June 17, 2003

• Answers to the expressed desire for more inclusive language in the messages

• Does God hold us accountable for our actions?

• The role of karma and reincarnation in spiritual growth

• These messages serve two main functions

God speaks to each of you as individuals, very personally, very privately, very directly. There is nothing about you that God is not already fully aware of. The loving God, the all-knowing God, the creator God is present in every one of your endeavors, is present in every concern or worry or moment of anxiety, and also in every moment of rejoicing and thanksgiving.

You wonder about the language of communication, the language that characterizes material that you are given for the purpose of understanding. You receive these messages through a combination of lenses. We refer to them as lenses, not as filters, for lenses focus light. Filters reduce and channel portions of light. We are not filters; we are indeed lenses. We don’t initiate what is shared with you. We transmit, we serve to focus what is given to us in a way that is understandable for each of you. The language of that communication varies from individual to individual. The lessons are the same, whether they are communicated from one guide or another. The language of that communication may differ from individual to individual, but the truths that are given to you are universal, are shared by all, and are ultimately understood by all.

Yes, we have insisted on the fact that God is neither male nor female, that we are no longer male or female. There is no implication, in any way, that draws attention upon one group or another. The terminology that you receive is neither oriented toward being male or female. It is in no way sexist, for there is no difference between the sexes when you relate spiritually one to another. And since God is the creator of all spirit, there is no sense of masculine or feminine.

In your society there is great sensitivity expressed in the need for neutrality. The means by which you achieve that neutral position often employ linguistic methods in order to achieve the unity, the lack of differentiation that you seek. But you must also recognize that words, although they may be interpreted by many people differently, are in themselves only representations. They are not in themselves what is important. They are means of communicating. If you understand and accept the reality that words are in themselves unimportant, and it is basic concepts, the materials of instruction, if you will, that are important, the particular words become less significant.

When you read material that has been communicated from our plane to yours from years ago, the language can seem sometimes archaic, somehow limited, perhaps even quaint. But the language that was used was what was appropriate at that time. Take the language away and look at what is being communicated. It is important in your society ultimately to become less sensitive to such linguistic issues for they cloud over the clarity of what it is that is really being shared. What seems to you appropriate today will be viewed as inappropriate at some point in the future. That is the nature of language. Language changes, societies change. Terminology, therefore, is always temporal.

In the end, the distinction between what is appropriate and what is inappropriate is always in the hands of one who is reading or listening to what is being expressed. There is no intrinsically appropriate or intrinsically inappropriate means of expression. There is only expression which carries the true message across the divide.

We clearly understand the concerns that some may have about some terminology. In the process of assembling these messages into a digestible form for a wider public, there is no problem in changing particular words if in the change the meaning of the message becomes clearer, for again, the words are merely a means of expressing these timeless truths that you are sharing in at this moment and that you have shared in for many years.

It is our loving desire to bring to your human lives a clearer view of the divine, of the permanent, of the eternal, of the fundamental that is essential in life. When you understand these components, the words themselves are of less significance.

We suggest that each of you spends time in a meditative state allowing yourselves to be open and experience the truth. Your experience of the truth will be different from individual to individual, but the truth will always be consistent. Just as we have often asked you to consider the content rather than the means as a justification for our communication with you, so we can ask you to judge the content, to accept it, to internalize it rather than just the terminology.

Words are merely a means of communicating something which lies far beyond those words. Music ultimately is not about communicating notes, but communicating far more substantive issues. And so it is with verbal communication.

You wonder about accountability as it relates to behavior while experiencing human life. There is a kind of accountability, but it is nonjudgmental. Contrary to the teachings of many, there is not a definitive judgment which is made on the quality of your life experiences. You are not told, in effect, your lives were either worthy or unworthy. Life is like a school. You learn. But unlike a school, there is no time frame for that learning to take place. There are some who learn the lessons of life more readily than others, but that is not what is important. What is important is merely that you grow, that you learn. How much, how fast depends on your spiritual development, but is ultimately of no consequence. You are all learning. All human beings are learning.

If indeed an individual has not learned what should be learned, what is hoped to be learned, there will be additional opportunities to grow in that process. This may mean the soul experiences human life for yet another opportunity. Some souls experience many human lives; others, few. So the difference between individuals is more a matter of the continuity of their learning. It is not how fast they learn. For individuals whose lives have been characterized in great measure by the exercise of behavior that is not according to the natural energy of God, that individual is not judged to be unworthy, but rather is given another opportunity to learn.

