How does He speak to YOU!

I've always been fascinated by how God speaks to us all, and as I'm doing a lot of writing/reading these days, I've found there is very little on this subject that's of any real use. Lots of "5 Easy Steps" and formulas that just don't cut it. And I find so many christians who say they don't really know.

So what I'd like from every single one of my adoring fans (and even those who only read this to see what heresies I'm currently exploring!) is a description of how God speaks to you - personally. 

I don't want biblical answers, scriptures or things the church have told you, I want to know how He speaks to your heart, how you "hear His voice". I'd love to hear whatever it is you want to share.

I won't be quoting anyone anywhere and it will be used purely for my research. You can comment here, Facebook me if you are a friend, or email me on jimarjoram@yahoo.co.nz if you want to be more discreet.

Thanks folks - looking forward to a plethora of diverse communications!

One Year On - A Reflection

On the 5th July it will be 1 year since Min died.

On what premise should love's seed take root
Why do hearts agree to entwine?
Its a tango line dance left footed clumsy
Red rose thorn through the lip

A journey of lesson's rewards
Chalkboard revision
Playground derision
Laughter, swings and slides

Familiarity cushions falls
Open arms understanding
Reach through eye's deep wells
Embracing an inner child

Run hard with bleeding feet
To beat the passion tide
Racing to fulfilment
Dreams burn inside

Peace is won on rodeo pain
Lying wounded in straw and dust
Questions fade in sad smiles
Deep answers unspoken

The light returns to the foundations of time
Fleeting flesh resigns
Freeing the spark to ignite new stars
And birth the new song

What We All Need

We all need to be loved

Absolutely, every single person ever created needs to be loved -

• The girl in the call centre who just keeps quoting the fixed responses to you
• The policeman who just pulled you over for not signalling when you have 3 screaming kids in the car and have just had the worst day of your life
• The redneck bigot shouting racist abuse in a protest
• The teenager that just gave you the finger
• The young black guy that stole your bag
• The politician that just made the most blatantly stupid policy change the nation has ever seen
• Your mother in law
• Hitler

All they need is love. That's it.

They don't need to be told how bad they are -

• How rude
• How unforgiving
• How thoughtless
• How selfish
• How evil

They need love.
I need love.

I don't respond well when my faults are pointed out - in patronising innuendos.
Yeah, sometimes I need to be reminded, when I tread on a toe or two. But I need to laugh more than cry, I need love to heal the pain. I need total unconditional love no matter what.

God IS love. Jesus is what love looked like in the flesh.

He cleared away ALL laws/religion/sin before the foundation of time - revealed the fact 2000 years ago - and left room for nothing else but love.

Everything that isn't love can be banished by love.

• We renew our minds by love
• Resist evil by love
• Stand strong in love
• Relate to all mankind in love

There is no law, at all, any more, ever.

• No wisdom principles
• No guiding morals
• No 10 commandments
• No golden rules
• No 4 spiritual laws
• No two greatest commandments

There is only one thing left:

LOVE

My new favourite word

Intimacy...

It's my new favourite word.

Intimacy...
Sounds good!!

I often talk about it and I seem to keep repeating myself before I've realised. I've posted a few things about hearing God and being natural with Him - all that sort of stuff. And my last post was about sex, which is really intimate stuff.

But I've come to the conclusion that its the only thing that matters. I mean, its the only reason we were created!
We weren't created to worship God, or share in his creation, be part of a new world order, or any other reason that escapes me at this moment, I'm sure you've heard lots of reasons.

But all God wants is US. He only created us so He could share Himself with us. He gave us unique characters that are independent of Him, so we can develop into wonderfully "one of a kind" creatures. And then he sorts out all the crappy stuff that we pick up on the way, living in complete union with us.

So if we aint got intimacy, we are missing the WHOLE point of our existence. God is Love, the essence of love is intimacy. Deep mutual sharing of life, entwined hearts, unhindered communication, one with each other, at rest in each other's presence.

After every doctrine, theology, religion and opinion has blown away like dust, all that remains is Him and us. Him in us. Us in Him. Not pantheism, or other variations on that theme, although there are wonderful truths in all these things. God is PERSONAL, knowable, lovable, as well as omnipresent, and all the other "omnis". He gave us everything we need to live in the place of love and union with Him and each other. So much so that we don't even need to think about sin, laws, principles and rituals - just enjoy Him and each other.

What about all the evil, pain and suffering though? Where does it fit in with this wonderful fluffy love picture? What do I say to a mother who has lost her children, and all the horrors that confront me daily? It doesn't negate the nature of God - who He is, what He's done, and how He relates to me. Its an issue of perspective. How often do we say to someone suffering "its Ok, all will be well eventually - it will all work out"? Its our first reaction from deep down inside. Its our hope for something better. And its a link with our eternal nature.

If God is not intensely personal, then everything is ultimately meaningless. Compassion is God working through us, to each other. It is Love here and now, His aching and desire for us made real. Compassion must eventually draw each individual into union with God, otherwise, it too is empty. We must all ultimately find our own love relationship with Him, and when we do, we'll see that suffering isn't the consequence of a God absent from the world, its the consequence of our not embracing Him, and allowing Him to give us eternal eyes, and receiving His love until it fills us to overflowing!

Its all about intimacy!

Sex

I bet that title got you interested! No hesitation there, lets check this one out!

Well, this is an X rated blog, so if you are under 18 you'd better find something else to read!

