A shared blog. My art P G Kimble 1957- Writing from Hannah Smith 1832-1911

                           PEACE AND LOVE TO YOU ALL

                                               

   This I painted yesterday, with Gods help.

The artist P G Kimble inside Rembrandts dream.  

                    HANNAH WHITALL SMITH

  -WHAT FAITH REALLY IS -

Your idea of faith, I suppose, has been something like this. You have looked upon it in some way a sort of thing - either a religious exercise of soul, or an inward, gracious disposition of heart; something tangible, in fact, which, when you have secured it, you can look at and rejoice over, and use as a passport to God`s favour, or a coin with which to purchase his gifts. And you have been praying for faith, expecting all the while to get something like this; and never having received any such thing, you are insisting upon it that you have no faith. Now faith, in fact, is not in the least like this. It is nothing at all tangible. It is simply believing God; and, like sight, it is nothing apart from its object. You might as well shut your eyes and look inside to see whether you have sight, as to look inside to discover whether you have faith. You see something, and thus know that you have sight; you believe something, and thus know that you have faith. For as sight is only seeing, so faith is only believing. And as the only necessary thing about sight is that you see the thing as it is, so the only necessary thing about faith is that
you believe the thing as it is. The virtue does not lie in your believing, but in the thing you believe.

       FREE FORGIVENESS

Our feeling is that it is presumptuous, and even almost impertinent, to go at once to the Lord, after having sinned against him. It seems as if we ought to suffer the consequences of our sin first for a little while, and endure the accusings of our conscience; and we can hardly believe that the Lord can be willing at once to receive us back into loving fellowship with himself.

  A little girl once expressed this feeling to me, with a child`s outspoken candour. She had asked whether the Lord Jesus always forgave us for our sins as soon as we asked him, and I had said, `Yes, of course he does.` `Just as soon?` she repeated doubtingly. `Yes,` I replied, `the very minute we ask, he forgives us.` `Well,` she said deliberately, `I cannot believe that. I should think he would make us feel sorry for two or three days first. And then I should think he would make us ask him a great many times, and in a very pretty way too, not just in common talk. And I believe that is the way he does, and you need not try to make me think he forgives me right at once, no matter what the Bible says.` She only said what most Christians think, and what is worse, what most Christians act on, making their discouragement and their remorse separate them infinitely further off from God than their sin would have done.

                          ******************************************************
 Now this is back to my writing and its more off the cuff than above is! 

There was a saying by a renowned philosopher, it may well have been Descartes, `The more I learn the less I understand.`  Now as one who tries to keep walking in the light and denying ego, I have been meditating on turning this saying around and considering if it holds the same meaning. `The less I understand, the more I learn.` This is going to take some meditation on, as I think it is very different from 2+2=4 being the same as 4=2+2! 
Hmm, I should probably explain more fully about, `The less I understand, the more I learn.`
Trying to understand the reason and meaning to everything can interrupt the flow.
We must if we want to follow a spiritual path, unlearn some of our worldly knowledge.


                                                          Examples
Looking good is important. X
Always put your own interests 1st. X
You live and then you die and that is it and so you might as well get what you can while you can. X 

If I dont spend unnecessary time thinking and spend more time doing good works, then the universe is that little better off for it. Saying this, I shall end here and go over the woods and the meadow, litter picking and giving thanks for my ability to do this today.

May those in prison unjustly or because of justice, find peace and know Gods love and grace.
May those bed bound pray for those who have to labour hard and long hours to barely scratch a living.
May those in a state of loving bliss pray for the feeling to go out and be share with others.

Bye for now, although I may be back later in the day. The sun is coming out and I will take the camera as I go litter picking.

My love to you all.   Peter