Tonight’s subject is “Love Endureth”We are told, “He who has not loved does not know God, for God is love.” This is not a conclusion that the prophet reached after years of philosophic study, but an act of God in self-revelation. If God never revealed himself to man, I doubt that man would ever know that God is love. But, in spite of all the horror of the world, I know from experience that God is love.
The apostle Paul tells us, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” Then he takes all the symbols of God and compares them to love. You could have all the wisdom of the world, all the power of the world, but if love is not present, your worldly power and wisdom is as nothing. There is no gift of the spirit comparable to love, and in the end love is the only thing that is alive. Faith will be fulfilled; hope will be realized. These are attributes of God, but love is not an attribute of God, God is love. When you stand in the presence of the Risen Christ you have only one emotion, only one feeling and that is love. And when love embraces you, you wear the body of the Risen Christ, the body of love. Everything in this world will pass away, but love will endure forever. So “He who does not love does not know God for God is love.”
Tonight, what I am about to tell you may seem incredible, but it is all scripture and all true. We are told, “Be persistent in the race, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and protector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame.” This is true, for I remember when he nailed himself on this body (this cross he now wears). He despised the shame, for he knew what he must experience before he committed the act. But he did it for your sake. Now you may wonder if there is any hope, any chance for his return. There is. Listen to his words, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.” May I tell you these statements are to be taken literally and fulfilled literally, although I know it doesn’t make sense on this level. That is why Myers, in his lovely poem “St. Paul” said:
“Oh could I tell he surely would believe it. Oh could I only say what I have seen. How can I? Or who will believe it? How, until he brings you to where I have been.”
Although it sounds terrible to think of drinking anyone’s blood, when he brings you to where I have been you will actually see God’s living, pulsing, golden liquid blood and say to yourself, “I know it is myself, Oh my divine creator and redeemer.” Then you will fuse with it and, absorbing it like a sponge, up you will go on the spiral stairway into the kingdom of heaven. That is your last day. And the last day comes to the individual every moment in time. It has already happened and it is still, in a sense, happening and will continue to happen until all are saved. Until everyone is redeemed, for God is redeeming himself.
Last summer, while visiting in New York City, I wanted to visit a bookstore I knew well and had visited regularly while living in New York City. I had purchased many books from Mary. She did not carry my books. In fact I doubt if she ever knew I wrote one. The lady was not interested in what the books contained, only in the profit they would provide. Whenever she noticed I was looking at a book, the moment I put it back on the shelf she removed it and changed the price. I know, for I have seen her do it. When I told a friend that I was going to the bookstore he said, “Haven’t you heard? Mary was killed last month and there is no more metaphysical library.”
Now, this lady and her husband had gone their separate ways, yet had remained married. One evening, taking only her change purse with her, Mary had gone to the grocery store and was on her way home when she was knocked down by a passing car and killed. Since there was no identification on her person, no next of kin had been notified. Five days later her husband stopped by the shop only to discover it was closed with unopened mail still on the floor. When he went to the police to file a missing person’s notice, they suggested he contact the morgue where he identified her body. Not for one moment could I arrest her attention as I have yours now. She made a considerable amount of money out of me. That was all she wanted, yet over the years she had many an opportunity to hear from one who had experienced scripture, but she wasn’t interested at all.
We are told that, at the end of his days Paul expounded to them from morning till night about Jesus, trying to persuade all who would listen to him using both the Law of Moses and the prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved. Mary never gave me the chance to convince her, but I tell you that everything said in that book called the Bible is literally true and will one day be experienced by you and fulfilled by you literally, even to the drinking of the blood.
You will recognize the blood of God as that which gave you life while you walked the earth. And “He who drinks my blood has life in himself.” “Because I live, you will live also.” See the difference in tense? Because I live… that’s present… you will live also. He is addressing the spiritual you. You who seem to be alive, but are really not until you drink my blood. I have animated you, for I have placed my blood within you. “Unless I die thou canst not live. But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me.” God died and his blood is in you and God is love.
So I tell you, Love Endureth. It was love who began a good work in you and it is love that will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. Love is the ultimate reality. If the word “Jesus” offends you, use “love”. Love said, “Let not your hearts be troubled for I AM the way, and the truth and the life.” That’s perfectly alright. Change the word “Jesus” to “love”, for Jesus is love, infinite love.
I want to thank you for sharing your visions as they come to you and I will use them as they apply to the topic I have chosen. One I can use tonight. This lady said, “In my dream I was looking for something, yet I didn’t know what it was I was to find. Then I discovered three coins in my left hand. Looking at them I said, ‘Shouldn’t there be thirty pieces of silver?’ and a voice answered saying, ‘No, you have three precious ones.’ A hand then reached out and removed a coin as the voice said, ‘This is faith.’ Removing the second it said, ‘This is hope’ and as the last one was removed it said, ‘This is love.’ Then I awoke.”
Here is the fulfillment of the 13th chapter of Corinthians, “Faith, hope and love, these three abide, but the greatest of these is love.” Faith will one day be transformed into vision and will, therefore, fulfill itself. Hope will be completely realized in this state, but God is love and therefore the greatest of these. She held the three precious ones in her hand and the voice began to speak. And whenever vision breaks forth into speech the presence of deity is affirmed, as told us in the 3rd of Exodus and the 6th of Isaiah.
