#godward + nature

[cinematic-phosphenes]

John William Godward's paintings + flowers (4/6)

Source + Source

[eirene]

Innocent Amusements, 1891 John William Godward

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Stardust, South Australia.

by astrophotographer Wil Godward

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

John William Godward (English, 1861-1922) Leaning against a column, 1901

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Children of God

1 Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called “children of God”—and that is not just what we are called, but what we are. Our heredity on the Godward side is no mere figure of speech—which explains why the world will no more recognise us than it recognised Christ.

2 Oh, dear children of mine (forgive the affection of an old man!), have you realised it? Here and now we are God’s children. We don’t know what we shall become in the future. We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect his likeness, for we should see him as he really is!

3 Everyone who has at heart a hope like that keeps himself pure, for he knows how pure Christ is.

Conduct will show who is a man’s spiritual Father

4-6 Everyone who commits sin breaks God’s law, for that is what sin is, by definition—a breaking of God’s law. You know, moreover, that Christ became man for the purpose of removing sin, and he himself was quite free from sin. The man who lives “in Christ” does not habitually sin. The regular sinner has never seen or known him.

7-9 You, my children, are younger than I am, and I don’t want you to be taken in by any clever talk just here. The man who lives a consistently good life is a good man, as surely as God is good. But the man whose life is habitually sinful is spiritually a son of the devil, for the devil is behind all sin, as he always has been. Now the Son of God came to earth with the express purpose of liquidating the devil’s activities. The man who is really God’s son does not practise sin, for God’s nature is in him, for good, and such a heredity is incapable of sin.

10 Here we have a clear indication as to who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. The man who does not lead a good life is no son of God, nor is the man who fails to love his brother.

11-13 For the original command, as you know, is that we should love one another. We are none of us to have the spirit of Cain, who was a son of the devil and murdered his brother. Have you realised his motive? It was just because he realised the goodness of his brother’s life and the rottenness of his own. Don’t be surprised, therefore, if the world hates you.

Love and life are inter-connected

14-15 We know that we have crossed the frontier from death to life because we do love our brothers. The man without love for his brothers is living in death already. The man who actively hates his brother is a potential murderer, and you will readily see that the eternal life of God cannot live in the heart of a murderer.

16-18 We know and, to some extent realise, the love of God for us because Christ expressed it in laying down his life for us. We must in turn express our love by laying down our lives for those who are our brothers. But as for the well-to-do man who sees his brothers in want but shuts his eyes—and his heart—how could anyone believe that the love of God lives in him? My children, let us not love merely in theory or in words—let us love in sincerity and in practice!

Living in love means confidence in God

19-20 If we live like this, we shall know that we are children of the truth and can reassure ourselves in the sight of God, even if our own hearts make us feel guilty. For God is infinitely greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

21-23 And if, dear friends of mine, when we realise this our hearts no longer accuse us, we may have the utmost confidence in God’s presence. We receive whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his orders and following his plans. His orders are that we should put our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another—as we used to hear him say in person.

24 The man who does obey God’s commands lives in God and God lives in him, and the guarantee of his presence within us is the Spirit he has given us. — 1 John 3 | J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS) The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Cross References: Genesis 4:8; Leviticus 19:17; Deuteronomy 14:1; Deuteronomy 15:7; Deuteronomy 19:11; 2 Samuel 13:22; 2 Samuel 22:27; Job 19:26; Job 22:26; Psalm 17:15; Psalm 38:22; Psalm 119:3; Proverbs 14:31; Proverbs 29:27; Ezekiel 33:31; Matthew 4:3; Matthew 5:19; Matthew 7:7; Matthew 12:28; Matthew 13:38; Luke 20:36; John 1:12-13; John 1:29; John 2:23; John 5:24; John 10:11; John 13:4; John 13:34-35; John 15:13; John 15:18; John 17:19; Acts 23:3; Romans 8:9; Romans 8:14; Romans 8:34; Romans 14:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 3:12; 1 John 2:1; 1 John 2:3-4; 1 John 2:21; 1 John 2:26; 1 John 4:4; 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:11

[opalstream]

Prayer

May the Divine Friend guide and bless each one of us.

And May He inspire within us

a strong determination to help one another,

to treat one another with understanding and mutual respect -

and above all, may we have constant inspiration

to seek the Divine beloved Friend behind all human relationships,

first, last, and always.

God bless you all.

