Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek ponder our lives as we seek to understand the faith of love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message
The Faith of Love
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrew, Chapter 11, Verse 1
You must believe in something,
Why not believe in me, Faith
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we will share some additional insights into the divine value of faith. In preceding broadcasts, we have had quite a bit to say about faith, but since faith is an eternal quality, there simply is no end to the meanings that are derived from this eternal value. To prepare our material minds for the new insights, we shall again use a material analogy with the hope that it will assist us in comprehending the new meanings that this eternal value has presented to our souls.
Once there was a great ship. This ship has all of the comforts and luxuries that one could imagine. And many a traveler enjoyed its amenities as it sailed the seven seas. It had several pools, several on decks as well as several below. It had several movies theaters and an orchestra that played the best of music nightly. It had a four star dining facility so that no matter what the hour of the day or the night, one could order whatever their palate craved at that particular time. It had a hair saloon for the ladies as well as marvelous department stores. In fact this ship had a shopping mall right on board. It had a barber shop for the men who might like to refresh their hair cuts. It had just about everything that you could imagine one might desire from such a mighty ocean going vessel. And this ship was so large, one could hardly tell that it was moving under normal conditions.
But then disaster struck. One day a mighty storm arose upon the horizon and soon met the vessel in combat. And though the vessel was mighty, the storm was mightier, and though the ship remained afloat after the storm had passed, it had suffered irreparable structural damage and began to take on water. All the passengers were forced into the lifeboats. These boats were adequate, but of course carried no amenities. There was a supply of water and food that was destined to last for 60 days. It also had a radio beacon that sent SOS signals. But as the lifeboats were off of the normal sailing course for the ships that plied between the various seaports, delay was inevitable.
As the days grew into weeks, and the weeks into months, the supply of water and food rapidly dwindled until there was only enough left for a week. Soon this week came to an end, and so did the remaining food and water supply. Desperate, the passengers fearing the agony of a slow death of starvation and dehydration jumped out of the lifeboats into the sea and drowned. In due time, the signal from the radio beacon was detected, and a rescue attempt was made. When an analysis was done, it was discovered that if only they had stayed in the lifeboat, they would have been rescued before starvation and dehydration became irreversible.
The plan of the Father for our lives is they we be born mortal. That is, we are born to die, but in the process of living we develop a soul which survives the mortal death. The material mind is the soul’’s incubator, and the soul grows in the material mind until either death divorces it from its material association, or until it matures to the point where it is translated by the divine spirit. As life continues the specter of mortal death increasingly raises its head. At the beginning, to most mortals, it appears as a shadow, something that is not real. But as time goes on this shadow of death takes on substance, so that it becomes real to the minds of men and women. And we know that the process of living and mortal dissolution are not the same for each individual. One thing is for sure: unless we die suddenly, these bodies are going to begin to break down, according to the Father’’s will.
A healthy body ordinarily does not suffer death. And thus during most of the mortal life, like the great ship that plied the seven seas, the lifeboat of faith is scarcely noticed or needed. But when the great vessel of the material body begins to show cracks in its structure, we look for the lifeboats of faith. As our relationships grow sour, maybe abandoned by our loved ones just when we need them most, the lifeboat of faith looms in our conscious minds more and more. And when it becomes obvious that we are going to loose all things material, we should quickly jump into the lifeboat of faith.
This lifeboat of faith will continue to keep us afloat while all things around us fail. As long as we stay in this lifeboat of faith, we remain safe as it floats through life, to the end of life, through death and on into the reawakening on the other side where death reigns no more. But this lifeboat of faith unlike the material lifeboat never runs out of vital supplies. This lifeboat of faith has an unlimited supply of truth, beauty, goodness, essential nourishment for the soul that is truly thirsty and hungry for righteousness. And these values of truth, beauty, and goodness continue to unify into love, and the appreciative value of these divine qualities continue to explode in the mind with every increasing joyful satisfying meanings.
And even when all of material reality is crashing down, the lifeboat of faith continues to pour forth hope into the soul, preventing despair from gaining any kind of foothold. Hope carries the soul right up to and through the portals of mortal death where it emerges on the other side filled with an unspeakable joy that its new mind can fully appreciate. Unlike the days of sojourn in the flesh where the material mind remained skeptical of any kind of joy that it could not experience, this joy is for the mind.
This lifeboat of faith gives an abundant supply of peace even in the face of the slowly and sometimes rapidly dissolution of the material frame. It even gives grace when the soul needs additional resources to trust. This lifeboat of faith, this precious gift of divine support and spiritual encouragement is given to the soul by the merciful Father as the soul goes through that unfamiliar process of preparing itself for life apart from the material mind. And without the lifeboat of faith, this can be and is a very frightening journey for the soul. Especially is this so when the human will fails to expand/transfer its consciousness from the material mind to the soul.
This transfer of consciousness to soul identity does not ignore or disregard the fact of material existence, but it provides a consciousness of a spiritual existence along with the undoubted assurance that this spiritual consciousness and the soul will survive. And this transfer of consciousness is effected by remaining in the life boat of faith, by declaring even as the material mechanism fails, "Not my will, but your will be done."
The lifeboat of faith is the only boat available to carry the soul until it can be rescued (salvage) from the material prison of its incarceration and transferred to its true home. This precious gift when fully appreciated evokes feelings of love for the Father who gave it, for it has saved many a soul from the despair and hopelessness of a disintegrating material life and made them glad that they stayed in the lifeboat of faith when they were finally rescued from the storms of the mortal and material life.
Finally, the response to faith is trust. And we know that we are continuing to remain in the lifeboat of faith as long as we continue to trust. And conversely, we have yielded to our fear and jumped out of the life boat of faith when we fail to maintain that trust.
This concludes today's message on understanding the faith of love. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
The Faith of Love
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
The Faith of Love
Your Kingdom Come; Thy Will Be Done!
