THE WISE PROPHET by Gary Bahr and Others
The Wise Prophet offers the writings and thoughts of God as communicated to The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and others.
See the winnowing, wisdom, wit, words, works, writings, world and wonder of God thru The Wise Prophet. Of course, if you don’t like it, write your own works.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com
THE BLOG POSTS:
1ST GOD POST by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr
God: Hello World!
Adam & Eve: Hi! We are Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, Earth. Who are you?
God: I am your creator. I create things, every thing man has not created. In my notes and posts, I have posted many creations in collaboration with The Wise Prophet for you to read and enjoy and obey – if you are so inclined. You will find in these notes my new commandments, prophecy, writings and selected works and I hope you will profit from them. Each selection is truly inspired by me or has inspired me.
In the Bible we heard that Adam ate of the Apple – of course because a snake had outsmarted Eve and got Eve to eat of the Apple first and Eve made Adam eat of the Apple. And as the story goes, I, God, got so mad I tagged all mankind with corruption and depravity now inherent in everyman, woman and child because of Adam’s original disobedience (ORIGINAL SIN).
And, if you believe that… you really need to read the rest of the my notes. You will be eating knowledge from an Apple (My Mac or iPad).
I demand nothing of man.
To me it is important that if you learn anything in life, you should learn that everyone thinks differently. I could have had you all think the same, but that would be very boring for you and for me. And, would result in too many voting for Republicans. So in your DNA I put little switches that will keep man forever trying to unravel our differences. Every once in awhile I switch switches.
If you think differently, that is OK, and you should start your own Blog or Website or FaceBook notes. Believe me that these FB and website ideas are great creations and my iPad is a marvel. I praise and thank man for his creations.
My Apple is so much easier than carving commandments in stone or on gold parchment. I do not know why I did not think of FB and the internet and iPads and computers a long, long time ago! Those commandments I carved in stone are not easy to change or add to. This is much easier to change. So I will now, occasionally, send new commandments or post new postings or make new notes thru The Wise Prophet.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
10 NEW COMMANDMENTS
by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr
1. THINK! Think and know that others think differently. All the other original and revised commandments will fall into place if you think.
2. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. This is the greatest of commandments. Know that God loves you and/or others love you. This helps you believe in yourself and to love others.
3. BE RESPECTFUL. Love and honor others including enemies. Respect all rules at home, school and work.
4. BE RESPONSIBLE. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for yourself. Be a self-starter. Do school work, chores, work and sports well. Earn extra credit, extra money and extra privileges. Do not kill, steal, swear falsely, commit adultery etc.
5. DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WANT THEM TO DO UNTO YOU. Want love and respect – give it! Family and friends are great treasures – be loyal to them.
6. CHOOSE HAPPINESS. Happiness is a choice you can choose. Nothing can bring you lasting happiness. You already have happiness in you – enjoy it. Stop letting negative thinking interfere. Marry the right person helps.
7. CHOOSE HOW YOU REACT TO OTHERS. Forgive others and yourself. Be generous and thankful. Be honest and loyal. No lying, sassing, name calling or vulgarities. Don’t argue. Recognize other opinions as good and then discuss your opinions.
8. KNOW THAT BAD ATTITUDE IS A MAJOR DISABILITY. Quitters never win. Winners never quit. Avoid negative people, places, things and habits. Develop and maintain a good attitude. Work at what you enjoy. Enjoy what you work at. Be patient. Discipline yourself and improve your attitude. Make decisions knowing that even if you make a wrong decision, all you have to do is make another.
9. IF YOU MESS IT UP, CLEAN IT UP. That includes your own room.
10. BUY NO JUNK. Things do not make lasting happiness. Save.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
BUDDISM by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others.
Buddism – the path to enlightenment. The world is full of pain, sorrow and suffering – everyone shares in it. But you can find serenity. Life is alright, blissful, there is joy everywhere.
That is reality. This is reality… Every minute of life is precious.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
DAILY ADVICE – Author, Authors Unknown, Shared by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others.
1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.
3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, ‘My purpose is to __________ today.’
4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli , almonds & walnuts.
6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
7. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. In stead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
9. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
11. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
12. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
13. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
14. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ‘In five years, will this matter?’
17. Forgive everyone for everything.
18. What other people think of you is none of your business.
19. GOD heals everything.
20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
21. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch!!!
22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished _________.
24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
25. Please send this to everyone you care about.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
DIVINITY OF DOUBT by VINCENT BUGGLIOSI – Summary by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and others.
Something to think about.
Most people see what they expect to see, what they want to see.
Everyone is ignorant about something in life.
tupidity and ignorance…are responsible for much, if not most, of the great problems, misery and injustice in this world.
Things that anger me most are hypocrisy and incompetence.
Try to make sense of the religious and theological arguments and beliefs.
Voltaire tells us that common sense is not that common.
There ain’t no answer… That’s the answer.
People have always looked to the heavens for help in their daily lives, and eternal life after death.
Theists – believe in God.
Athiests – believe there is no God.
Agnostics – take no position. I have no way of knowing whether God exists or not. There is no proof one way or other. He simply does not know.= Albert Einstein, Clarence Darrow,
Fact = a truth known by actual experience or observance.
Verification of God is not possible = Myth, superstition, and nonsense
We are inculcated with:
God is all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing and omnipesent.
But God cannot be all these at the same time.
If god is all-powerful he can prevent evil, thus he is not all-good if he does not stop evil.
God loved us so much he gave his only son to die for our sins. But does not love us enough to stop all the horror.
R- God could intervene – but allows all the tyrants and their crimes.
R- whatever happens to us is god’s plan.
R- Justice comes later
R- If we were always happy we would not know unhappiness. Thus God allows unhappiness. We cannot appreciate good if we did not experience evil.
? God could simply create people who could be happy and know good without experiencing unhappiness and evil.
?Why does good God put people on earth who would burn in hell?
R- God gives us free will and not responsible for that choice.
But there is no scriptural basis I Jewish or Protestant bibles for the concept of free will – just in an Old Testiment Catholic Bible verse – Sirach 15:14.
But God knows which path we are going to take.
R-? We can’t question God’s will.
God allows atrocities.
R- No matter what – God has his reasons and they are all good.
But if all-good and all-powerful why should we believe his reasons are good for evil?
R- When it comes to God all conventional notions of logic and common sense and assume a valid reason for all misery and horrors.
Confusing.
R- Though we mortals don’t understand it, God has his reasons, and they are always good.
The 4 gospels = contain supposed words of Jesus, conveyed by mouth, authors not certain. John or John the Elder?
Mark – 70 AD. Matthew and Luke 85 and 75 AD based on Mark.
No original copies found. Copies were made by scribes who had their own agendas.
- All religions have been created by man.
- More evidence that man created God to meet his needs and desires.
Christians really do not care if their beliefs are logical or not.
RELIGION:
– Religion is good in fulfilling human needs and desires
– Helps many lead meaningful lives.
– Fear brought God into life and belief in God helps people face fears.
– Faith can be the enemy of reason
– Blind faith can lead to violence and tragedy
ATHEISM:
– If God exists there would not have the hoors of life.