-Sri Daya Mata

Make the World a Little Better

The devotee of God applies only constructive criticism. He does not go through life finding fault with everybody; he does not constantly criticize conditions. If he has a suggestion to make, he expresses it constructively to the people who can do something about it, or he remains silent and concentrates upon bettering himself and his conditions. Yes, sometimes it is our duty to resist wrongdoing; I am not referring to that. I am speaking of those who forget that primarily we are here not as a gift from God to change others, but to change ourselves and thereby leave the world a little better for having been here.

-Sri Daya Mata, The Godward Life, SRF Mag Summer 1998

*It is human nature to notice the faults of others and to complain about external conditions such as the weather. But if you are becoming overly critical and dissatisfied, it is time for a spiritual reboot. As a soul traveler, every person you meet and every experience you have can lead to a deeper awareness of the Soul within all. Look for the positive. Associate with cheerful people. Serve those in need. And dedicate extended periods of time to devotional chanting and prayer. Finding God within will lead to discovering Him/Her without, in all people and all circumstances. OmLove, Annie

*Learn to Meditate through Home Study - Share this with your friends who might like to learn:

https://yogananda.org/lessons

[garycartlidge]

‘Cam Goals’

18 editions available at knownorigin.

[nous-dormirons-ensemble]

Cinq œuvres et un mouvement #3

Le préraphaélisme 

John Everett Millais - Ophélie (1851-1852)

John William Waterhouse- Hylas and the Nymphs (1986) 

William Holman Hunt -The Lady of Shalott (1886-1905)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine (1874)

John William Godward - Dolce far niente (1906)

La pre raphaelite Bortherhood ou PRB fut fondée en 1848 par William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti et sir John Everett Millais, qui étaient trois élèves de la Royal Academy of Arts de Londres. Ce nom de “préraphaélites” provient de l’intérêt de ces peintres de revenir à ce qu’ils considéraient comme la “pureté” spirituelle et pictural de l’art avant Raphaël. En opposition à la fiction et aux artifices de la peinture officielle de l’époque, les préraphaélites privilégiaient la précision du détail naturaliste du sujet dans son environnement.  Ils s’attachaient à observer la nature et la représentaient en couleurs vives. Le critique John Ruskin apporta d’ailleurs un soutien à ce groupe de peintres car il était convaincu que l’observation attentive de la nature permettait à l’artiste de percevoir la présence de Dieu dans l’Univers.   Le groupe se dissout en 1852 et une seconde génération de préraphaélites se forma autour de Rossetti, constitué de William Morris et Edward Burne-Jones, et dura jusqu'à la fin de la décennie.  Le préraphaélisme évolue par la suite vers l’esthétisme qui dominera toute la deuxième partie du XIXème siècle.

[planetarycommunion]

As you enlarge thine meanings and ennoble thine character .. so shall ye advance unto the new status of the faithful ones of Urantia.

Unless ye advance in these ways of truest authority in the Father .. ye shall not knoweth the peace that maketh light unto thine heart.

My children of Urantia .. I adjure you to lighten thy load by the presence of thine concentrations .. unburden thine intellect by the obedience of thine finer character nature .. findeth thine constancy by your decisionary will .. let thine cooperative tendencies mature thine Substance unto Light.

Ever shall I guide you to suffer not thy heart to lead thee from the eternal values and the everlasting priorities of turning godward. Permit thine nature personal to touch upon the luminous virtues of the unchanging glory of God .. open thy voice to speak truthfully the pronouncements of reality .. suffer not thy mind to harken unto blasphemies .. and open thy soul to the advancements of divine affections.

Be thou of the Stillness which envelops all living creatures .. for I sayeth, be still in thy Spirit Identity as ye listen to the utterings of the Silent One.

Allow thyself to growth upwards in soul proceedings.. in the Vesture of Immortality .. and by the very Voice of Understanding. I maketh thee unto divinity alchemists who throb to rejoice in the law of eternity .. and who conceive not in mind those ephemeral mischiefs which bring about delays and diversions from the purity of the avenues of ascendancy.

Michael Of Nebadon

[superjakethegreat]

Chosen to be Holy

January 12, 2024

“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”

2 Thess 2:13

There is the impartation of righteousness, as well as the imputation of it; and the impartation of it is the communication of a divine nature to the soul. Have I one grain of holiness in myself? Not one. Can all the men in the world, by all their united exertions, raise up a grain of spiritual holiness in their hearts? Not an atom, with all their efforts. If all the preachers in the world were to unite together for the purpose of working a grain of holiness in one man’s soul, they might strive to all eternity—they could no more by their preaching create holiness, than by their preaching they could create a lump of gold.

