(Posted on: May 11, 2013 by David McMillin)
(NOTE: While serving as mentor for an online verion of "A Search For God" study group and working on the lesson on the Cross and Crown (Job exercise), the questions raised by the group members were so deep and abundant, I thought it would be a good time to address the role of questions and answers in the Search For God. Since the theme is relevant to all the lessons, I have posted it here with the background information. You may want to revisit this when you do the Cross and Crown lesson. - David McMillin)
You all have been asking some fantastic questions lately (especially about the Job exercise) and that is the energy that drives this process. Seek and ye shall find! So here are some thoughts for your consideration:
That that is Truth is growth! For what is truth today may be tomorrow only partially so, to a developing soul! So, the ideal is that which - as truth - grows towards a constructive nature in the experience of each soul … (1297-1)
This is probably the reason why the readings suggested doing the ideals exercise with pencil and eraser. Note that tomorrow's truth may be only "partially so." We may get a deeper or broader understanding as we grow. In the Search For God, God doesn't change – it is our understanding of our relationship to God (All That Is) that changes.
So as you do the lessons, what you get out of them as truth will change as you grow and develop. It is a dynamic process. As you study the story of Job, what you get from it may be different than any other person and probably different from what you may understand at a later point in the journey.
Isn't that wonderful?!! It is not a one-size-fits-all approach to spirituality. We can never rightfully judge the understanding or knowledge of someone else because we are not them at any given point in time. That is a humbling thought indeed.
As I mentioned in a previous reply, questions are essential to this process just as it was for the first study group. The 262 readings were open-ended and dependent upon the application and input from the group. Cayce asked questions of the group, the individuals in the group worked on finding answers within and applying those answers in their lives, and then came back with questions of their own. The answers to their questions became part of the outcome that you read in the ASFG books. The group members were challenged and had to wrestle with the material. In the struggle of application came the growth. Have you noticed? We are using a similar process with this course.
If you are only looking for someone to give answers without the inner struggle of the question, you can become dependent upon an outside source for truth. The truth for you is within you, and always is at every point in your life. Making that connection – becoming One with the Divine within is what his process is about. So the point of this course is to put you into touch with the Source within yourself that will meet your needs, rather than just providing answers directly in a rote fashion – especially one-size-fits-all answers that may not meet the needs of your developing soul at any particular point in your journey.
With all this in mind, consider the questions that the entranced Cayce put before the first study group at the beginning of this lesson:
4. Why has the way of the Cross been chosen by the group?
5. Why is it necessary that each must bear a cross? Just because the cross was borne for us by another?
6. Why was it necessary that He, the maker of heaven and earth, bear a cross as a man?
7. Why did He come into the world as a man, that He might as a man bear a cross?
8. Why do we as individuals necessarily bear much that He did, yet we say taking His yoke upon us the cross becomes easy?
9. These and similar questions must be answered by each individual, and give in their own hearts an answer that will satisfy them in the light of that which has been their experience through the living of the lessons that have been given to others.
10. Does the life, do the lives, lived in accordance with thine own faith, thine own virtue and understanding, thine own walking in the Presence, make for the explanation of why each soul must bear a cross?
11. Why has the Cross been chosen, rather than many of the other philosophies of thought that make for a unison of conditions in the experience - and make for the correlation of the material and spiritual life?
12. Why is the Cross the emblem of shame yet necessary, for the Crown that is to be in the experience of those that bear same? For we have reached that place in the experience where WE, as individuals, will walk no more with this thought or else say as Peter, "Thou alone hast the words of eternal life, to whom shall we go?"
13. These, then, are the questions that each individual should ask SELF, and put into the lesson; as: "Why I as a soul, in the development through this material plane, must bear a cross."
14. Then, when this portion has been received by selves, and the answer written, we may give "Why the Crown." (262-35)
Keep in mind that the members of that first study group were just common people, probably a lot like the members of this group. You can ponder these if you like, or you can ponder your own questions about the story of Job. The answers that come will be exactly what you need to understand AT THIS POINT in YOUR journey. The answers from within may come as the still small voice from within as you enter into the Presence during meditation. It may be a sense of deep knowing or remembering.
The answers may come in the circumstances of life as you seek to apply the information as best you can, even if that understanding is very limited. Use what you have in hand and more will be given. An interaction with another person or with natural forces, may represent the answer to your questions in 3D living color, flesh and blood, if you are mindful of what is happening in your experience. The important thing is to seek – to ask the questions and expect answers. That is Faith in action.
So by all means, keep asking questions and seeking answers. And don't forget to put what you learn into application to help others and make the world a better classroom for us all. Blessings, Dave