are already in but have just not entered into a full understanding of it. Very good points you raise Audrey.
Audrey, I’m not sure what a “kingdom where the nature of the lamb is king” means. If it means to spend your life knowing that God loves you, and is with you, then ive had it. I love knowing that if my life was put to music you would hear Joe cocker, Jimmy Hendrix, James Brown and i would sit out to jesus love me, but i also know i dont have to die to feel his love ,and know that he will be there for me when i do. My sprit is intact
Every person finds their identity in one of two men – Adam or Christ. In Adam we remain mortals and our life is governed by the law of sin and death. In this mode, God is far off, way up in the sky and that is where he lives! But, if we see our identity in Christ then the law of the spirit of life has set us free and releases us from the gravitational pull of this present cosmos, and we FEEL his presence, his living space within us.
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JC as he walked in this world was a composite being. He had a FORM, the body that gave him identity in this world, but within that body God dwelt IN HIS MOST HOLY PLACE. So, there was flesh and spirit dwelling together in perfect harmony for he truly was the God-Man. As he is, so are we in this world. Peter saw this – a reflection of himself when he declared ‘You are the Christ, the son of the living God’. As we behold this same Christ within us we will be changed into that same glory – our true identity, already resident within us. But, this necessitates a change of allegience from the God of this world ( our ego, our carnal mind, our ‘old’ identity) to the authority of the spirit already resident within ALL OF US.
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This change of thinking (from the carnal mind to the Christ-mind) is easy because Christ has made the way open for us, by taking our humanity on himself and putting it to death. All we have to do is change our thinking. Oh yes, we mock his work on Calvary every time we believe that our humanness is our identity. And it is if we remain believing that our old identity is the REAL us. That is the lie promulgated by religion, the law of sin and death – we will never match up so we die! But when Christ appears (not in the physical clouds, but within us) then we shall be like Him, (living in our true identity), for we shall see him as he IS. That truth is within us all, but we must ’see’ it for ourselves, and we can only do this by digging deep within, beneath all the garbage that this worldly way of thinking has laid on us. When we do make this about-turn, we find the REAL us, the FREE – FROM – DEATH US. In this spiritual realm we live in harmony, in love in peace and in TRUTH.
Doug, the nature of the lamb is that FEELING, and you have explained it very well as music and the feeling of ‘Jesus loves me’. This is the beginning of the Kingdom, and it is for the here and now. Here is how a friend of mine explains it. I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him here. Here is what Brian N.Z. said this morning on another blog.
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(Brian N.Z.)
It is impossible for us to achieve the “oneness” spoken of by Jesus in this present world order. He was referring to another dimension and I feel he made that quite plain to his followers. It was a dimension that they had to be “born” into and if they followed his guidelines, by changing the way they used their minds, they could actually get to it while they were living here. In fact they wouldn’t even die! That was the Gospel he preached. They obviously didn’t make it and his simple advice was lost during centuries of religious discussion and dogma – the simple truths still waiting to be uncovered and understood. It was a world that is not situated “out there” but within us – where few of us ever think to look. To begin to get there he said we had to switch our allegiance away from this world to this other, created through him which was buried deep within us. It was really just that simple but we became hoodwinked by living with our minds continually externally focused. Our minds deceived us – no matter how clever we thought we were.
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If we try to apply the “God as All” philosophy to this world we run into all sort of problems. It’s very much a world divided against itself and one has a real struggle to see any true reality of oneness ever emerging. If there are glimmers it’s only skin deep as this world naturally divides itself into good and bad. The knowledge of good and evil and in a sense we set ourselves up as “God” when we try and preside over this dominion. There are always two sides (and many more shades in between) for every issue. We can never arrive at a consensus “living” oneness – it is impossible and as such this world is forever doomed.
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Yes, for “oneness” to work we have to get to a world that is not dualistic – just perfect good and there we have it. And I believe that world has been set up within us and to get there all we have to do is to change the way we use our minds (metanoia), help each other to see it, and there it is!
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- there is a new way and JC warned us about this. It’s his “return” (literally his “presence”) that he told us to keep an eye out for and it looks to me as though we are living in the generation when this is going to happen. It’s the “presence” (spirit) of the “son of man” (the son of oneself) being born from out of ourselves as parts of his “body”. Together we make up the whole and then we have the “God as All”! A true oneness covered by love – what you are looking for – but we’ll never find it in this world.
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Roy,
Well, Jesus told the one fellow that he would be with Him in Paradise. There was no mention of Him saying that to the mocker, also.
Jesus did say that “many will say , Lord, Lord…and He will say, depart from me, I never knew you.”
The scriptures do say that many will be lost.
Steve,
I believe that Jesus was referring to the religious leaders. They are the ones that would say, “many will say” BUT that is not what Jesus would say.