But because, by a gracious act of God the Father, Jesus is made unto his people sanctification, he imparts a measure of his own holiness to them. He works in them to will and to do of his own good pleasure; he sends the Holy Spirit, to raise up holy desires—in a word, he communicates a nature perfectly holy, which therefore loves holiness, and has communion with a holy God; a heavenly, spiritual, and divine nature, which bathes in eternal things as its element, and enjoys spiritual things as sweet and precious. It may indeed be small in measure; and he that has it is often exercised and troubled because he has so little of it; yet he has enough just to know what it is.

Has not our soul, though what we feel to be a defiled wretch, though every iniquity is at times working in our heart, though every worm of obscenity and corruption is too often trailing its filthy slime upon our carnal mind—has it not felt, does it not sometimes feel, a measure of holiness Godwards? Do we never feel a breathing forth of our soul into the bosom of a holy God? Heavenly desires, pure affections, singleness of eye, simplicity of purpose, a heart that longs to have the mind, image, and likeness of Jesus stamped upon it—this is a holiness such as the Lord of life and glory imparts out of his fullness to his poor and needy family.

[cinematic-phosphenes]

John William Godward's paintings + flowers (5/6)

Source + Source + Source

[hoursofreading]

I’ll then go by my dhārmic/yoginic/tāntric/‘Hindu’ premises to build up a better way to think about all this. The basic premise is this: Choice is so so so important in Dharma that we even choose to make conscious choices about things like breathing, something which by evolutionary design is not placed in our conscious awareness. We can choose to rewire our habits in the present, we can even choose to overwrite the habits that we have formed over many past lives (samskāra-s). The world is a beautiful blank slate as soon as we realize this reality, and we can manipulate even seemingly static things like our involuntary responses and biological structures to be godward. The cosmic omnipotent intelligence in whose volition everything was created, from the galaxies to our glomeruli, is inherent in everything that was created and that is being created, from the galaxies to our glomeruli. We want to maximize our ability to make decisions, this is the ultimate glory of the birth as a human being towards which we have worked incredibly hard for an imperceptibly long time. We want to understand the vastness of the choices that are available to us in every moment, the web of choices and all the paths that our past selves have led us from and most importantly that we can lead ourselves towards (we want to always employ this infinite potential of choice, with this supreme opportunity of the human birth, to realize the true nature of reality / lead liberated lives.) The bottom line is that choice is queen and we should not think about making choices in the awful way upon which “decision fatigue” is premised. We are in control of ourselves and our lives through the choices we make, we are even in control of the way we choose to understand how much choice is inherent to decision-making.

decision fatigue diatribe

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Australian outback - Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, South Australia

Photo credit: William Godward, South Australia

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

by Joe Rigney | The pleasure of God is revealed from heaven upon all godliness and righteousness of men, who by their righteousness celebrate the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived…

[shammah8]

Bible Doctrine's Circular Path A. E. Mitchell said, "All Bible doctrine is built and runs its course in circular form."4 He gave the example of Jesus' illustration of His own mission.

JOHN 16:28 42 7 Divine Circles 28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world:

again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

Can you see the circle?

Mitchell wrote, "All divine circles culminate in 'glory,' God being glorified...The gospel Godward is the great reason for the gospel usward.

Much as Christ did for men on the cross, He did infinitely more for God.

And this, we believe, is the best part of circle teaching. As the footsteps of Christ come usward, they bring salvation. As they return to God they bring to the Father utter and eternal pleasure and glory...The gospel usward is that which we are saved from, the gospel Godward is that which we are saved to...we are redeemed to God, and to His glory."5 Romans 11:36 shows the circle, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

The following passage reveals how God's Word travels a circular route.

ISAIAH 55:8-11 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but (except it) watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Rain and snow, in the natural realm, demonstrate the path God's Word travels. They come down earthward. They return heavenward in the natural process of evaporation. Yet they do not return without first bringing forth fruit upon the earth.

The Blood and the Glory Likewise God's Word originates in Him, travels earthward, accomplishes, and then returns to bring God glory.

The Glory travels that path.

The Church travels that path.

The Blood traveled that path.☕Billye Brim

[hzaidan]

The stories of the ancient Greeks about their gods, heroes, and explanations of the nature and history of the universe are known as Greek mythology. These stories, or myths, have survived for more than 2,000 years. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which inherited much of Greek culture…

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Sandro Botticelli,Cornelis van Haarlem,John William Godward,Ferdinand Keller,Pieter Jacobsz,Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem,Peter Paul Rubens, Hellenic, Olympian, Roman, RELIGIOUS ART, Zaidan, Mythology, Religion, biography, Paintings, Art, History, footnotes, fineart,

11 Paintings, Olympian Myths as recounted by the Old Masters, with footnotes #8