No 1414 of Living Life Series 1
The Word is God. God is the Word. When we go to God, do we go for the Word or do we go for the person God is?
If we go for the person God is, then we are missing the point if we just go for the man we see in God. We will end up seeing Man in God.
God is no man and man is not God. What happens when we see the man in God? We are belittling God and what we want for ourselves as man become what God wants. God becomes loving and yet hating at the same time.
How this arises is not difficult to realise. When man loves those who agree with him and are out to please him, man tends to hate or at least dislike those who disagree and don't see eye to eye with him.
But with God, how can God hates or dislikes and even condemns those he don't like to hell.
Man likes others to fear him. But how can we expect God to want men to be God fearing and is fear a virtue? It certainly is regarded as virtue by some.
Man may want others to fear and tremble in front of him in the ancient past. They expect we handle God the same way. We are to fear God as God surely is more to be feared than man and even more the case with the all powerful emperor of a country in ancient past. But over the centuries, this is not the case over time and this is good if men can outgrow this.
Somehow a man at the helm likes the idea that others kowtow and idolise him as though he is stand-in or mouthpiece of God. This blinds other men to his mistakes. They don't even think he had made mistakes because their fear of him stops them from thinking and realising their mistakes in not seeing his mistakes.
When we see God as a person, we transfer our own subconscious desire of being a dominating authoritarian figure on God. God becomes a tyrant though we say God is loving. We made God as mirroring our own image of what we want - power and control.
How can a loving God punishes and hates those who erred? How loving is such a God? But being God fearing, this simple logic is ignored. We cannot philosophize any issue or doubts with regards to God.
With this wrong thinking, man says that all God wants is for us to seek forgiveness when what we should do is to know where we go wrong and correct ourselves.
Do we hurt God by any chance? On the contrary, God is beyond hurt and praise.
Man on the contrary is vulnerable and can be hurt and often feel insecure. Man wants praise, adoration and glory but not God.
Thus fleshing out God as man, seeing the man in God or the person is to misrepresent God. We may say that this is blasphemous.
But in the first place, blasphemy implies insult and not doing justice to God - hurting God. By right, if God is God, there is no blasphemy concept. God is beyond blasphemy.
We should see God as the Word or Truth. Truth or doctrine is what he stands for. Doing good and be good, pure and peaceful is what God expects out of us for our own good and not for the good of God. God does not need us to do good for his sake.
He who knows the Word or doctrine knows God or saint. He who does not know knows not God or saint. This is what Bo Tien 武 天 said. God and all saints said this as well. Bo Tien 武 天 takes no credit as the one who said this. He just wants to pint this out once again and hopes man can see reality.
Do not idolise God or saint. God or saint is beyond need for idolising or hero worshipping. That we know but why is it still good to sing praises, glorifying him and even fearing and trembling in his presence? God knows even if men don't seem to know.
But like children to their fathers, children must still grow up initially fearing the father, doing his bidding without question and ever always thinking that father knows best.
But if children eventually grow up to be adults, these attributes must change though they must still respect the father as elder. If they do not change and grow up, they will not be able to fend for themselves.
What the father taught them are the values and skills to equip them to be independent and to be able to fend for themselves as adults. The father will still be on standby to help if needed.
This is just like what God and saints do. They treat us as their children when we are new to them but wants us to grow with life. They teach us the Word or doctrine - the Truth. This will equip us for spiritual growth as we mature in spirituality.
Truth equips us to stand on our own. No wonder, we are told that God is the Word and the Word is God. God knows even if man don't.
God or any saint knows it is the Word that counts and the Word is what God stands for. God knows even if man don't. The Word is God.
Those who think they are right may end up wrong. Those whom others think as wrong may actually be right in the long run. The near may be far and the far near. This Bo Tien 武 天 would like to share with us regardless of our religion, culture and nation.
Perhaps, we must hold our tongues. Judge not lest we be judged. Don't say a religious practice is wrong or right. Every belief has its own usefulness and its time and place for the benefit of mankind. It is the context that counts.
