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Abstract

ow would things sound if I stopped thinking?</li></ul><h2 id="9fa8">Somatic Field</h2><ul><li>Which part of my body is the least comfortable?</li><li>Which parts of my body are hardest to detect?</li><li>What happens when I concentrate on two body parts at once?</li><li>Do any bad emotions arise during the body scan?</li><li>How would my body change if I stopped thinking about it?</li></ul><h2 id="778a">Taste Field</h2><ul><li>Does the taste change as I roll it around my tongue?</li><li>How does the intensity compare with other things I have tasted?</li><li>How would it taste if I had never smelled it?</li><li>Does my feeling about the taste change between first contact and swallow?</li><li>How would it taste if I were asleep right now?</li></ul><h2 id="a87c">Olfactory Field</h2><ul><li>Would I recognize the smell if I had not seen it?</li><li>What adjectives are suitable? (Smooth? Bold? Sweet? Floral?)</li><li>How close must it come to me before my nose can detect it?</li><li>Does it improve my mood or worsen it?</li><li>What memories does it bring to mind?</li></ul><h2 id="5631">Cognitive Field</h2><ul><li>If my thoughts were rabbits in a yard, how crowded would the yard be?</li><li>If my attention was a dog, which rabbits would it chase?</li><li>How much of my focus three seconds ago was on the past?</li><li>How does a little circle make me feel?</li><li>What would I be dreaming now if I were not awake?</

Options

li></ul><h2 id="9690">Emotional Field</h2><ul><li>How easy or hard is it to turn each feeling on and off?</li><li>What changes will happen when I start to pray?</li><li>If I were the prow of a ship would my sea be bright under the sun?</li><li>Who have I shared this suffering with?</li><li>How deeply do I love you?</li></ul><figure id="ef74"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*31vXTbzWPAdDxN72iuu31w.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by Author | Dancing with the Goddess</figcaption></figure><h2 id="1f17">Questions After the Scans are All Finished</h2><ul><li>Did I close my eyes for most of the scans?</li><li>In what ways are mental fields like maps?</li><li>If I were only allowed to keep one field, which one would I choose?</li></ul><h1 id="010c">Note</h1><p id="4022">To the best of my recollection, all the questions are in my own words. If I copied anybody from unconscious memory it was probably my first remote meditation teacher, <a href="https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/mark-w-muesse/">Mark Muesse</a>, a Therevada practitioner from Texas.</p><h1 id="d3c3">About the Author</h1><p id="f104">Tom spends his workdays asking people in a big store if they would like any information about heating and cooling. He often wears an Indiana Jones hat. A grapevine in his front yard convinced him to let her live and to even provide her with a little support. That’s all. :)</p></article></body>

Do We Worship Jesus as God? (The Final Answer!)

Iwas a faith filled child. I couldn’t get enough of religious studies and discussions on the paranormal. Reading about these things set my imagination ablaze.

And the Bible, with its odd miracles, and the man/God who sacrificed himself for the entire world, did more than light my imagination. They convinced me that these fanciful ideas of mine could somehow be real. They taught me that life was so much more than what we can see.

Going to Church, however, wasn’t a favorite activity. The statues and paintings of Christ being tormented and killed creeped me out.

And is it just me, or does the Madonna always look like she’s sneering at you?

(**If I remember correctly, there was a commandment speaking against graven images. But I guess that wasn’t to the liking of the Catholic Church, I suppose 🤨)

A priest in the pulpit would speak on great Biblical wisdom. but I’d be focused on trying to tuck my butt in while kneeling and praying. I was a developing pre-teen girl, and Montgumary the Goon couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give my fatty a smack while his hands were concealed behind the shiny wooden pews.

We’d be ordered to bow our heads in prayer, but now that the boys' hands were occupied praying. I faced a new dilemma.

I knew the name of the demon I was praying against, Montgumary. But exactly who or WHAT was I praying too?

Jesus called something outside himself Father, and he made it sound like this was a separate being. Many preachers and teachers taught me that Christ and God are one and the same, and that it's perfectly fine to pray and worship Christ.

I now believe this is FALSE. Jesus himself said to worship only the father.

Here is what you need to know…

Matthew 4: 8–10

In this scene from the Bible, Satan is tempting Jesus with the Kingdoms of the world, if only Jesus would bow down and worship him.

Jesus’ REFUSES to worship Satan and his reply:

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The Lord, thy God and him ONLY shalt thou serve.

Jesus is not referring to himself as “thy God” because God cannot be tempted with evil, and that’s exactly what Satan was trying to do with Jesus.

James 1:13

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Hard to be clearer then that but there’s more….

Matthew 7:21–23

In this scene, when people stand before Christ for the Final Judgement, here’s his response to them:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’

23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Only the one who does the will of MY FATHER. What is the father’s will?

“Put no other God before me.”

Even having read these verses many times growing up, these still didn’t connect to me strong enough to destroy all the “Jesus is God” programming I received growing up.

Let me show you what actually sealed the deal for me…

The Targum Johnathan

Screen cap of the Targum Johnathan Genesis 35 by Coke Francis

So I started reading the Targum Johnathan when I ran into it accidently while doing some research on something else.

This Torah is very old and came before the birth of Christ. Which is why it’s interesting that this Torah speaks of TWO SEPERATE DEITIES in all of Genesis.

There is “The Lord” and then there is “The Word of the Lord”. The Word of the Lord is treated like a separate deity. And doesn’t the New Testament claim that Jesus is the WORD of God?

John 1:1–3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

So the “Christ spirit” in Jesus and King David was with God from the beginning; from Genesis.

And this is the spirit that is the Son to the Father. And as Jesus himself said, you pray to “The Father”, not the son, not the word.

You pray WITH the word, not to it.

And finally, speaking of King David…

Just to put the nail in the coffin that there are (at least) 2 separate deities spoken of in the Bible:

Psalm 110

1 The LORD said unto my lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 2. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

In Psalm 110, David's LORD (all caps) spoke to David's Lord (all lower cases) and said ‘sit thou at my right hand…’

David's Lord is probably the Lord of Host, Lord Sabaoth. This is the name David came in when he faced the giant Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:45

45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Biblegateway.com

The “Lord of Host” and “Lord Sabaoth” are used several times in our Bibles too, like in Romans 9:39

Romans 9:39

‘Unless the Lord of Sabaoth [armies] had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah’

What’s interesting about this title, Lord Sabaoth, is that it’s also the name of a creator God in Gnosticism.

This God is also a “Son God” to a “Father God” named “Yaldabaoth”. Very reminiscent of Jesus to “The Father”.

Jesus is also called “Lord of the Sabbath” (Sabaoth) multiple times in scriptures: Matthew 12:1–8, Mark 2:23–28 and Luke 6:1–5

So the Lord Sabaoth is the lesser God, the son God. Which means he’s also “The Word“ if the New Testament is correct.

And to bring everything back full circle, who did Jesus, the Word, Lord of the Sabaoth, tell us to worship?

Matthew 4:10

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

So yes, a mystery I’ve been battling with since I was a child has finally been solved, at least to my satisfaction.

Jesus is the lesser God, known as “The Word” and Lord of the Sabaoth, but even so, we should only worship and serve the Father!

And I am grateful to finally be relieved of this confusion.

Now onto other Biblical mysteries…

❤️

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