– God cannot be proved, thus does not exist. But, they have no proof of non-existence. God may have creates original life forms.
– The belief there is no God is no more valid that the faith-belief there is a God.
– The complexity of intelligent design makes God impossible. The complexity of God makes God impossible.
?Maybe God is more complex?
AGNOSTIC:
Both Theist and Atheist irrational.
The mystery of the beginning of all thiongs is insoluble by us.
Choose to be governed by logic.
Universe 14 billion years old. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. First life 3.5 billion years ago.
EVOLUTION:
The alternative to creationism or intelligent design.
The complexity and order of the universe must be intelligent design.
Organisms mutated, adapt to environment.
Natural selection rules = survival of the fittist. Gene timing. Bird specie beaks differ by food to eat on different islands, etc. In the struggle to survive, species develop physical characteristics to enable them to survive in the environment they found themselves.
Every species is in transition.
Not doubted.
Maybe God created evolution?
Man has memory, can contemplate his own existence, can reason thru situations, store his knowledge and teach others.
Intelligent design of the universe.
– The universe operates in perfect order.
– Every watch requires a watchmaker.
– 21% Oxygen. If 25% fires would start spontaneously, if 15% we would suffocate.
– Moons pull if greater tides would be too severe, if less climate would be too severe for life.
– if gravity pull was altered o.oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.1%, our sun would not exist.
– there are 6 to 122 constants that make life possible and for them to occur by chance is unlikely – thus a designer (More p81).
First cause hypothesis:
Every effect has a cause. A thing cannot exist without a cause. A thing cannot precde itself. Thus first cause was God.
? Who created God?
First cause existed, had no beginning?
Big Bang Theory: Caused explosion that caused universe to expand.
– From chaos came a universe in perfect harmony and order.
– But what was something that exploded and how did it originate?
Jesus said “I am the one who is, who always was…” (Revelation 1:8)
Who created the creator? Unanswered.
Go could be an effect without a cause in a non-material world about which we know nothing – am endity outside the laws of causality, time, space, and therefore not subject .
A mystery that cannot be resolved?
THE BIBLE:
The Bible is important in world culture. It is not perfect but offers enormous wisdom.
It is the basis for many Christian beliefs.
Fundamentalists see it as the last word and all true.
Faith healing, Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, rapture lift up born-again believers.
– Much is Myth, nonsensical,
Jesus died for our sins:
– But Jesus is God, so God killed God to Satisfy God? Or to atone for our sins?
– Einsteen – Jesus lived but another story to say he was the Son of God.
_ Will Durant – Disciple invention of so powerful amd appealing personality is a greater miracle far more than any other in Gospels.
– Will Rogers – “That’s the most unheard of thing I ever heard of.” – believers have to have a severe intellectual hernia.
We are all born with original sin:
Adam and Eve eat an Apple and God gets so angry he punishes future billions with original sin so he can forgive them by having his son die for us.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
FAVORITE QUOTES by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. The Bill of Rights, without our collective devotion, is a hollow shell.” ~ Judge Lerned Hand
“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.” ~ Oscar Ameringer
Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason.
Law of absolute right: Right action gets right results, whereas wrong action gets wrong results!
When you forgive, you love; and when you love God’s love shines on you! – Into the Wild (Movie)
Happiness only real when shared – Into the Wild (Movie)
Silence is consent.
“The only disability in life is a bad attitude”. – Scot Hamilton
Happiness is a choice.
The best things in life aren’t things.
Everyone smiles in the same language.
A soft answer turns away wrath.
Minds are like parachutes. They only function when open.
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails.
He who laughs…lasts.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything.
They make the best of everything.
It takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow.
Kindness is like a boomerang, it always returns.
He who sows courtesy reaps friendship.
Some people make the world more special just by being in it.
Politeness is a small price to pay for the goodwill and affection of others.
A memory is a treasure that survives.
“He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield…” ~ Albert Pike
Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much. ~ Walter Lippmann
More of Leo Buscaglia:
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. ~ Albert Einstein
I BELIEVE by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
I believe in the creation of the universe. The Universe is my proof.
I cannot define the Creator. There is only one creator we can call Allah, Buddha, God, Jehovah or The Great Spirit. I think each man makes God in his image and that my God is no better than another.
I believe we have a right to worship or not worship as we wish and those who do so in secret are rewarded in secret.
I believe all men and women are created equal and have an inner knowledge of right and wrong; that such Revelation is in all of us; and that the equality of man and human spirituality in man is the best hope for world peace and for the future of mankind.
I believe in evolution as a law of nature that benefits creations – even myself. I evolve every day. You evolve every day. Species evolve every day. Evolution does not prove or disprove the creation, but certainly counts for a lot of update creations.
The Universe may have begun by a super intelligence, a chemical reaction, a biological mutation, evolution and all of the above.
I believe in an open mind…a mind open to change and understanding, tolerant and free of prejudice.
I believe the Bible contains many words of great wisdom, symbolism and metaphors written by many authors; and can serve as and has served as a good guide to many. Every author feels inspired. Some authors write inspiring words.
I believe the Ten Commandments offer a moral code that all the great religions seem to accept;and that the moral teachings attributed to Jesus are the best code for a good and happy life. The divineness of His code of love, respect, mercy, equality, justice, benevolence and tolerance is more important than questions of His birth, His divinity, His life, His death and His resurrection. That Jesus lived, was a great teacher, and was crucified are truths I accept. I question everything else. Questions of His Divinity and Resurrection will be studied forever and will never be proved certain or false to everyone.
I believe my God loves me and can intervene on my behalf. At least I think he can. Such faith is good for my mental health. Faith in self or fellow man or Jesus’ teachings or God is far better than believing in nothing. Better to have hope and love and faith than to go without these things. Better to be thankful for all things than to be ungrateful for all things. Better to give your problems up to your God or a friend or the wind than to hold them in. The psychology of belief and prayer and thankfulness and giving up problems and religion helps some.
I believe that the greatest force in the world is Love. Jesus teaches that “God is Love” and that we should “Love one another”. If God is nothing but love, this is enough for me. Love can heal and perform miracles, comfort and overcome fears, change our thoughts and our lives, absorb our problems, change others, and make peace possible on earth. Love does not hate. Love does not make war. Love is respect, benevolence and tolerance for all. Love conquers all. When we can all say to each other – “God loves you and so do I” or simply say “I love all of you, all of mankind” – there will be Peace on Earth.
I believe that doing good works is the best service to man. Salvation and grace is found in the satisfaction obtained from doing good works, from being respectful of beliefs of others, in demanding justice where wrongs occur, in forgiving others, in being benevolent to all, and in welcoming our differences in race, color, sex, age, sexual preference, religion or political creed.
I believe in the future,hope and love, reason and faith, experiment and evolution, benevolence and tolerance, and human spirituality and goodness.
It is not for us to impose our way on others. Rather we must accept and understand our differences and welcome the possibilities of our common beliefs and needs. We must open communication with all cultures and religions in our world.