1 John 2:9-11
THIS IS ONE OF MANY SCRIPTURES THAT SPEAKS TO MY HEART THE MOST:
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him[c] to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
WHILE JESUS WAS ON THE CROSS EVEN THOUGH HE WAS MOCKED NOT ONLY BY THOSE THAT PUT HIM THERE, BUT ALSO BY THE ONE NEXT TO HIM, HE DID NOT HATE HIS BROTHERS…JESUS LIVED IN THE LIGHT AND HE KNEW WHERE HE WAS GOING.
HE EVEN WARNS US OF THOSE RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN 1 JOHN CHAPTER 4 VERSE 4 AND 5:
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
THOSE WHO PREACH THAT JESUS DID NOT DIE ON THE CROSS FOR EVERYONE ARE TO ME THE ANTICHRIST. THEY ARE THE FALSE PROPHETS. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO WILL NOT LIVE IN PARADISE WHICH TO ME PARADISE MEANS LIVING IN THE SPIRIT.
I ALSO LOVE THESE VERSES FROM JOHN:
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT CAME FOR JESUS WHEN THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS PUT HIM ON THE CROSS, BUT JESUS DID NOT FEAR LOVE. HE STILL LOVED THOSE WHO MOCKED HIM. JESUS KNEW HE WAS PERFECT IN THE EYES OF GOD AND PERFECT LOVE DRIVES OUT FEAR.
Hi Doug! Excuse me for butting in on this conversation, but this is the only way I know to reach you. I had Cliff’s e-mail address, but don’t have yours. I wanted to let you know about a website that we are setting up to update friends and family on Mother’s condition. As you may know, she had brain surgery on May 25. I have spoken with Aunt Barb a few times to update her, but thought those of you with internet access might also like to have access to this site:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/normahazelbaker
Hope you have a good day!
Love, Connie
Hi Connie! Thank you so much for the address and update. Our love and our thoughts are with Aunt Norma and all of you kids. I truly know how hard these times can be. Stay strong girl.
Love always
Doug
Thanks Doug! I love you, too! As always, Connie
“I worship a great God and a little God…He is so large that he fills the universe with his presence, and so small that he dwells in my heart. And if the love of God fills the heart of man, he must be happy.”
(Alexander Campbell)
LOVE is a whole lot more than us being nicely-nicely to each other and edifying each other with well-meaning phrases. Some of that stuff is only skin-deep and doesn’t touch hearts, but just magnifies the receiver’s ego (head). Loving each other is way more than that, – it’s being R-E-A-L to each other, absolutely open and honest, reaching deep within ourselves and saying it like it is, unafraid of being rejected as a consequence. All of you have ‘been through the mill’ lately, some of your inner circle still are, and out there are many more suffering around you. They too are part of ‘the family’, that family becoming known to all of us by the spirit.
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These circumstances that have afflicted you are not by chance, but by design to enable the fruit of your spirit to ripen and become edible as food for others. It takes guts to be honest and open, but as you determine to say what the spirit is revealing to you deep within, you’ll be amazed at what will open up for you. Doug, I am enjoying the simple honest nature of your writing – I just want to encourage you to keep writing from that place within, saying it IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Like Mindy, you have a lot to give that will reach the ‘many out there’
Thanks, Mindy!
I hope you are right. I do think that many will be lost. The scriptures often speak of the faithful ‘remnant’.
But, I pray that none will be lost.
Audrey, I have really enjoyed reading your comments. Although I must admit much of it is way over my head. I do believe that the consciousness of mankind is in a constant evolution of spiritual growth. I believe this growth is so minuscule it is unmeasurable and usually unrecognizable. I know there are many levels of spiritual consciousness some of them will lead to the level of enlightenment you speak of , but most of us will never achieve that.
If we look back a thousand years, it is easy to see that the social, political, ethical and to a very small degree the spiritual consciousness of man has changed, and i like you believe that it is something that is deep within all of us that has caused the change. It begins with knowing that you are loved unconditionally, from that , it will lead to joy, peace, and ultimately the enlightenment u speak of.
I am a simple man audrey, and I think in simple ways. I believe this process is not complicated and requires nothing of us.
“Every person finds their identity in one of two men – Adam or Christ. In Adam we remain mortals and our life is governed by the law of sin and death”.
I believe my life would be more closely associated with Christ, and governed by the belief that “Love never fails”.
Yes Doug, I do agree with most of what you say, but my encouragement to you is to go deeper within, beyond just a promise of never failing love, to unravel the mysteries hidden in your heart. Because you are open and honest (not simple by any means!), you fulfill the requirements of coming like a little child. There you will find that today, this very hour, what has been withheld for seven thousand years, is being revealed WITHIN US and the promises that ALL will see him and be like him (because He is our real identity) is for now in OUR lifetime.The BIG picture is emerging and it is for those who are actively looking for it, those who are hungry and thirsty (those are the required conditions)and have a longing for everybody in this sick world we live in to taste of that LOVE that you have glimpsed. Look around you Doug. Man’s achievements may have gotten bigger, but where is the love for our fellow-man? We act worse than animals and our ‘good’ is just self-righteousness. Spiritually we have not come any further than at the beginning, 7000 years ago. It is our mind and the way we use it that has hindered spiritual progress. We constantly think from our heads when we need to journey to our hearts and listen to the ONE who knows all things and is longing to reveal them to us.
