A book that offers new hope for humanity

Let me introduce you to a book that offers a new hope for the future of humankind. Once we humans embrace the book's leading concept of Oneness, at that moment we will enter into a New Age, an age where no human will be seen as useless, or undesirable, where no child will be allowed to go to bed hungry for lack of food or for the tender loving touch of parents.

The book offers a new view of God and man. Inside, you will enter a world of paradox, where perspective creates perception, and perception your experience. You're going to receive answers to Questions that may have plagued you for years. Questions about good and evil, about sin, about Heaven and Hell, about why the world is the way it is, about abortion, about homosexuality, about tyrants, about the nature of God and your relationship to Him, about marriage, about relationships in general, about why we're here, about life and death, and about the incomparable Love of God.

The book was listed on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year. Perhaps you have heard of it, but dismissed it because you felt it wouldn't mesh with your religious views, or your Christian teachings. The book has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and is esteemed worldwide. It was the beginning of several books to follow, all of which have enjoyed a worldwide reception, and acceptance.

Drum rolls, please. The title of the book is, Conversations with God, An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1), by Neale Donald Walsch.

Now before you exclaim that a "conversation with God" seems highly unlikely, let me offer to you my experience with the book. While reading the book for the first time any number of additional questions came to mind about the book's content. I would ask God for an explanation. The explanation came in three ways: (1) I would hear the answer; or (2) I would see the answer; or (3) I would just know the answer, and would have to summon words to give verbal shape to what I knew.

I received enough additional information that way I could have written a book myself. It was, as I read, like having a running dialogue with God.

The book came to me right after an automobile accident that left me injured and in pain for more than a month. Because I was between health plans at the time, I had no health coverage, and couldn't afford to see a doctor about my complaint.

While lying in bed reading the book one night, the pain reached a new intensity. I asked God why I was having such difficulty healing the injury. (Through prayer, I have had many rather remarkable healings over the years, but this one proved exceedingly stubborn.)

We had talked at length about it, before I realized that I was talking with someone (The conversation took place within.). At the end of the talk, and after I had been directed to a bible verse, the pain just disappeared.

Even now, I receive sporadic statements from this internal source--usually after I pose a question or face a dilemma. If you're not careful you, too, may find that you're having a conversation with God. Does this sound unimaginable? That's why so many ignore Him, they can't imagine that He talks with them. (Note the tense.)

I tell you this not to impress you, nor to legitimize the book, but to offer you one man's view of the material. It doesn't mean that you have to agree with anything you read, just because it states that it's a conversation with God. God, Himself (as presented in the book), would encourage you not to do that. He will urge you to find your own truth, especially if what He says contradicts violently with what you presently believe.

Further, on several key points, I find that some of the statements attributed to Him does not fully represent what I believe, so I cling to what I believe, without dismissing the whole book.

The God you will encounter in the book will not be the God that you might have imagined while growing up in the church, one having a long white beard, stern face, and meting out justice and vengeance. You will find there a God much like what you may have hoped He would be, perhaps the way you may have envisioned Jesus to be--warm, humorous, loving a good joke, and even telling one from time to time, witty, kind, compassionate, and loving. In short, you will find a God a lot like you, but without the negative traits we usually attribute to humans. It will give new meaning to the Biblical passage where Jesus states: "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."

I hope your curiosity is now running over, and your desire to expand your awareness, knowledge and wisdom is at fever pitch.

I would recommend that you read Book 1 of the trilogy first. The next two books, although they may be read on their own, will build on the first.

Interpretation of Numbers, Chapter 12, Verse 1-10

1 And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
2 And they said: 'Hath the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? hath He not spoken also with us?' And the LORD heard it.
3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.)
4 And the LORD spoke suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam: 'Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting.' And they three came out.
5 And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth.
6 And He said: 'Hear now My words: if there be a prophet among you, I the LORD do make Myself known unto him in a vision, I do speak with him in a dream.
7 My servant Moses is not so; he is trusted in all My house;
8 with him do I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD doth he behold; wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?'
9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and He departed.
10 And when the cloud was removed from over the Tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam; and, behold, she was leprous.

What's to follow is my attempt at an interpretation of the above passage from the Book of Numbers. I found the passage on blackfirewhitefire.blogspot.com. It's a wonderful site that always gives me a great deal of food for thought.

Here's my rather long response:

May I offer yet another interpretation. It's not that yours is not valid, because it is; its not that mine is better, because it's not.

It's just another interpretation, another way of looking at the same thing--that, and nothing more.

I realize that you're Jewish, and I hope you won't find offense in my use of quotes from my Christian Bible in my effort.

We're told that Moses was meek, and indeed he was:

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were
upon the face of the earth.

Now Jesus tells us this:

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth.

My dictionary tells me that meekness is synonymous with submissiveness. And so it is, but not submissive to the wishes of man, but to the wishes of God. One who is meek, then, seeks to know and do the will of God, and, because of that, resides in a blessed state.

Jesus, we're told, was also such a man.

The prideful and haughty (those who the Bible speaks against vehemently) seek primarily the execution of their own will, without consideration for what God wishes or desires.

Therefore, we're told that Moses is meek, and that meekness is a blessed state--because it is.

The Lord, that divine, spiritual presence, that wreaks so much havoc in the old testament (your Bible), is, for me, the Law of God.

What is that Law?

As the Lord gives it to Moses, stating it perfectly:

Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath
caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. Book Leviticus,
Chapter 24, Verse 20

Jesus states it this way:

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Book
Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 12

He casts the statement in a positive light, offering at the same time a way to keep the Law on your side.

And again in Galatians:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal 6:7

It has also been called Karma--a deed or action that carries its own consequence. What we have, then, is Miriam and Aaron (accusers) attacking God's servant (meekness). Moses represents this Great Light of God, against which no accusation can stand.

As we reside in that Great Light of Meekness, no power can stand against us, or accuse us before God.

Moses' greatest sin, according to his accusers, is that he had wedded himself to darkness (the absence of Light), represented here by the Cushite woman.

What Miriam and Aaron failed to understand is that darkness enhances the Light, giving it a greater brightness, a stronger brilliance. This marriage of Light with Darkness was within the divine Will and not outside of it. Something the accusers failed to see, and clearly brought out in this passage from Genesis:

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the
light from the darkness.5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Book
Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 4

No "darkness", no "first day."

Again we're told:

...wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My
servant, against Moses?' 9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them;
and He departed.

Evil, God's only accuser, should always tremble before goodness, the "servant of God."

Here follows a long passage, but it clarifies who the accuser is, as well as the accusation:

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, calledthe Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into theearth, and his angels were cast out with him.10 And I heard a loud voice sayingin heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Book Revelation, Chapter 12

I don't feel that the Lord/Law is actually angry in a human sense, but only appears to be, whenever retribution is delivered, as in "an eye for an eye."

The Law is the creation of an All-loving God, of whom it has been said: "God is Love...." It's the method by which evil, the usual product of a free will, is kept in check

For their foolish words, they both were punished: Miriam with leprosy, and Aaron to behold the result of his actions--Miriam's tortured condition

There's more to be said, but I'm afraid that I have taken up much too much of your blog space already.

Namaste