I believe that when we die, we will live forever in others we touched. I like the world I live in and hope to improve it a little. Of course, I hope for happiness after this life.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
IN GOD WE TRUST by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
I do not mind the “In God We Trust” words on currency or coins or the 10 Commandments displayed in our Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C or anywhere else.
All I want is my dollar or coin to buy what I want and the Supreme Court to make decisions based on our Constitution.
It does not make me a better Citizen to have “In God We Trust” on my money or to not have the words there. But if I was of another religious orientation than I am, I just might prefer that the quote was not in my face.
What makes people spiritual or religious or Christian is not the display of terms on coins or stone tablets or pictures or books or words on our buildings.
What makes America great as a nation is our freedom to believe what we want.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
LOVE 101 by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
I have never doubted that my wife, and love of my life, Dawn, loves me and wants me and respects me. She tells me constantly, although I know it. When you have that from another person you love and want and respect – it is the greatest joy! I have noticed that I always want to hug her when I go by. She has taught me more about love than all the rest of the people I have known put together. I really want to be “loving” like her. There is nothing better than feeling love for another and sharing that feeling with each other.
Your god loves lovers.
Can you love others? Of Course. You can love everyone. It is easier for some to love and say “I love you!” than it is for others. I would not want to miss the opportunity to truly love someone. Would you?
Here are some helpful hints on “Living, Loving and Learning” from the book by Leo Busgalia (A Former Professor of “LOVE 101” in California) and from me who has lived, loved and learned with few regrets.
What is love?
Love is difficult to define. It is different things to different people. I have said since my first learning experience that “Love is a chemical imbalance”. But it is a nice chemical imbalance with the right person. It is often a confusing emotion with the wrong person.
It may be confusing to you and to your current mate or boyfriend or girlfriend. He or she may feel burnt by something you said or did and may never get beyond that – but the sooner he or she does get beyond it, the better for you and them.
Don’t feel any guilt for any past break-ups as they were decisions in the making.
The best definition of love is in the Bible – Cor I, 13, 4. It really is very, very good! Look it up if you do not believe me. It is printed below. Trust me. Learn to live it. It is the very best of statements on love.
“Love is patient and kind; Love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in right. Love bears all things, Believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…
Notice the Bible verse does not say love “expects” all things. It could have, but the author new that love does not expect all things.
The Bible has many similar good philosophical quotes of wise men. You are intelligent enough to recognize them. Read the Bible searching for the good thinking. Underline it or use Dr Schuler’s Bible that already does this.
Start with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The philosophy in the Bible guides most thinking in the world. If you know what drives the thinking of most of the world you will be considered a wise person.
Does it matter more if Jesus was born of a virgin? Or more that his words and works and teachings live now – 2000 years after he died?
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO.
So, your relationship is in trouble. Join the crowd.
I don’t know what to tell you about when to break up or hang on to a relationship other than this. You both probably have mixed feelings over something said or done and neither knows what to think or knows what the other is doing or thinking. These are normal feelings. You may want to give love a chance and put off any high expectations until you know where the relationship will be.
When you get sick and tired of another – you will do something. It really is that simple. And, it is also that hard. You will know when you have had enough. Then you will act. Only you can make that decision. If you do breakup – all the venting of anger may be normal but is a great waste of emotional energy.
Hate or anger makes you look bad over time. YOU at least can rise above that no matter what by just saying, “I loved him or her, but it just did not work out.” You can move on without worrying about what he says because you are saying the right thing. 99.99% of the people you both know will listen to either, agree with who is speaking, and forget about it all in 30 seconds. They all have their own problems. Friends do not help by repeating what they heard one say about the other.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS MAKE ANOTHER DECISION
One decision leads to another and another and another – especially if the previous one does not work out. When you know that all you have to do is make another decision in life, life gets so easy. The sooner you learn this, the better off you are. Once you make a decision, life seems easier. If you make a decision and it does not turn out, all you have to do is make another decision.
LIVE WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS
This is the most important rule in relationships.
This means you have to get to a point in life when you really do not expect others to react or behave in a certain way. You can only control how you react or behave. You cannot control how others react or behave. What often makes life difficult is when we expect others to jump for joy or be happy and they are not. If we expect them to take us to dinner or buy us something and they don’t – this leads to our disappointment. When we expect someone to do something and they don’t, we set ourselves up for disappointment.
There is another aspect to expectations. If you expect something to happen and it does, you will be bored after it happens.
Living without expectations is also accepting others as they are. You might as well, as they are not likely to change unless they want too. This does not mean that we cannot honestly tell others how we feel and even what we don’t like about them and hope they change. More likely you will lose them as a friend unless you have the ability to get them to feel it is really their own decision to change.
You can live without expectations and still hope, desire, love, want and have all the normal feelings. But it is in the expectations that we set ourselves up for disappointment.
Living without expectations does not mean we must live without hope. We can hope others will change, we just cannot expect that they be the way we want them to be. It is confusing to love someone and not get the same jibes back. Or should I say, it is confusing to love someone and expect the same jibes back.
EACH HUMAN IS COMPLEX AND INTERPRETS THINGS DIFFERENTLY.
This is very important to know and remember also.
I have the most difficulty dealing with people that I think do stupid things or have stupid opinions. I have little patience for them. Especially if they do stupid stuff and they act like they are the greatest gift to the world. You may be experiencing that with your roommate, friend, mate or lover.
Ben Franklin would say to others, “That is a good or an interesting idea” and then proceed to state his opinion – never worrying whether the other agreed or not. Better that way than saying that is dumb and walking away.
We learn so much by our trials.
If I could wave my hand and make someone love you as you wish, I would. I can’t. Nor can you.
What can we learn.
We can learn that is better not to have great expectations of others and to try to live without these expectations. It is not easy and if you only need 20 years to learn it, you will be far ahead of many.
You may expect someone to be perfect. You will at times be disappointed in that expectation.
You may expect love to be easy. You will at times be disappointed in that expectation.
You may expect your husband someday to buy you flowers. You will sometimes be disappointed in that expectation.
What if you did not expect these things? You will be less disappointed.
There are disappointments in life. Many are created by us because we created the expectation. When the cookie crumbles, as it inevitably will, we feel pain, hurt and anger. If we react with trying to create pain, hurt and anger for the other person what is gained? Certainly love will not be gained.
As a nation we set Bin Laden and Saddam up as leaders, we gave them the weapons and when they did not react in a certain way we expected, we withdrew our support and tried to cause them pain, hurt. And both sides became angry. What if we gave their people food, medicine and security from their enemies? We cannot now force them to love us and to not try to hurt us back and to trust us. But our government expects them to love us and trust us and not hurt us even when we are hurting them and have lost their trust.
LIVING, LOVING AND LEARNING
Love is learned from others, we unlearn it and relearn it. We are all human, we all have hang-ups, misconceptions, joy, sorrow, etc. All that you are learning in your relationship is human – very human. All the range of emotions you are experiencing are very human.
If someone would lose their cool, explode and after a 2000 times, you say “Enough!” So exploding is not good. Saying hateful things does no good.
You can give love, but you cannot expect it in return or you will be disappointed. You can be a loving person, but don’t expect every one to love you back or be loving to you every moment.