Right then!!

In reality we only have allegory and metaphor regarding sex in scripture. So that is where I want to explore. There's obviously comparisons to the church, which we smile and say "isn't that nice", how romantic etc. But there's this whole thing about intimacy. There's Song of Solomon, which is kind of scary cos it gets rather detailed about sensual things. And there's also a lot more subtle things through scripture about our relationship with God that are there for anyone to see, but we just don't want to really know about.

First up, Song of Solomon, describes a very sensual relationship, and a desire for physical, passionate love. So how do we interpret that for the church, i.e. us, i.e. me and God, right now? Think on that for a moment.

Let's look at things from the human perspective. We are made in the image of God, so sex and all that entails, must be an aspect of God's being. We find someone that we fall in love with. That's not just a really close friend. There's something that ignites a physical desire, that pleases the eyes and ignites the hormones. This draws us into a desire to really know the other person. To spend hours exploring hearts and minds, desires and pain, and to explore each others bodies, culminating in the act of sex, a physical penetration of the body resulting in intense pleasure and forming a bond that poets and artist only can describe.

So how does that relate to us and God? I can easily understand the desire to get to know each other, but then it gets a bit odd. Do we have sex with God? I mean is that just bizarre or what? But intimate relationships are supposed to be a picture of our relationship with God, so there must be something to it!

Some people have touched on it to some degree when they are completely overwhelmed by God's love and feel totally immersed in Him, to the point of being unaware of anything else around them. Some call it getting blissed or whatever and to me it looks more like an orgy (yeah, I know...). But maybe its different to that. Its something that happens in personal intimacy, just you and God, behind closed doors so to speak. He draws you close and he penetrates your heart and mind, pushing through the flesh and pumping his life into you. Its something that gives him and us incredible pleasure, something we can rest in, knowing that there is a bond and union there that only the two of you can understand.

This is unity with God, anything less than that is platonic. We can talk about it, but until we actually do it, its like bragging to our friends about how good someone is in bed when its just never happened.

So how does that really work, I mean that kind of IS having sex with God. And how do we initiate it and, well, this is just weird. I have experienced times that come so close to it - awesome moments of unity, and in all truth, I back off in fear. But I know that I know, its what he wants. I'm not worried though that I'm missing out, because he's gentle and understands my fear, and knows that I want him more than anything. And something that is even scarier - we all take on the female role in this relationship! And that's something not many guys are willing to even think about.

So is this crazy stuff? Am I really loosing it? Seriously? Or is this something He intended all along and its just prudish legalistic greek thinking religion that has denied us of His pleasures?

Kings Cross

Back in the 70s I lived near Kings Cross in Sydney (the red light district for those who may not know). I spent a lot of time wandering around there, fascinated by the people, life, glitz, pain and passion.

I wrote three poems back then that reflect some of that. Not the happiest of observations, but very real at the time.

Bohemian

Bohemians night wave

   Ever bright, never right

Moving through neons

   Whores boredom's delight

      A farce, tight through the night

Boots glitter with steel

Raking laughter through gutters to sheol

Hot malt sweet air slices the chill

Inciting tempers, baiting the kill

Mechanical hearts!

Porch Light

The ringing of silence

Invades his ears

He listens to the voices and steps

   of distant revellers

Wending home to a morning after

The porch lights silhouette silk hair

And his eyes glitter in street fluorescents

A love song from a wailing tom

   hopeful excuses, avoided

   perhaps a tear

   or a smile and a sigh

A look and he's seen and understood

So the door closes and the light dies

And he turns to count weary steps home

Mutton

She sat, pensive and transfixed

   at her own mirror image

Brush poised to stoke away vain fears

   her hand then flowed

And bristles pulled at memories

   of the future

Each decisive stroke jerked and slowed

   trailing off at static split ends

Mutton dressed as lamb, some would say

A glance would confirm

   Lipstick a shade too bright

   Rouge a shade too red

   Lashes a thickness too black

And eyes that glared

   conceit and pride

   softness and tears, welling up and over the brink of self pity

A lifetime taken its toll

The world beaten out a mould for her

   and those who would pass and see

   would pour a little more of her into it

She had a place, amongst the shabby people

The dead artists and those who would not die

Fluttering through past flames of glory, or illusion

She would be there

   stoking the blaze

Alive with the fear of an empty room

Delicately she would skim the top

   off her bowl of life

seeing each time how little was left

   slowly congealing

   like the blood in her veins

   and the bitterness in her soul

Change

Wheels of paradigm should not be so inclined

To maintain the grinding of the soul's seeds

Flouring petals denied their bloom

Wheels of paradigm may never be inclined down slopes

Less explored, dust and hopes

Ignore petals allowed their glory

Slumber cyclic dreams

Self fulfilled fear

Comfort of the known caress 

Lulled, gentle turning and returning

    The broken mind knows its mind

    And doesn't mind its paradigm

    A broken mind seeks to find

    Another mind beyond its kind

Fingers of change push in to the damp soil of the heart

Lifting and turning, feeling for smothered bulbs

That long for light to shine radiant petals

Breaking through broken wheels that were inclined

To explore dust and hope

The cycle of growth breaks dreams

Of comforting caress

Exposing to sunlight, creating duress

To change, to roll wheels

Kick heals, new ideals

Dry bulb's sleeping petals

Burst colour, life

Undreamed, unformed

Never too late