Worship and Moral Problem Solving
Greetings, 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. In previous broadcasts, we have considered solving problems in a general sense, but today we wish to focus our attention upon the relationship between worship and the solution to moral problems.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Worship and Moral Problem Solving
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." John, Chapter 4, Verse 23
Brothers and sisters, worship has been defined as practicing the presence of God. Let us elaborate upon this truth a bit. We are always in the Father’’s presence but we are not always aware of it. When we practice being in the presence of the Father, we are making a self-conscious choice, which makes all the difference in the world. When we are conscious of being the Father’’s presence, we are also aware of his divine nature and his attributes. We become aware that the Father is love, and all other spiritual qualities are derived from it. God is love. Being in the presence of the heavenly Father consciously endows us with the understanding that we have all the divine qualities we need to solve a particular moral problem. When we are not aware of being in the Father’’s presence, then we are unaware of having the divine qualities needed to solve such problems.
For example, we all have talents and skills. Although they are a part of us, we are not aware of them unless we choose to focus on them, or unless some occasion arises where we are called on to utilize those talents and skills. Using them causes us to realize we have them, to the extent we have them. Conversely attempting to exercise some of these skills and talents may reveal to us that we are deficient and need to seek more diligently to acquire them.
Moral obligations always involve other personalities. It is the basic reality that ties us together as human beings. It is the basic duty that we have towards one another. We can clearly see this obligation with the example of a parent and child. The parent is responsible for bringing the child into the world. The parents assume the obligation of providing for the child’’s needs until such time as the child is able to meet its own needs. At various times, this period of moral obligation has varied. Today most parents end their moral obligations to their children when they turn18 years old. But some parents continue to assume a moral obligation if their children are pursuing a higher education, a pursuit that makes it extremely difficult for the child to satisfactorily provide for himself and pursue educational goals as well.
Since this act technically exceeds inherent moral obligations, the element of love enters into the equation. The parent is willing to extend this care for the child because they love the child. We know that this act carries the element of love in it because it fits nicely with the definition of love, which is "the desire to do good to others." It is also evident that the parent is acting out of something greater than moral requirements because of the attitude they display while providing this service for their offspring. Whereas in the strictly moral relationship, there may not be very much joy involved in meeting the sometimes difficult moral requirements. In the situation where the moral obligation has technically ended, the parents proceed with a sense of satisfaction and look forward to the time when the child will have completed the educational goal. The accomplishment of the child provides the parent with an enormous sense of satisfaction and family pride. The parent sees this accomplishment as reflecting favorably upon the family tradition or even taking the family tradition to a new high. But lets us turn to the original genesis of moral obligation.
The technique of the Father’’s all-encompassing enshroudment in eternity and infinity involves his separating his nonpersonal reality from his personal reality. His personal reality becomes that reality known as the Son. Having taking such a step, the Father now becomes limited to functioning in this Son whenever he absolutely personally expresses himself; thus the Son becomes the Word of God. Now that the Son has become the personal reality of the Father, he now assumes a moral responsibility towards the Father since the Father is now dependent on him for self-expression. But on absolute, infinite, and eternal levels, moral obligations are swallowed up in the spiritual transactions. Spiritual transactions invariably are moral. Since all of these reactions are characterized by love, they include moral elements. Spiritual decisions are no less moral; they transcend moral claims. They accomplish the same ends, but the quality of those ends are far different. The difference between doing something because of duty and doing something out of love is an unbreachable chasm. The joy of love eclipses mere moral obligation.
As the creations of sons range farther and farther away from the central source, we eventually wind up in a place with material sons such as you and I. And the technique of advancing them to the heights of paradise means starting out with the purely moral nature, soon to be followed by the increasing spiritual status of the soul. And thus we begin with purely moral problems. But we want to show how these moral problems can be solved under the light of the heavenly Father’’s presence, under the auspices of worship.
In previous discussions we have detailed the technique for problem-solving; the technique for solving moral problems is the same. That is, when we confront a situation that involves a moral problem, we use a past-present-future framework. When we are confronted with the moral problem, we search our past experiences for similar problems and similar solutions. We are extracting the wisdom we have garnered from the past and applying it to forecast how such a solution in the present will have on the problem in the future.
Let consider this material analogy. There is a material object that we wish to view which has a lot of fine and intricate details and interlocking patterns. If we attempt to view this object in the dark, we will not see anything at all. If we use a dim light, we might be able to make out some of the details but not all of them. If we use a bright light, then we can clearly discern all of the details. The brighter the light, the greater the detail we can view. In the moral arena, if we fail to shine our moral light on the problem, we will not see any of its elements. If we use our moral light, we might see most of the rough details of the problem. And if we use the bright spiritual light of the Father, we will be able to clearly see all the elements needed. Because his light is love, it infiltrates the possible solution with love and thereby transcends the mere moral problem.
Attempting to solve moral problems while practicing the presence of God provides us with a sense of supreme satisfaction and joy. Under this light of the Father’’s presence, we can see the truth of the relationship; that is, we recognize that any solution we might implement must be pregnant with the quality of love and must be delivered with the hands of mercy. When we solve the moral problem in the presence of the heavenly Father, we view the situation as he does, and our solution reflects a solution he would impose were he actually present. And he is present through his Son, Jesus, the Spirit of Truth. If we solve our moral problems while practicing the presence of God, we can see infinitely better.
This concludes today's message on understanding the relationship between worship and the solving of moral problems. 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
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
BY Dr. James Perry
Worship and Moral Problem Solving