One may never get over being hurt and you cannot make him with anything but showing him love, and that may not work. Then you have to move on.
You have been on a rollercoaster before, and unless you and him go for counseling together, you could well spend a lifetime together with these constant ups and downs. And, at some point you are not going to want to grow old with him.
I always remember when a doctor asked me if I wanted to grow old with someone. I quickly said “No”. I really had surprised myself, but soon begin to think that that was the answer for me. I had no answer for another, but I did know I did not want to grow old with that person.
The only thing you have to give is you. Others must accept you as you are or tell you what he wants in you and then maybe you want to change something. Vice versa.
Leo says, “You are all you have. Therefore make yourself the most beautiful, tender, wonderful, fantastic person in the world. And then you will always survive.”
I am still working on it. You are at times all you have. It is all you can be certain of. So why not be the best you can be. You are beautiful. Be tender. Try to always be the wonderful you. You know how beautiful your smile is when you break into a spontaneous smile! You are on your way to being a fantastic person.
Don’t let anyone drag you down to their level of un-trust or hurt or anger! If you are unhappy with yourself, your characters, or others, Leo says: “If you don’t like the cast of characters you’ve involved with, get rid of them and start a new bunch. But you’ve got to do it. And it’s all yours.”
Gentleness comes from strong people and you will be strong.
From a poem:
“My happiness is me, not you.
Not only because you may be temporary,
But also because you want me to be what I am not”.
You can be happy with you, maybe not with someone else.
Someone can always be temporary – there are no guarantees.
He cannot make you be what you are not, and you cannot make him be what he is not.
You have great spontaneity. Do you know what a marvelous thing that is to have! In comparison many have very little and they are starving to death at the banquet of life. You know you are alive!
WOW! You have to be free to learn and to make mistakes and to be yourself. Do you feel free to be yourself in a crowd?
“Don’t give me your hangups! Let me find and overcome my own!”
“Each of us remain part stranger even to those who love us”
“It is the weak who are cruel” – gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Perfect love gives, expects nothing. (Powerful stuff).
Perfect love never stops giving.
I love you as you are. I don’t expect you to be different. Would I change anything in you? Maybe I would – that you learn all the above,
MORE GREAT QUOTES FROM LEO AND COMMENTS BY ME!
“Living, Loving and learning”
– perhaps as great a book as ever written. A must read!
“Love is learned from others.”
– We learn love from others and sometimes others don’t learn it as fast or in the same way. I would never expect a young person to really know what love is until they have experienced life for more years.
“Fear is learned, …prejudice…hate…concern…responsibility…commitment…respect…kindness and gentility is learned.”
“I have always hesitated to define love because I see love as limitless, and as you become bigger and more beautiful and more expansive, so does love.”
– Love is not trying to remake someone else. It is more trying to make yourself more beautiful.
“Maybe I have to change my methods of behaving…and you do it – volitionally.”
“You control your own destiny.”
“This idea of perfection frightens me.”
“Man is so incredible. The defense mechanisms that we build to protect ourselves.”
“Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.”
– This is you. This is me.
“then you decide to change, this may no longer be your value – and so you’re shaking complacency.”
– You have been involved with the rollercoaster romance. You are the one who is willing to shake complacency! You are going to love this:
“If you don’t like the scene you’re in, if you are unhappy, if you’re lonely, if you don’t feel things are happening, change your scene. Paint a new picture. Surround yourself with new actors. Write a new play – and if it’s not a good play, get the hell off the stage and write another one. There are millions of plays – as many as there are people.”
– I love that one and it led to me seeking a new scen. Just one more decision.
“Don’t ever believe your life is going to be peaceful – life is not like that.”
“you only teach yourself.”
“If everyone had just one single person in his life who says, ‘I will love you no matter what’.” – So many say I will love you if…if…if…
“people need nurturing…to be loved…felt…touched, we need some manisfestation of love.”
“Every one of you will find your own way. Don’t let anyone impose theirs on you.”
“Any path is only a path. There is no affront to yourself or others in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do.”
“Sometimes by opening our mouths, we make dreadful errors. It’s often much better to just look at somebody and vibrate.”
“listening is tremendously important.”
“The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be.”
“You can guide but you can’t order. And try to communicate, try to understand.”
“no change takes place without working hard and without getting your hands dirty.” (!! my emphasis ~ G).
“I must face my own shortcomings, mistakes, transgressions…. I must decide to leave my bed and live again. And if I fail, I don’t have the comfort of blaming you or life or God.”
Write them a letter: Dear x, “Don’t walk in my head with your dirty feet!”
“You take from what I share what is right for you.”
“So there’s always hope and there’s always wonder, and you don’t have to sit and cry about the fact that somebody mistreated you in the past.” (!! my emphasis ~ G)
YOU can learn love over.
You need to believe in yourself with or without Mr X.
“If you think you can pack up your bag and escape you, you’re in for a mighty big surprise.”
“What is essential is not out there. What is essential is indeed in you.”
“I don’t care where you are in your learning, you are still nowhere.”
“Joy is a great teacher. But so is dispair.”
“Wisdom is the application of knowledge and facts.”
“the only reality is the ‘now’.” Forget the past to go forward. Remember the past only to avoid repeating it. (!!!!!!!!!!!)
“Don’t spend time crying about yesterday…forgive the people who’ve hurt you. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life blaming or pointing a finger.”
“Hug yourself.”
“no matter where you are, you have the potential to grow. You are just starting.”
“It does not matter what mistakes you’ve made as long as you don’t make them again.”
“most of us are lost, and most of us are confused.”
As my wife would say, your heart knows the right thing to do.
“If you deny even one man entrance in your life, you’ll never get his uniqueness from anyone else…but only when you find the you in you, will you have anything to give me.”
You make you unique and can learn the uniqueness of others.
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything like a nail.”
“The self constructs enormous walls around itself for self protection. It calls those walls reality.”
“A bummer day is one that doesn’t quite come out the way we wanted it. Well, tough for us! That’s too bad if the day doesn’t turn out the way we want it. The day was perfect – it’s we who were tampering with perfection.”
– I have heard you say often you are having a bad day. I love this – “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change”, Dr Wayne Dyer.
BACK TO LEO:
“our mind is really nothing more than an instrument of experience.”
“Wherever we are right now is important. I like the idea of whatever you are, love where you’re at for it starts there. You have got to start by saying, Yes, I love me where I am with all my addictions and limitations, but that does not necessarily mean its where I am going to be tomorrow. It just means that I like me where I am now. You can’t go on until you make that statement.”
“The world is already perfect.”
“The very instant a thing reaches its height, it begins to decline.”
– Nothing is permanent but change.
Dag Hammarskjold: “Body and soul contain a thousand possibilities out of which you may build…” Dag also said once that “I live my life so that when I die everyone else weeps, but I have no tears to shed.”
BACK TO LEO:
“You love one person and that love leads you to hundreds. Keep growing.”
– Here it comes, memorize the below:
Budda: “When you cease expecting, you have all things.” Memorize this.