Audrey, i believe we have grown. We dont burn women on a stake and call them witches, we dont hang black men, just because there black, we dont kill 6000 people just cause there of the Jewish faith , all these things and so much more are because millions if not billions of us have grown to a higher ethical, social, political and even maybe to a small degree spiritual level.
Doug, your ethical, social, political and many other areas are all under the one umbrella – the human world, the world of duality, of judging things as good or bad and every shade between depending on your viewpoint. This world is ruled by man and can NEVER know the other spiritual world because all it has to know with are 5 senses a will and an ego.
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The spiritual world is a totally different dimension, can only be seen by going within our hearts and the love you talk of that you have obviously FELT is the harbinger that compels us, that is wooing us to look for more of this ‘new world’. We may not feed people to the lions, but we do equal in many ways through our thoughts and things we say in anger, in thoughtlessness and in ignorance. In point of fact those physical things you mention are happening today in countries such as Zimbabwe. I know, I’ve lived there, and in my own country there is still rape murder and pillage.
Doug, I’ve watched your pain and anger and your effort to see things differently as you’ve gone through the loss of your brother, I’m just encouraging you to look deeper within. Allow the circumstances to show you the truth and the REAL Doug.
Steve,
I believe that ABSOLUTLEY some of us are lost or have been lost or will get lost along our way. It is easy to do. What I have learned through the this life and what has been written on our hearts is that God lives inside me and you…even when we are lost.
Audrey, you speak of a new world, a world that we can live in without dieing. A place of enlightenment, that goes back 7000 years, far before Jesus walked this world. You say that if we look deep enough inside our self we can be part of this , that we will see him and be part of him. You say the pain i have felt is not by chance, but by design.
Audrey, as much as i love the sound of this new world u speak of, my common mind tells me that the God that loves me sent his only boy here to give me, joy, peace and the desire to share his love with others.
Audrey, God only sent one boy. he lived on this earth like 33 yrs, and even Jesus ( the son of God ) couldn’t leave without dieing.
I dont think my pain is by design, but i do think that my pain is an emotion God gave me , so that i can always remember the beauty, the sweetness, and the love of my brother.
Love always
The dance each of us do as we journey though this life, will always be different, but the rhythm of gods love will always be the same.
Listen to the music
Mindy,
Thanks for your thoughts.
I pray for all that lost, that He will find them and make them His own.
Steve, how can you be sure you are not among the “lost”? Is it because of something you have done (accepted, professed, confessed, etc.)? And if so, how can you be sure you have done it well enough, completely enough, and correctly enough?
It seems to me that when we lean on our own understanding, we are subject to the weaknesses of that understanding. What if we removed ourselves from the equation and simply trusted that God was never angry with us in the first place? Believing that or not believing it doesn’t change our standing with God, but does save us from ourselves and our debilitating fears.
Bruce,
Nothing at all that I have done… it is what Christ has done for me and the faith He has given me to believe it that saves me.
Steve, what are you saved from?
Bruce,
From sin, death, and the devil.
From eternal seperation from God (which the Bible mentions) in many places.
Doug you said ‘Audrey, as much as i love the sound of this new world u speak of, my common mind tells me that the God that loves me sent his only boy here to give me, joy, peace and the desire to share his love with others.
Audrey, God only sent one boy. he lived on this earth like 33 yrs, and even Jesus ( the son of God ) couldn’t leave without dieing.
Your statement above comes from 2 distinctly different places. This comes from your heart ”Audrey, as much as i love the sound of this new world u speak of”. The rest comes from you head, even as you said yourself. Doug, stay awhile with where the first part came from, the feeling to make this statement, without your mind chipping in and making all the ‘but-but’ noises. What feelings rose from contemplating this new world? Did you feel some hope as that loving enveloping feeling began to well up inside you? Stay awhile longer with that feeling and allow the spirit to tell you of himself and open up this new world to you, because this is the world that that boy came to show us.
Steve, that eternal separation is of our own making. As soon as we think God is not within, we become separated. As soon as we put him in the sky and don’t see that our heart is his dwelling place, we cut ourselves off from him and he is unable to work in our lives. The devil is none other than our carnal minds, and as long as we give our minds the authority in our lives, our imaginations can dream up all sorts of beings for us to fear. And those fears will drive us. As God said to Adam ‘who told you?’ Steve, it’s your mind dictating all these horrors to you, (twisted thought/ entertaining the snake) and it began as soon as we entertained the thought that we could be as God by our own doing. That is man, the god of this world we live in. BUT STEVE, there is another realm within you, and as you go to that place within you will find it – and in that new world there is no fear, just love, peace and joy. Have no fear said JC, just use your mind from your heart (metanoia – translated wrongly as ‘repent’), and follow me. Try it Steve and all those imaginings will disappear as TRUTH is revealed to you from the spirit that DWELLS within you.
Steve. BEHOLDING him takes away the sin of this world, NOT his death!