"The Word"
God the Father has given us the "Word". “In the beginning there was the Word; and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
God has placed His inerrant Word, His spiritual Word, and His eternal Word in the Bible. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God.
As children of God, we are instructed to study the Word, meditate on the Word, and remain in the Word. God has promised to reveal an understanding of the Word to those who diligently seek Him.
I can remember in my days as a child, being introduced to the Word of God by my mother, grandmother, teachers, and clergy. In those years it was described to me as, “God’s Word” or “The Gospel” or even simply “The Bible”.
My mother was raised in a strict Catholic environment, where the nuns laid down the letter of the law and the Priest was all-knowing, holy, and reverent. Forgiveness could be achieved by penance, the rosary and confession to the all-knowing Priest.
Religion seemed to define who you were and how you were to behave. If you were not obedient and did not have “the fear of the Lord” in you, you were “in danger of hell’s fire”.
Catholicism
Unlike many Catholics in the seventies, I was not completely convinced that Catholicism was the only “correct” religion.
In all honesty, as a young man and a member of the Catholic faith, I believe I felt as if I had to be completely perfect to get into heaven. I worried that if ever I committed a sin, and died before a necessary priestly confession, I might not get into heaven at all.
Despite these misgivings on my part, my Mother was keen on having her children obtain a Catholic school education, where the Word of God was a key component of the educational experience.
Nonetheless, my Mother who was raised in a strict Catholic environment herself, seemed surprisingly open to exploring the concepts in other religious practices.
I remember her talking about such religions, as the Church of God in Christ, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Science, and the Muslim faith.
I must admit that her curiosity for other religions confused me and caused me to question her faith in the Word of God, particularly as it related to the doctrine of the Bible and her faith in Jesus Christ.
My mother was an expert at confusing me with her answers. She often had a thorough and complex explanation for which I remembered either not being complete agreement with, or not fully understanding.
She seemed to be saying that there was no “completely correct” religion, but instead we had to remain open- minded to other religious practices. While I was not sure what that meant exactly, I respected my mother and her decision to expand and explore more than one practice of religion.
I had a deep respect for the Catholic church and a profound admiration and love for my teachers of the Catholic faith, specifically the nuns and priest of my church and school.
I can remember going to Catholic mass with the family. The mass was always orderly and formal, where the congregation would simultaneously rise and stand, kneel and sit, rise and stand, kneel and sit in almost prefect candace.
The priest would announce, “Peace be with you” and the congregation would respond in perfect harmony, “And also with you.” At the end of each section of the liturgy, the congregation would make the sign of the cross in an act that almost seemed subconsciously robotic.
In addition to respect and admiration, there were many other things I took pleasure in regarding the Catholic religion.
For instance, the overt kindness of fellow Christians, the emphasis on charity and humility and the focus on loving your brother and sister as fellow children of God all stuck with me throughout my life.
I believe that the focus on discipline and strict codes of conduct in the Catholic schools created extraordinary men and women.
I loved that everything regarding Catholicism had an orderly process and repetition. This process seemed to create a comfortable system of known expectations, and thus in some ways had a calming effect.
Even as a now, non-denominational Christian, I believe my Catholic school education had a much more profound effect on my character than just the teaching of the Catholic religion.
Non-denominational
I recall watching non-denominational church on the television, with my mother. I remember the first time I sat down in front of a TV to hear a sermon by Oral Roberts.
While I do not remember many of the details of sermons, I do remember, as most children would, the songs they would sing. I would sing along with songs like, “…Something good is going to happen to you, this very day…” and “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world”.
I can also recount songs from my parochial school kindergarten class and singing along with the other children, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so” and “He’s got the whole world in His hands…”. There is no doubt that these simple songs, embedded deep into my childhood memory, had a deep and everlasting effect upon my destined path.
I distinctly remember hearing my grandmother listening on her old single speaker radio to Reverend Ike, a 1970’s prosperity preacher, exclaim his “I AM” philosophy.
I was fascinated with his ability to so effectively teach his ideas of the “I AM” philosophy and the “Oneness with God” concept.
His charismatic approach to preaching was so captivating, that even I, as a young boy, was drawn to it.
I have maintained a life-long fascinated by the concept of the “I AM”, as will be evident by this book.
I believe these early exposures to the Word of God helped to shape my intellectual curiosity and desire to better understand this entity known as the “Word of God”.
The Seven Spiritual Realms of Spiritual Wellness
I came to understand that the Bible's core function was to reveal in His inerrant Word to his children. Armed with this understanding, I became determined to conquer the secrets hidden in the Word.
As a young man, I often found it difficult to grasp the entire concept of the “Word of God”.
It was made up of tens of thousands of different words placed in thousands of different verses of scripture.
Therefore, I choose to attempt to decipher "the Word" by looking for patterns and themes in the words and scriptures of the Bible. In doing so I discovered, “The Seven Realms of Spiritual Wellness"- The Secret Power of ‘Trilateral’ Words and Scriptures of the Bible”.
In this book, I describe my transformational journey from lower consciousness thinking to higher consciousness knowing and the discovery of a unique connection between spiritual wellness and the Word of God.
During this journey, I discovered a secret pathway, hidden in plain sight, that allows you to travel to from the realms of lower consciousness to the realms of higher consciousness and subsequently spiritual wellness.
This pathway traverses our consciousness by way of focused prayer and spiritual meditation on specific words and scriptures of the Bible (Biblical Meditation).
This discovery of the trilateral cadence of the Bible transformed my life and I believe it can transform your life as well.
Very interesting read as always. I too was raised catholic and discovered early on that I didn’t subscribe to their way of teaching. I feel like I’m still on a spiritual journey and like you mentioned with regards to your mom I also keep an open mind when it comes to the beliefs of others.