I tell you, one day you will experience every word of scripture. Night after night scripture fulfills itself in me, like the 23rd Psalm. “The Lord is my Sheppard. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” Could you believe that psalm could be literally true? It is. During the last few years in New York City we were warned not to walk in the park, as there were muggers day and night. Regardless of these warnings, one day I felt an urge to go for a walk in the park. It had rained a great deal that spring, and I can’t tell you my thrill as I walked through the park and enjoyed the green, green grass. The following night I am with my earthly father. Although he died when he was 85, this night he appeared to be about 30. We were lying in this beautiful green grass, talking to each other. Then I said, “Would you believe it, only yesterday I dreamed that I saw this grass and remarked to myself how green it was, and now it is an objective reality.”
In my dream the grass was no longer subjective, but objectively real. So what is objective and what is subjective? Is it not wholly determined by the consciousness from which it is spoken? In a dream I am telling my father that this is a reality, and what I experienced only yesterday was the dream. Which was the fact and which was the reality? And who is my father? Christ tells us, “I AM the Father. He who sees me has seen the Father.” The whole vast world is seeking Christ. They are seeking the authority whose image is an earthly father. Seeking a creature of authority, a power said to be Christ, said to be better than, that they can submit themselves to. But the power being sought can only be found within. So when I met my father, I met the image and symbol of the authority I love. I have always loved my father. I would always submit myself to him and he was always generous and kind. So here I am stretched out on the grass with my father in complete fulfillment of the 23rd Psalm. “He made me to lie down in green pastures.” Who did? The Lord, he who calls himself my Father.
Night after night scripture unfolds within me and I experience it in a first person, present tense experience. But how to tell you until he brings you to where I have been. And he will bring you to that same level, and then you will know that everything said in scripture is fulfilled, literally.
So I tell you God, who is love, endures. Everything is going to pass away. It will simply pass from the earth, but Love Endureth forever. Everything else is an attribute of God. Faith will be fulfilled, hope will be fulfilled, they are all attributes, but God, who is love, endures forever.
I can’t tell you my thrill when someone who comes here has a vision of that nature. Her story has gone out, tonight, and you who have heard it will have the same experience. You will have the three coins, the coin of faith, the coin of hope and the coin of love. And the last shall become first, and the first, last, for the last was love. These are the three priceless ones. Not the thirty pieces of silver, for that is the price you pay to the owner of the ox who gores another. The ox is the symbol of Christ, he who comes not to bring peace, but a sword, an ox-gore. And when that happens thirty pieces of silver is given the owner.
But she has the three precious ones. She has the answer, for when you stand before the Risen Christ the question is asked, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” And you answer, “Faith, hope and love.” Then you will add, “But the greatest of these is love,” for when Christ embraces you, you become one with the body of love forever. Now that you and God are one, no man, or organization of men can put you asunder. You are one with the body of love. And when you leave this sphere you awaken as the being the world is talking about.
But while you are here, on this level, your true being is veiled in flesh and no one can see the body you wear. But, knowing who you are, you know that you can appropriate anything you desire with no concern as to how you are going to get it. An abundance is yours, just for the taking. You know that “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all within it. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine; if I were hungry I would slay and eat.” Why tell anyone of your hunger if the world is yours? Well, you have a world that is infinite, that is unspoiled, that is eternal. That is the world of love, which you are. And you will know it when you are embraced and become consciously one with the body of love. And in that resurrected world you know every desire is already fulfilled.
But there can be no resurrection without crucifixion, for how can there be a resurrection without death? So God dies, for “Unless I die, thou canst not live, but if I die I shall arise again and thou with me.” You will not rise as two, but as one, yet there is no change of identity, no change of your wonderful individuality. It’s the same self, but now includes a far greater awareness than before, a self who is none other than God the Father. Without change in identity, you become this infinite being who is Jesus Christ, and in the end there is nothing but Jesus, and you are He.
So I tell you, everything will pass away, but love endures forever as told us in the 13th chapter of I Corinthians. Someone once defined the words Faith, Hope and Love as:
“Faith is believing what is incredible Hope is hoping when all things are hopeless, and Love is forgiving what is unforgivable.”
The world teaches that another is love and completely unattainable, but I tell you that though your sins are as scarlet, when you are embraced by love, they shall be as white as snow. I have done everything that a man is capable of doing, but when I was embraced by love everything that I had done up to that point became as white as snow. No one on earth can save you. You are saved by the grace of God and since it’s not your own doing, there is no way you can boast.
Tonight I ask you to imitate God as dear children. In the first epistle of John, the fourth verse, we read, “We love, because he first loved us.” Our love is only a response, because he loved us first. Now make it a personal “I” and say, “I love because God first loved me” and imitate him as a dear child. If I want the response of love and expect it to come from another, I will wait in vain. But if I imitate God, he (or she) will love me because I first loved him (or her). And when he says, “I live, therefore you will live also,” it is because I live. Just as in the story of Pygmalion and Galatea. The great artist created an image out of marble and fell in love with his image. Then he prayed to the goddess of love to endow it with life. When this was done the statue became a beautiful woman and the first word she uttered was the name Pygmalion. The first word you and I ever uttered was Jesus’ name, for before we could ever utter a word we had to be aware of being, and that is saying I AM.
God, the great artist, created you and falling in love with his creation he gave it the gift of life by giving you the gift of himself and God is love. Greater love has no man than this. Tonight fall in love as God. Imitate him as a dear child. Love any state so much you die to any other. Live there, as God, and you will live there as man also. Fulfill every desire of your heart, for in time it will all pass away. And always remember who you are, for you are love, the one and only reality of the world, and that, which endureth forever.
Now let us go into the Silence.