Over time, we must use a belief as a raft to cross the river. When we reach the other shore, the raft has served its purpose and we need to use another way to move on - by feet, by bicycle or whatever.
If we go for the person God is, then we are missing the point if we just go for the man we see in God. We will end up seeing Man in God.
God is no man and man is not God. What happens when we see the man in God? We are belittling God and what we want for ourselves as man become what God wants. God becomes loving and yet hating at the same time.
How this arises is not difficult to realise. When man loves those who agree with him and are out to please him, man tends to hate or at least dislike those who disagree and don't see eye to eye with him.
But with God, how can God hates or dislikes and even condemns those he don't like to hell.
Man likes others to fear him. But how can we expect God to want men to be God fearing and is fear a virtue? It certainly is regarded as virtue by some.
Man may want others to fear and tremble in front of him in the ancient past. They expect we handle God the same way. We are to fear God as God surely is more to be feared than man and even more the case with the all powerful emperor of a country in ancient past. But over the centuries, this is not the case over time and this is good if men can outgrow this.
Somehow a man at the helm likes the idea that others kowtow and idolise him as though he is stand-in or mouthpiece of God. This blinds other men to his mistakes. They don't even think he had made mistakes because their fear of him stops them from thinking and realising their mistakes in not seeing his mistakes.
When we see God as a person, we transfer our own subconscious desire of being a dominating authoritarian figure on God. God becomes a tyrant though we say God is loving. We made God as mirroring our own image of what we want - power and control.
How can a loving God punishes and hates those who erred? How loving is such a God? But being God fearing, this simple logic is ignored. We cannot philosophize any issue or doubts with regards to God.
With this wrong thinking, man says that all God wants is for us to seek forgiveness when what we should do is to know where we go wrong and correct ourselves.
Do we hurt God by any chance? On the contrary, God is beyond hurt and praise.
Man on the contrary is vulnerable and can be hurt and often feel insecure. Man wants praise, adoration and glory but not God.
Thus fleshing out God as man, seeing the man in God or the person is to misrepresent God. We may say that this is blasphemous.
But in the first place, blasphemy implies insult and not doing justice to God - hurting God. By right, if God is God, there is no blasphemy concept. God is beyond blasphemy.
We should see God as the Word or Truth. Truth or doctrine is what he stands for. Doing good and be good, pure and peaceful is what God expects out of us for our own good and not for the good of God. God does not need us to do good for his sake.
He who knows the Word or doctrine knows God or saint. He who does not know knows not God or saint. This is what Bo Tien 武 天 said. God and all saints said this as well. Bo Tien 武 天 takes no credit as the one who said this. He just wants to pint this out once again and hopes man can see reality.
But like children to their fathers, children must still grow up initially fearing the father, doing his bidding without question and ever always thinking that father knows best.
But if children eventually grow up to be adults, these attributes must change though they must still respect the father as elder. If they do not change and grow up, they will not be able to fend for themselves.
What the father taught them are the values and skills to equip them to be independent and to be able to fend for themselves as adults. The father will still be on standby to help if needed.
This is just like what God and saints do. They treat us as their children when we are new to them but wants us to grow with life. They teach us the Word or doctrine - the Truth. This will equip us for spiritual growth as we mature in spirituality.
Truth equips us to stand on our own. No wonder, we are told that God is the Word and the Word is God. God knows even if man don't.
God or any saint knows it is the Word that counts and the Word is what God stands for. God knows even if man don't. The Word is God.
Those who think they are right may end up wrong. Those whom others think as wrong may actually be right in the long run. The near may be far and the far near. This Bo Tien 武 天 would like to share with us regardless of our religion, culture and nation.
Perhaps, we must hold our tongues. Judge not lest we be judged. Don't say a religious practice is wrong or right. Every belief has its own usefulness and its time and place for the benefit of mankind. It is the context that counts.
Over time, we must use a belief as a raft to cross the river. When we reach the other shore, the raft has served its purpose and we need to use another way to move on - by feet, by bicycle or whatever.