Leo: “Rid yourself of expectations….If you go around doing your thing without expectation, then you already have everything you need. If they do give you something in return, you take it with open arms. It should always come as a surprise. But if you expect a response and it comes, it’s a bore. Cease expecting and you have all things. Take whatever people give you. If you appreciate it, hug it, kiss it, and take in the joy, but don’t expect it. If you want pain, just go around with expectations. People are not here to meet your expectations.”
“all you really need is already in you.”
“I can be right and you can be right. We both can be right. There really is no right or wrong, there is an enormous grey area….”
– I love this book because it freed me of the control of me. It taught me that love is not a rollercoaster but a growing experience. I tired of tip toeing around and not saying the truth so to avoid a conflict.
There is hope in poor relationships if you want to both go to counseling and talk out your problems. If not, move on. Adopt as much of the above as you can and you will do fine regardless of what someone else does or does not do. You as you are a special person. You have been good for another. If someone does not want you as you are, believe me 100 others will.
Get the book. Read the whole thing. Force your way thru it. I think it will help.
THE REST OF LEO
“If there is, in this world, one person whom we can touch and totally trust…we will never die of loneliness.”
– We need someone who will listen.
“We can select the joy of intimacy”.
“It’s true that intimate relationships are a risk, and it’s true that they will hurt…make greatest demands on you…demand change…bring out your deepest feelings and make you feel miserable sometime. But…your only alternatives to intimacy are in despair and loneliness.”
“Intimacy is absolutely essential”.
“So it’s the sameness that brings us close, but it’s the newness that will keep us together. Be wise, be stimulating, be exciting, share new ideas, grow, develop. Don’t ever be predictable!”
– You could give someone a hug when you see him – like an old friend. Tell him you are willing to be friends and leave it at that.
“Intimacy cannot be expected. You can have no expectations in interaction with another. No one can always be or do what you would wish of them. Everything comes to you as a surprise, and if you think about it, every downer that you have is because someone did not meet your expectations.”
“Predictability is a bore…be unpredictable…. You can never count on what I am going to or say.”
“Please don’t wait to communicate your feelings. I think one of the greatest destructive elements in relationships and intimacy is our inability to relate what we’re feeling now.”
“Never have short arguments….they are usually over before they solve anything… The longer you argue, the more you are going to get to the feelings, and so when they start walking out of the room, chase them! Say, ‘Wait! I don’t understand. Keep talking!’ Eventually you are going to find out what you’re arguing about is pretty damn silly.”
“Intimacy is not simple. It’s a great challenge to our maturity. It’s our greatest hope.”
– For the world! Chose Life!
“the greatest thing we have is life.”
“most of us are really passing trough and spending the duration.”
“as long as you leave your life in the hands of others, you’ll never live. You have to take the responsibility for choosing and defining your own life.”
“if we really don’t live fully we keep other people from living fully!”
– Misery loves company.
– You and someone are a unique history. A great experience. Why see it any other way?
“You are a unique history…whatever that history is, it’s gone and it’s past. Love it and embrace it. Reinvent forgiveness. You are never going to be able to choose life until you learn to forgive.”
– This is very true. Forgive yourself. Forgive another. Love again. Never waste a moment of energy on hate or anger – it only makes you feel bad.
“And if you want to paint hell, go ahead and paint it, but then don’t blame me…society…God…You take full responsibility for creating your own hell.”
“The greatest dreams that have been accomplished by men and women have been called impossibilities – and somebody has proved the impossible was possible.”
“To choose life, we must be willing to risk again and love again.” (!!!!!!!!! ~G).
“To love is to risk not being loved in return.”
“To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and becomes nothing, He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.”
“You have all the resources in you to heal yourself, which is what you’re going to have to do anyway. You might as well start on that process right now.”
The Dalai Lama: “Our greatest duty and our main duty is to help others, and if you can’t help them, would you please not hurt them?”
– Love grows love. (A stone I placed by our flower fountain).
“Life is not a trip in itself. It’s a goal. It’s a process. You get there step by step by step by step.”
Definition of love: “Love is life in all of its aspects. And if you miss love, you miss life. Please don’t.”
“Don’t ever grow in anybody’s shadow, you cannot grow in someone else’s shadow.”
“My life is so much richer because you are in it.”
“Loving relationships depend upon open, honest, beautiful communications.”
Jack Paar (the 1st Tonight show host), “My life seems like one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle.”
LEO:
“You’re nothing if you think you’re nothing.”
“I’m vulnerable, I make mistakes. I’m imperfect, I’m afraid….I’m…human. And, that is my greatest asset. That’s really all I want to be.”
“Choose life…love…caring…trusting…goodness…it’s your choice. You can also choose despair…misery…making life uncomfortable for other people…. But I warn you that if you decide to take full responsibility for your life, it’s not going to be easy, and you’re going to have to learn to risk again. Risk-the key to change.”
Risk = making another decision. You have made 1000’s of mistakes, but if you are willing to risk, to make another decision, you will do well.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
LOVE ALL UNCONDITIONALLY by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
Love is the most powerful force in the world and the key to happiness, marital bliss and world peace.
“Love one another” means love all unconditionally. “Love one another” does not exclude anyone, any relative, any neighbor, or any person of any race, religion or creed.
Try it! If you love everyone unconditionally, you will save yourself from a lot of pain and unhappiness. If you are angry with anyone or about anything for more than a minute – you are not dealing with it properly.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
“Unconditional love is known as affection without any limitations, it can also be love without conditions. This term is sometimes associated with other terms such as true altruism, or complete love. Each area of expertise has a certain way of describing unconditional love, but most will agree that it is that type of love which has no bounds and is unchanging. It is a concept comparable to true love, a term which is more frequently used to describe love between lovers. By contrast, unconditional love is frequently used to describe love between family members, comrades in arms and between others in highly committed relationships. An example of this is a parent’s love for their child; no matter a test score, a life changing decision, an argument, or a strong belief, the amount of love that remains between this bond is seen as unchanging and unconditional.”
From My Computer Dictionary:
unconditional |ˌənkənˈdiSHənl, -ˈdiSHnəl| adjectivenot subject to any conditions: unconditional surrender.
love |ləv| noun1 an intense feeling of deep affection: babies fill parents with intense feelings of love | their love fortheir country.• a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone: it was love at first sight | they were both in love withher | we were slowly falling in love.• (Love)a personified figure of love, often represented as Cupid.• a great interest and pleasure in something: his love forfootball | we share a love ofmusic.• affectionate greetings conveyed to someone on one’s behalf.• a formula for ending an affectionate letter: take care, lots of love, Judy.2 a person or thing that one loves: she was the love of his life| their two great loves are tobacco and whiskey.• Brit. informal a friendly form of address: it’s all right, love.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
What is love and what is it good for?
My first thought about love was that love is a chemical imbalance – hormones and emotions out of control, not logical.
My loving wife Dawn taught me that love is much more than that!
Love is the positive force in this world, and the most powerful force in this world! And, actually, it is logical to be a loving person!
True love is best defined in 1st Corrinthians,13.4:
“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
That is truly a beautiful definition!
Jesus made a simple commandment to “Love One Another.” No matter what our beliefs – we can “Love one another.” When Jesus walked Earth, He showed us how love heals, is tolerant, works miracles, forgives and comforts.
