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December 25, 1914
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, Jesus:
You are my dear brother, and I will tell you what I desire you
to do at this time. You must not let the little worries of your
business life keep you from giving your thoughts to God in worship
and in prayer, and from believing in me and loving me as your friend
and teacher, for I am; and wish only to have you do those things
which will make you more at-one with the Father and love me more.
You must try to let all your thoughts turn to the mission which
I have selected you to do, for I have chosen you and you must do
my work. As I am the one that God selected to do His work when I
was on earth, so you are the one that I now select to do my work
by giving to the world my messages of truth and love. I will soon
commence to write them and you must preserve them until such time
as you shall be in condition to publish the same, which will not
be very long, for I have already told you, the means that will enable
you to give your whole time to me will soon be at your command.
I do not want you to think that you are not worthy to do this great
work, for if you were otherwise, I would not have selected you,
and this fact alone should be sufficient to make you not doubt that
you are a suitable person for the work.
Let me tell you now that no matter what you may think will happen
to your business affairs and work, I will look after you and remove
all obstructions so that, as I say, you will soon be able to commence
your duties.
In my teachings I want to show that I am only my Father's son as
you are His son, and not to be worshipped as God. He is the only
God and the people who today are worshipping me in all parts of
the world are not doing what I desire, for they are putting God
in the background and making me their object of worship, which is
all wrong and which I am so anxious to have ceased.
They must look upon me only as a son of God and their elder brother
who has received from the Father His full Love and confidence, and
which I am bidden to teach to them. You are not to let anyone tempt
you to let your love of God be displaced by any love that you may
have for me, for your love for me must not be of the kind that you
have for Him. He is the only God and you must worship Him alone.
So be careful and make the distinction, or you will make a most
egregious (flagrant) mistake.
I am your own dear brother and teacher and love you with a love
that I have for very few of the mortals. Why? Because I see that
you will become a true follower of me and will love God as I love
Him. Only, I do not want you to think that you are now in a condition
that leaves you free from sin or the necessity of progressing to
the Father with all your heart for an inflowing of His Love. You
must get all this Love that is possible and that can be gotten only
by prayer and faith. So in your prayers, have faith and the time
will come when you will become very close to the Father and enjoy
His Love to a degree that few have so far obtained.
Yes, it is possible and, as I say, it will take place, only do
as I have told you. Yes, I will help you with all my power and love,
and you will succeed. Only try to believe and you will realize before
you come to the spirit world that God is your Father to a degree
that will enable you to live very near Him as I am living. Your
faith is now very great as I know, and notwithstanding the fact
that at times you have doubts and get despondent, yet your faith
is there and it will grow in intensity and become so strong that
it will never again be shaken. You must now let me stop as you are
tired and need rest.
Yes, there are many things in my life as written in the Bible which
are true and many that are not true. These I will tell you when
I come to write my formal messages and
you must wait until then. Yes, I did, but not in the sense that
it is taught. To forgive sin is only to let the true penitent feel
that just as soon as he prays God to blot out his past offenses
and truly believes that He will do so, the sins are no longer held
against him for which he will have to account. I could not myself
forgive sin, for I was not God, but I could tell them truly that
if they repented, God would forgive their sins. Later I will tell
you in detail what real forgiveness is and what it consists of.
As for the healing act which I performed at the
pool of Bethesda*, I am reported to have said, "Is it easier to
say, 'take up thy bed and walk,'
than for God to forgive your sin?" Well, that is the way it is recorded,
but that is not what I said. Actually I said, "That thou may know
that the son of man through the power of God can forgive sin, I
say unto you, `take up thy bed and walk'." It was only as God's
instrument in showing man the way to His Divine Love, that I could
bring about forgiveness of sin, and not by any power of my own.
If God did not forgive, I could not and neither can any man.
I know that a church claims that authority, but it is not correct.
It has no power to forgive sin or to grant any favor or indulgence
to mankind, and its assertions of that power is a mere usurpation
of what God alone has the power to give.
So let us stop now -
Your own true friend and teacher.
May God's blessing and mine rest upon you tonight.
Jesus
Note *:
It would appear, based on a recent
message from Judas, that the reference to Bethesda above is
in error, either a later editing error, or an error of transmission.
This message is a composite of two, being published
in Volume I on page 368 and Volume II on page 16. For more details
see this page.
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