The Quantum Sayings of Jesus: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas - Saying 40 by Keith Giles - Somebody's Calling to You, Just As You Are...

 

Jesus said,

 “A grapevine has been planted outside the father. And because it is not sound, it will be plucked out by the root and will perish.”

Once you begin to notice the pattern within the Gospel of Thomas, in which essentially every saying is something about the illusion of separation, the oneness of all things, or perhaps sometimes about our ability to see for ourselves without requiring a guru or a guide to lead us around, you’ll start to realize how simple most of these sayings actually are to decipher. 

In this case, the saying presents a scenario where something is “planted outside the Father,” which, to those who are starting to catch on, is an impossibility, because nothing can exist outside of God. Therefore, this saying gives us an illustration of how foolish it is to imagine anything thriving “outside” of the Father since there is no possibility of being anywhere the Father is not. As the Psalmist said, “Where can I go to escape from your presence, Lord? If I descend to the depths of the grave you are there. If I ascend to the highest heavens, there you are with me.” [See Psalm 139] 

The Apostle Paul went one step further to affirm to unbelieving pagans in Athens that God was “the One in whom we all live and move and have our being.” So, to imagine anything—a person, a plant, a kingdom, a planet, a galaxy, etc.—existing “outside” of God is to speak of nonsensical gibberish like a square circle or a hot ice cube. There are no such things in existence. 

Here Jesus uses this parable to make that point: Nothing “planted outside the father” can survive. To be separated from God is to cease to exist, and since there is nothing outside of God there can never be anything “planted” in that imaginary space to begin with. All that there is, is in Christ. Everything that is, is within the field of God’s being. Without God, nothing exists. 

Apart from the Father there is no life, no existence, no possible place to plant anything. Reality is completely defined by God, surrounded by God, and sustained by God. All things were made by him, for him, and through him, and nothing has been made apart from him. Christ holds all things together: You, me, the moon, the stars, the universe itself and everything that was or ever will be. The sooner we embrace this as the ground of all being and the basis for all reality, the sooner we will begin to live in the Kingdom of God where Christ is all and is in all; where we are filled with the fullness of Christ who fills everything in every possible way.

~~~

I'm getting close to the end of this book... It has been a learning experience for me since, as we all know, our God is an Awesome God, and we cannot possibly know all that He will provide for his children...

I try to be a good wordsmith, but I'm am learning that even in our thousands of beautiful songs, we still see that the full offerings to us, as our Father God is more and more being revealed... I am happy that Giles has included in his commentary, words from the Bible, for many words given to people throughout the 2000+ years since Christ died for us, we can realize that it is intended that we begin as children eating food that children can digest... And as we grow, we can "chew" on more and more of His words, to absorb, learn, and marvel at what He is sharing... To come nearer to Him...

Living in this world, we are distracted often by confusion, turmoil and fears that we cannot rid our hearts of... Yet if we pull ourselves away from that distress, and pull nearer to God, we can find strength, assurance, in His presence and in the warmth of His Love... One of the sayings alludes to the fact that some of us may not even start to come close to God before we leave our bodies and pass on... Eternity is a long time, so I find myself not being pressured to be other than Me... I am His child and know that He loves me, just as I am...

Have you realized yet that God loves you just the way you are? But did you know that He also will never force you to return His Love? In fact, the only thing you need to do is ask him to come to be with you... Yes, he is already a part of each of us, but, imagine, He will never force you to change; even more, He will be with you always even if you never acknowledge Him as your God and Savior! Now that, in my opinion, is just about the most humble expression of True Love that any of we humans could never be capable of giving!

Sometimes, when you're reading something like these words of Jesus or another story that speaks of God as part of your life, or listen to a song of praise, do you ever become warm--something inside of you is different... You may feel warm, or feel chills, or, just know that something else--Someone else is inside of your body? If you haven't, maybe, just maybe, then that means that you've never asked him to open the door of your Heart, your Mind and invited Him...

I've been having a tough time dealing with the world as it now is... Your thoughts, and prayers, would be appreciated... One thing helps, escaping into a book and then coming and talking to all of you and sometimes sharing what Jesus is all about... You see, I do Speak Jesus, as the song says... and have found Him, just by opening my heart... Just as I Am...

May peace fall across the World... Pray that with Me???

Gabby