Most religions see the Divine answer within us. Love is within us. It is the answer! And, it is the basis of our happiness.
Love is a choice – a choice we can make. How can we choose to love, to live, to learn, to awaken the love within, to communicate it, nourish it, share it, and become teachers of love by example?
When children test our love we forgive them and love them unconditionally.
Why not forgive and love everyone…unconditionally?
We can forgive others by accepting the pain and being motivated not to pass it onto our kids and grandkids and others.
There is a place for love. Find a way to forgive. Love and forgiveness are “Simple Gifts”… They cost us nothing. They mean everything.
In the cartoon “Clifford The Big Red Dog”, an animal friend says of Clifford – “He loves me just the way I am.” If our dog loves us as we are, why can’t we love everyone just the way they are?
Dr. Robert H. Schuller teaches that life is too short to be angry with anyone. If we are angry for more than a minute, “We” are not dealing with it properly.
Whether about war or a personal relationship, continuing anger will not bring us peace.
Love is just another decision we can make. All we have to do is make that decision. And, even if we make a wrong decision about love or about life; all we have to do is make another one. Love is easier one decision at a time. Life is easier one decision at a time.
Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” I love that! “If we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”
Dr. Leo Buscaglia taught a college course at Berkely called ‘Love 101’. He had a waiting list for his class. Many wanted to learn about love. It should be taught in our schools.
Buscaglia loved to hug people. Scared some! He said we control how we respond to others. If we “Live without expectations” of others, if we don’t expect others to act in a certain way, we will be less disappointed.
Buddhism teaches that, “When we cease expecting, we have everything.”
My son called and said, “Dad, I have read the books and watched the videos you sent me on how to improve my marriage and I have the answer on making a woman happy – just give her everything she wants.” I love it! And, ladies… it works on men too!
My son said something far more profound. He said, “I thank God every night for my wife”. We can choose to be thankful each day for our spouse. Thank them for the love we do get. We do not have to demand or expect 100% in return. Just say thank you to yourself if nothing else. It is better to be thankful than not feeling thankful.
We need to understand that we all process information differently. We all think differently. The good news is that we can think! And, we can choose how we think and how we react to others.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said we should choose to think positive. If we think negative, we feel negative. We can think positive and feel positive.
Love sometimes helps and sometimes hurts. On occasion someone will defy our understanding. But love does not require that we understand others – rather, understanding others requires our love.
Young Dr. Robert A. Schuller says that: When life gets us down…look up! Sounds too simple? But try it! We cannot feel down when looking up!
With love we can change the future, forgive the past, and find comfort.
With love we can choose how we respond to others, and not to be angry.
We can choose the way we look at things.
We can “Live without expectations” of others.
We can make decisions without fear, and we can always make new decisions.
We can be thankful for the love we do get.
But, we cannot do any of these things without love.
We can decide to love one another. The Beatles shout it and sing it – “All You Need Is Love”. All we need is to “Love one another!” Love is a decision! It is our decision. It is the answer.
And the most beautiful thing about love is this – we can give all our love away, and not lose any of it. For love grows love. It thrives when we feed it. We can give it to others, and get more back!
Love cannot divide or subtract. Love can only add and multiply.
Love is the most positive force in this world. Love is the most powerful force in this world! Let your love multiply and “Love One Another!”
For this is love, and nothing else is love. Love one another! “Your God loves you and so do I!”
“THE SHACK” by William Young as summarized by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
NOTE: Whether you believe in God or not, there is something powerful about love and forgiveness.
“The Shack”…
Mack had a love/hate relationship with religion and with God. His 5-year daughter, Missy, vanished on a camping trip with him and his son and other older daughter. Missy was killed by a serial killer. Mack and many experienced “The Great Sadness”.
Tragedies are not the work of God. Just because He works incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean He orchestrates tragedies. Evil is the work of evil people, often one person who choses evil. No one is immune from such evil. Evil flows from our independence and free will.
God can stop a tragedy. To intervene would often mean taking away someone’s right to chose. We would thank God if we knew the numerous tragedies He has saved us from.
We assume that God judges and punishes us. God grants that we are worthy of his love, to love and to be loved. Actually, it is we who judge God. We judge God and others as good or evil.
As humans we have free will – the freedom to choose good or evil. We judge good and evil in others. We do good or evil. For God to not allow evil, He would not be able to allow us free will. To force his will on us at all times would not make us free to choose.
GOD:
God is love. He created us to love Him and to love others. God loves all of us. He wants us all to love Him. He is patient.
We cannot be lost, because God is always with us. Where there is suffering you will find grace. You may see God in a piece of art, in music or silence.
God does not punish us for sin. Sin has its own punishment – guilt, anger and depression.
It would be God’s joy to cure sin and hurts. He does not condemn us or humiliate us. God is not evil. He allows human will, freedom, independence and choice. God is not a bully who demands you love and obey Him. He wants what is best for us. Guilt or condemnation or coercion or force will not bring us to a relationship of love and trust with God or with others.
Could God prevent chaos? Sure, He could not have created the universe. He could not have made man or let man have free will. He could actively interfere with all our actions and we would not have freedom to choose. God offers love and goodness and a relationship of love as intended and which we all are looking for to be happy.
JESUS:
Jesus reflects God’s heart exactly. He is the Creation and history. He is the human form of God. He is what God wants of all of us. In Jesus, God is human. In Jesus we are part of God. Through His death and resurrection God is reconciled to the world. In Him purpose and destiny are linked. There is no Plan B. Life and living is in Him.
Jesus fulfilled the law for us. There is no mercy or grace in law and rules, not even for one mistake. Grace and mercy and love are in God. In Jesus all things are lawful as he fulfills the law.
Guilt will never help you find freedom in love.
HUMANS:
We have a small view of what it means to be human. We are incredible and wonderful beyond imagination just like the Creation. Just because we do stupid things does not diminish our creation and our being at the center of God’s universe and love.
We rebelled against the perfect world of Eden and gained our free will. But, we can reconcile to the universe and the intent of creation to love one another.
We are limited in love and in relationships by our conditioning, our religious training and stereotypes that form our beliefs and perceptions. Sometimes some even believe in the irrational. Sometimes for some the rational is hard to believe.
We judge others and try to achieve power over them. Judging requires that we think we are superior over the one we judge. Do not judge.
We avoid confronting emotions or discussing them. We do not tell others things that may hurt them. We tell little lies not to hurt others. We are afraid to deal with the emotions we might encounter. This avoidance or the little lies are unloving. We need to tell the truth and if appropriate ask for forgiveness.
We are designed to be in a community, family, friends and with God in one big circle of love. And, to serve. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive someone, every time your provide a kindness or a service the universe changes.
RELATIONSHIPS, LOVE & FORGIVENESS
RELATIONSHIPS:
Our relationship with God and others is important. If we can love God and others as we should and were created to and intended to do, life will be beautiful.
Emotions are spectacular and incredible. When you do not feel, the world is dull and colorless. Emotions are. They exist. They are responses to perceptions.
Anger, depression, guilt, hate, revenge and evil are overcome with forgiveness and love.