You speak of karma. The concept of karma, of responsibility, is in part a true concept, but the concept of karma related to a sense of being punished is not correct. There is karma, but true karma refers to the need to return to learn what has not been learned. It is in no way to be interpreted as a punishment for ill deeds which must somehow be rectified.

Is it wrong to live a life of ill deeds? Of course it is. But the correction for that is not punitive. It is growth oriented. It is as if a child had behaved in a way that was inappropriate. God takes the child by the hand and says, “This is what must be done, not that.” That is a more loving way of disciplining the child than saying, “Because you have done this, you are being punished in a particular way.” You are never punished, but you are held accountable in that it is for you to learn certain spiritual lessons that you have been given human life. That is the only reason you have been given human life. And until all of those lessons have been learned, you will continue to be given human life.

You live to learn, and in learning you grow in the spirit. You grow in your conscious and unconscious self. You grow in insight. You grow in sensitivity. You grow in compassion. You grow in your capacity to give. You grow in your ability to be loving.

These are the great lessons. They are simple and yet difficult. You know what it means to be giving, but how hard it is to give. You know what it means to be loving, but how hard it is to love. You know what it means to be compassionate, but how hard it is to be compassionate.

Your human lives are the means of growing from what you know needs to be done to the point where you are able to be that which you know. Just the realization of the importance of compassion in itself does not complete the requirement. In your lives you must learn to be compassionate, not just to know what it means to be compassionate. In your lives you must be loving and not just know what it means to be loving. Knowledge in itself is only a view of the goal, but your lives are the journey that takes you to that goal. Your human lives therefore are devoted to the journey. Being accountable means being committed to that journey.

A life lived outside the direction leading to God is a life not committed to the journey, and therefore one is given another opportunity for that effort. God is not punitive. God does not punish individuals. God does not punish a people, an ethnic group. The Jews were not punished. The Christians were not punished. Muslims were not punished. No religious group has been punished. In the same light, no religious group, no nationality need fear being punished.

Religions of the world have as their purpose a commitment to the journey—the journey that takes them from what they value to be important and carries them on the journey that characterizes the life reflecting what is important. There are many differences of approach. There are many groups who claim exclusivity, a kind of monopoly, if you will, of the right road to take on that journey. There is no right road. There are many appropriate paths to travel upon. What is important for each of you is not to choose one path or another, but to be committed to traveling—the idea of growing. The path becomes apparent.

There are Christians who have decided for them the proper path is a Judaic one. There are Jews who have decided the appropriate path is Christian or another belief system. But that choice of which path is appropriate is clear only when you are committed to following some route that brings you toward a life reflecting God’s love, God’s sense of unity for everything and everyone. Your lives first require commitment, not just acknowledgment.

These messages serve two main functions:

1) They provide you with the appropriate goals.

2) They provide you with an understanding of the nature of the path that leads

to those goals.

Both are essential. Both understandings are necessary for all human beings. They are not necessarily achieved in a single lifetime. Each of you is well aware of the acknowledgment phase. You know what is important in life. Each of you is committed to the importance of finding a path that gets you to the goal that you openly acknowledge, and it is in finding that appropriate path that we commit our energies for each of you.

Your guides are indeed guides. They show the path. They lead you along. That is what a guide does. That is what we do spiritually in your lives. Just as you can either have trust in a guide on a journey or not, you can have trust in our guidance or you can reject it. That is always your choice. All human beings have been given the blessing of choice. It is a blessing, for no matter what you choose, you learn. If you reject what the guide says and head off in your own chosen direction, you will learn ultimately that such was not the most appropriate path. That is learning that benefits you. Your spirit, your soul grows by that means as well. But sooner or later you must return to the path on which your guide awaits you. When you head in directions that are not in keeping with the goal of God, we wait, we call to you, we urge you to come back, we tell you that we know a way. Ultimately, you do come back and we can take you by the hand and lead you steadily to the Light.

Our lives as guides are an unbroken chain between you and God. There is no race. As we have said before, there are no winners and losers. Everyone completes the journey. You can have complete faith that those whose lives may not be currently directed toward God will complete the journey to that Loving Presence in time. No one is left behind, no one is left out, no one is condemned to the darkness. All are destined to be in the Light.

Each of you should be uplifted in the knowledge that you are moving toward the Light. You are blessed by your openness and we are blessed by your raising your hand and grabbing ours as we move together on this great journey. You are in the Light. We are all in the Light. Give thanks to God!

Amen.