Short Story: A Reverend talks on God, love, fear, judgment, and power.

Thanks, for commenting. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." That's how the Christian Bible puts it in the book of 1 John, chapter 4, verse 18. And as God is love, there could be no fear in him either.

@innertalks Love extinguishes all fear. We embrace life in totality then.

@Shiva49 Yes, love absorbs all fear, so that then all that we see is love, and no more fear.

Hate must have arisen somehow, though, and so its source must be ultimately within God. He must have an ultimate reason for allowing it to exist within his creation. I was thinking the other day, that we have God at the top, but then he has two sides of himself too, as do we too. He has his God side, which the Christians call Jesus, and his bad side, which they call the Devil. Just the same as us I was thinking. Our soul might have created both a higher self, and a lower self to work within us, a good and a bad side in us too, as the idea of duality would agree with too. When we have thoughts, we can action them either positively, or negatively then. What prompted these thoughts was a dream. I was dreaming that I was in a very large old, ornate Church, with wooden pews, and a large old organ, in a central position, in the middle of the church. My Dad was playing the organ, but he was playing it very softly, and it was hard to hear it. (He was an organist in a Church for a while in his real-life too) I was seated by myself, on a single, office styled chair, near the front of the church, away from other people. I was thinking to myself that I should walk over to my father, and advise him to play a little bit louder, but I didn't do this, being ashamed to get up, during the service. I looked over at my Dad, a few times, and he must have gotten the message, and twigged somehow, that he needed to play louder, as he then turned up the volume on his playing. Then, looking around the old church, I spotted my Mum, seated in the very back aisle, on a wooden long bench seat, with her own mother seated next to her, right on the end of the seat, at its edge, so that my mother was seated on her left. But, there was nobody seated on the other left side of my mother, along the whole bench, until the very end of the other end of that bench. I got the thought that maybe I should get up, and go, and sit next to my mother. I never acted on this thought either. Even when the communion stewards then got the communion, a very large bowl, or basin, which took several people to carry, and which contained a sparkling purple coloured grape juice. Funny enough, here, they were handing out large crystal cups/tankards, so that each person participating could drink a whole glassful full of the drink, not just a small mouthful, as is the usual custom here. (I have thought that that was the way it must have originally happened at the last supper of Jesus's too. He would not have just given them a sip, but they would have had full glasses too, of his large cup of grape juice, and plentiful bread to eat too, not just a small pinch of a crust of one too.) I then think again, as they are walking around giving out the communion, that I should take the opportunity to join my mother there, but again I hesitate, and do not go down there, and then I wake up upset at my hesitancy in my following of my first intuitionalised thoughts. So, we have a higher, and a lower part of our soul, and we can action our thoughts coming to us from our soul through either part, as good thoughts, or bad thoughts, as activated thoughts, or as ignored thoughts. Here, I ignored my thoughts. On waking up, though, I surmised that this dream is from Heaven, and that I wanted to contact my parents, but at the same time, seated on my own private chair, I realised that they probably could not see me, as I was a mere visitor there in the flesh of my dream body only, and so I could not interact physically, there at all, but I sure would have liked to have tried too, and not to have let my own lower thoughts stop me from doing so, as my higher thoughts had suggested that I do.

@Shiva49 On the one hand there is only love, and on the other hand, is duality. The paradox is that we need to hold onto God's oneness with both hands intact, as if we drop either hand's hold, it is much harder to cope here. We live in duality, but we need love to sort it out by our hanging on to God's hand with love too.

@innertalks Thanks for a detailed take Steve. I too have to override negativity most times to share in the joy, accomplishments, of others. I am hardly jealous though as we reap what we sow. So duality springs up at once and it is for us to make the right/wise choice. I have also been in dreams where I am an observer and not an active player. They could be the reality in another realm that I have a glimpse into while still alive here. At times, certain themes play out, déjà vu experiences tough to connect though. There are wheels within wheels in creation. God has to keep us entranced with multiple possibilities being played out for us to decipher meaning as best as we can.