What others do or children do may affect our pride, but should not affect our love. It is knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. “Love is the skin of knowing.”
We love our children unconditionally just as God loves us.
God will not force us to love Him, but he does open the way.
It is a two way street. God has done His part.
FORGIVENESS:
Anger is a proper response to hurt. Forgiveness is the letting go of the anger.
How can we forgive? You tell him “I forgive you” or you say it out loud 100 times a day until you mean it. When you mean it, you will feel better. You pray that he may be made whole and give him to God. God will handle the justice.
Forgiveness does not excuse anything. You do not have to forget. That is not what forgiveness is about. It is about letting go. When you let go, you will feel better. You give him to God and let God redeem him. Because of Jesus, his sins are forgiven, gone. His sins do not interfere with God’s love or redemption.
Forgiving your Dad, Mom, brother, sister, spouse or a friend is a significant part of being able to know others and lover others and God. Jesus set the example on the cross by forgiving his accusers and torturers. Can’t we forgive others for little things.
Forgiveness is for the forgiver first, to release you from something that will eat you up. Don’t let the anger and pain and loss you feel prevent you from forgiving and letting go. Only we can cut off the pain by letting it go. There is far more power in love and forgiveness than in hate and anger. When you forgive someone, you release him from judgment. But, without change, no new relationship will be established.
Get rid of The Great Sadness and live a life of simplicity and joy, trust and wonder.
HEALING:
“There is often some compensation in every trial”. Most of our hurts come thru relationships. Thus most healing comes thru relationships. In life, there is no easy answer to your hurts and taking the pain away. When all you can see is your pain you lose sight of your relationship with God and others.
God may allow hurt and pain and suffering because we chose free will and independence. Allowing billions to have choice means at time ideas of freedom will collide with others rights and life. God allows human will. But, God will use every choice we make for the ultimate good and most loving outcome.
When we regard each other’s concerns as significant as our own there is no need for power over one another.
EQUAL STATUS:
In the Creation, we were made in God’s image and to be in a relationship with God and one another. We can share that love and joy and freedom.
God does not act as the master or Almighty. He puts himself on a human level (like in Jesus and others). He limits himself in this way to be understood by us.
When we establish hierarchy, we set rules, administration and limits. Then you need laws and enforcement. Thus we miss the wonder of relationship as intended.
We can compliment each other and the opposite sex by not playing roles or creating hierarchy. Each can be unique and different but complimentary. Each can be equal to the other.
INDEPENDENCE:
We want independence from God and complain that He loved us enough to give us free will.
“Freedom involves trust and obedience inside a relationship of love”.
God allows us to be free, independent (free will if you will) and He takes no one prisoner. He did not have to let us choose independence, but he did. He wanted to be loved. To be loved by man, man must be free to choose to love God as we are free to love others. It is not love if you are not free to love. Love cannot be forced or coerced or controlled. Freedom is not forced. Freedom happens with a relationship with God and with others.
True love is not forced. Genuine love is by submission. It is not about authority. It is about love and respect and relationships. When you feel loved, it is good. God submits to us in love and respect.
We can be in a circle of love with God and others.
When we choose independence over relationship, we become objects to be managed by authority or the strong.
God in the book says to Mack, “All I want from you is to trust me with what little you can, and grow in loving people around you with the same love I share with you. It’s not your job to change them, or to convince them. You are free to love without an agenda.”
LIFE:
God says, “…the world system is what it is. Institutions, systems, ideologies, and all the vain, futile efforts of humanity that go with them are everywhere, and interaction with all of it is unavoidable. But I can give you freedom to overcome any system of power in which you find yourself, be it religious, economic, social, or political. You will grow in the freedom to be inside or outside all kinds of systems and to move freely between and among them, Together, you and I can be in it and not of it… We must find ways to love and serve… Remember, the people who know me are the ones who are free to live and love without any agenda.”
Life is about sharing, being open and available to others. Grow in loving people around you. Trust them. Love them. It is not our job to change them or to convince them. We are all free to love on our own agenda and to enjoy the simplicity and purity of a loving and growing friendship.
RIGHTS:
When we give up our rights and our will to manipulate others we will begin to know the wonder of living in love. Jesus gave up his rights and become a servant and so can we.
GOOD AND EVIL:
Billions of individuals deciding what is good or evil need to be managed or manipulated whether by political, economic, social, or religious systems. Thus struggles for power, abuse, wars…
There must be a “reality of good that is absolute”. Without it we are each reducing judging to our own perception of good and evil. We spend all our energy to acquire good and fearing evil.
If we give up our independence, it would be because we trust in God or others and goodness.
JUDGING OTHERS:
Judgement is about setting things right.
LOVE:
Learn to live loved. Learn to share your love. Share in the wisdom.
If you do not believe God or someone or everyone loves you, you miss a loving relationship. You will not believe God or others are good if you are not convinced they love you.
It is our perceptions that limit our love. If left feeling unloved, we forget that we are created to be loved.
God is love…unlimited love. We can share in this unlimited love and have real fulfillment. Love and relationship is possible without limitations. To love one another is to live as intended in a circle of love. God to live in us. We in God. Each in each other. We can live in simplicity and beauty with an active union and relationship with God and/or with others.
As God created man to have someone to love and because He loves everyone, God cannot act apart from love.
Love does not force God’s will or one’s will on another.
RELATIONSHIPS:
“Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved.”
Each relationship between two people is unique. We cannot love two people in the same way. We love them because of who they are and the uniqueness they get from us.
Relationships are not about a chain of command or power control of another. Relationships are not about winning or losing, but about love and respect. They are never about power. To avoid the will to power, choose to serve. Who needs power if we are serving and looking out for the best. Humans are lost and damanged and cannot function without someone taking control.
Be aware of others more than yourself. Respond to others with graciousness.
“Growth means change and change involves risks, stepping from the known to the unknown”. ~ Author unknown
WORK:
If you love your work, it is because your purpose makes it special.
THE FUTURE:
We spend a lot of time worrying about the future. We spend much time with our imagined fears because we do not trust or believe.
Only God knows the future.
RESPONSIBILITY AND EXPECTATIONS:
In relationships we need expectancy, life, movement, possibilities – not responsibility and expectations. In law and rules there is fear and judgement. The word responsibility is not in scriptures. In expectations our disappointment is certain. Expectations lead to guilt, shame, judgement and disappointment. A relationship of expectancy with God or others is without definition, only excitement in the unique gift of being together.
Living by priorities sees tings as a hierarchy.
Religion uses law to gain power and control inorder to survive.
God gives us the ability to respond and our response is to be free to love and serve in every situation and thus each moment is different, unique and wonderful.
“It is not a secret. God is everywhere”.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
ON ORIGINAL SIN by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
And as told by the author of Genesis, Adam ate of the Apple because a snake had got Eve to eat of the Apple – and I, God, got so mad I tagged all mankind with corruption and depravity, now and forever, to be inherent in every man, woman and child because of Adam’s original disobedience.
And, if you believe that… you really need to read the rest of the story in my notes. In away you will be eating of my Apple of Knowledge.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
ON PRAYER – What is it good for? ~ by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
I really believe prayer is good psychology for many. Whether you believe or not, when you give up your problems to your God or say or think them out loud or to yourself or to the wind, you will feel better.
Your own prayer at bedtime may even help you sleep by giving up your problems.
Here are two prayers I love for their ideas and good psychology.
THE AMERICAN PRAYER by Gary Bahr
Let us all work harder for a United States we can all be proud of:
▪ Where war is a last resort and not a goal to secure oil fields of other nations.
▪ Where protecting life means valuing all life including the unborn child; our young American soldiers; innocent men, women and children in Iraq and other war victims; or those sentenced to death by imperfect legal systems – instead of just a limited political ideology meant to secure votes.
▪ Where political leaders do not use falsehoods to fool the American people or our congress-people.
▪ Where congressmen and congresswomen are intelligent enough to analyze intelligent reports.
▪ Where the blessings of peace, love and understanding are valued more than name-calling, hate and anger, threats, sanctions and moratoriums.
▪ Where our government responds quickly and massively to the needs of all people caught in war and natural disasters regardless of their political, religious or racial demography of the country, state or area.
▪ Where our respect for all people and all nations exceeds our demand for respect.
▪ Where godliness means loving each other – including Muslims, gays, immigrants and enemies real or imagined.
▪ Where worship is done in secret and rewarded in secret – instead of displayed in political meetings for votes.
▪ Where the wisdom of our forefathers separating church and state is respected so we can all forever worship in freedom.
▪ Where equality is for all including straights, gays, lesbians, Black, Mexican, Jewish, Catholic or other.
▪ Where every child is provided an equal education opportunity.
▪ Where health care is a right of all Americans as it is for all Iraqi citizens, prisoners, our legislators, state and county employees, seniors and veterans.
▪ Where legislation benefits all the people instead of just a few.
▪ Where taxes tax all and exemptions benefit all equitably.
▪ Where votes are counted in all states, and if necessary re-counted, with proof in the form of a receipt or paper ballot.
▪ Where no government, party or person can do anything to discourage another from voting.
▪ Where pensions and social security are secure and not made pray for wealthy stockbrokers and big corporations.
▪ Where all votes are equally as important as those of a $100,000 contributor to a political party or politician.
▪ Where deficit spending is forbidden unless in times of war declared by congress.
▪ Where incumbent politicians are voted out in the next election if they did not fulfill their promises or expectations during their term.
▪ Where our young people are sent to college and not to Iraq…
▪ Where the political and religious ideologies of all are respected and discussed and learned and understood – but not forced on anyone.
▪ Where money is removed from politics and Supreme Court Justices reverse Citizens United allowing corporations and unions to donate all the money they can to advance their interests.
▪ And, where our country leads all countries in encouraging all nations to live together in peace and harmony on Earth.
THE PRAYER OF SAINT FRANCIS
The prayer was written by Saint Francis. It is good wisdom. This is a great way to think! And the best prayer I have ever seen. So if you are inclined to pray, use this prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
See The Wise Prophet et al at Gary Bahr
ON WAR by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
Bush and Chaney wanted war in Iraq. The people of the U.S. and the people in Iraq did not want this illegal war. Intelligent leaders worldwide could not justify war for revenge, oil or Halliburton contracts.
Lies were offered as proof of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Inspectors had found no such weapons. Saddam, who we setup as dictator of Iraq, was not good, but was not part of 9/11. We had disarmed him thru the U.N. and thus we could easily win a battle.
Yes, we should have tracked down Osama bin Laden – which was finally done under President Obama.
But we forgot a great lesson in history – that no nation can occupy another for long. King George, in 1776, sent 20,000 troops to put down violence and defeat the American “insurgents”. The insurgents won over time.
President Bush called the bombing of Iraq – “Shock and Awe.” 3000 Americans killed and 20,000 wounded deserve better. 100,000 plus innocent men, women and kids killed in Iraq and the 500,000 plus dead by our prior sanctions created millions in Iraq and the Middle-East who now hate us.
As a nation, we should only go to war in self-defense, under real threat or with U.N. forces.
See TheWise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
SAVE THE WORLD by Martin Richard, A Wise Young Prophet, The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr For Others
Martin Richard – the 8 year old boy killed in the Boston Marathon Race bombing – shortly before his death made a sign that said –
“No More Hurting People! PEACE!”
Let us all SAVE our world – Stop All Violence Everywhere. Let us stop hurting people. Let us all race toward a world and goal where nobody hurts other people in honor of all those senselessly killed whether in war, peace, hate, revenge, or in the name of God or a prophet, or for any reason. No more hurting people. No more hurting people. Love one another.
Stop
All
Violence
Everywhere
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
It is the right of all in America to practice their own religion the way they want and I would never give up that right for a State sanctioned, State mandated or Republican or Democrat or Jew or Muslim or Catholic or Protestant or Majority telling me what prayer to say or what church to attend or what to believe. Our founders (Tom Jefferson – my hero) intended that the State not setup a religion for us in any way, but welcome all faiths of each of us. Jesus accepted even those of little faith. I love it!
The Courts have re-enforced separation of the church and state and our right to freedom of religion for each of us – not for a minority, not even for the majority, but for each of us. That is far more important than any specific prayer of any faith leading any meeting or “our” commandments being posted anywhere. The rights of the majority cannot be allowed to dictate our individual beliefs. What if the majority believes in 3 Gods, or abortion or war and I believe in 1 God, adoption and thou shall not kill.
Religion in England 300 years ago drove freedom-loving Christians to America. Religion in Germany during Hitler or in Russia the past 60 years or in Afghanistan under the Taliban may not be pretty when Government dictated what the people must believe.
No one is telling us not to pray or praise God or honor the commandments or to not believe. That is a beautiful thing. Jesus says pray in secret and be rewarded in secret. Separation of Church & State re-enforces that beautiful principal and does not force a prayer or a belief on another. Everyone in America is not a white-god-fearing-Christian. Everyone is not a Protestant or Catholic or Morman or Jew. Each of us has our own prayer and beliefs. Are you ready to give up your beliefs for a majority in Wisconsin or the Midwest or United States or the World? I welcome Jews, Muslims, Mormans and even Athiests to pray in secret and be rewarded in secret with me, or to not pray.
And, under these principals – no one has been more richly rewarded than I and the United States.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
The Wise Prophet by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
We are all saints, Prophets and wise… Believers and Doubters… each in our own way. You may agree with The Wise Prophet or disagree, adopt or reject, laugh or cry ~ just as you do with all writings.
He who speaks the truth often talks to himself. ~ Author unknown
King James Version – Luke 4:24 – And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
The Wise Prophet Version – “Some will believe me, some won’t.”
Note: Thank God FaceBook does not have a hate button.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
Virtues of Ben Franklin by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and Others
NOTE: Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
One of the Fathers of the United States, leader and diplomat, signed Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, inventor, scientist, writer and printing press operator. At the age of 20, developed a “Plan” for regulating his future conduct.?
His “Plan” was made up of 13 virtues:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.
11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
He practiced one a week and then repeated for a year and as needed thereafter until he conquered them.
See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.
Gary Bahr - Author of the Universe 