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On this page (linked): God's Individuation Bishop Doane's Dog -- a POEM

 

7/2/00; 7/30/00   God's process of creating "individual" human-beings, each different from all the others..... and each "designed" with God's own specific plan and purpose.

God's "Individuation" Does God "individuate" His people? (This "tablet" interrelates closely with the tablet: "What do you possess that you did not receive as a gift" [see link].) Click HERE for EASY-PRINT format of "Individuation" A major question, which all of us "spiritual" humans need to ponder, and answer: Does Almighty God, Himself, specifically and individually design and "produce" those human-beings whom He will include among His people, in His Kindgom? OR..... is God "too busy" to bother Himself with such "trivia"..... and does God therefore wait for the "forces-of-nature" to design and generate individual human-animals..... and does God then, at some later time, evaluate and "judge" Mother-Nature's "creations"..... and, finally, at the end of a "creature's" earthly existence, does God "pick" this-one-and-that-one, for inclusion and salvation and "eternal life" -- based, perhaps, on an individual's "performance" in following all the worldly and churchy dogmas and rules and regulations and fine-print of "obedience"? I say that God personally designs and forms ("individuates") each of His "accepted" human creations. I perceive, also, that God personally guides the spiritual awakening and development and maturation of His "individuated" ("chosen") people. I consider this entire process to be lifelong..... and to be under the constant watchful eye of God Himself..... and I believe that God molds, guides, locates, bends, plants, prunes, disciplines, loves, and "saves" those whom He has "individuated" -- for God's own reasons...... unrelated to the begging and pleading of churchy human-beings -- and in spite of the admonitions and threats and warnings of "organized" institutional churches, religions, and rigidly doctrinal sects. Note the following Biblical references which relate to the above thoughts. Read these out loud.... and hear the words of God: Romans 9: 20 (NRSV) But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use, and another for ordinary use? 22 What if God, desiring to show His wrath, and to make known His power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath, that are made for DESTRUCTION; 23 and what if He has done so in order to make known the riches of His glory for the objects of mercy, which He has PREPARED, beforehand, for glory..... 1 Corinthians 12: 5 (NRSV) .....there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities; but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To EACH is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common good......11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to EACH ONE, INDIVIDUALLY..... just as the Spirit chooses...... 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body -- EACH ONE of them, as HE chose. Acts 17: 24 (NRSV) The God who made the world and everything in it..... He who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mortals life, and breath, and all things. 26 From one ancestor He made all nations to inhabit the whole earth; and He allotted the times of their existence, and the boundaries of the places where they would live..... 27 so that they would search for God, and perhaps grope for Him, and find Him -- though indeed He is not far from each one of us. Matthew 12: 33 (NIV) (Jesus speaking) "Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good; or make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad -- for a tree is recognized by its fruit..... 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." Matthew 7: 18 (NIV) (Jesus speaking) Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 19 A good tree CANNOT bear bad fruit -- and a bad tree CANNOT bear good fruit. 1 Corinthians 7: 17 (RSV) Let everyone lead the life which the LORD has ASSIGNED to him -- and in which God has called him. Dictionary definitions of "individuate", and "individuation": "Individuate" -- A. (Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary) -- 1 "To give individuality to; 2 to form into a distinct entity". B. (Merriam-Webster's "Webster's Third New International Dictionary") -- 1 "To distinguish from others of the same species." C. (Random House Dictionary) 1 "To form into an individual, or distinct entity; 2 to give a distinct character to." "Individuation" -- (Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary) -- 1 "The act or process of individuating; 2 the development of the individual from the universal; the determination of the individual, in the general". (The author's application of the term "individuation", for the purposes of this "tablet", is as follows: "God's 'individualizing' the design and creation of each one of His people, so that each human-being is different from all others..... and so that each individual 'Godsperson' fulfills the existence and the purpose that God has ordained for that particular individual.") OR..... "God's planned process of generating individual, distinct human-beings -- for Himself...... rather than allowing Mother Nature, Big-Bang, and Father-Time to construct generic 'creatures', and 'batches' of human-animals -- for later evaluation and 'judgment' -- by God.") It is my thesis, and my understanding, that in the process of God's "individuating", God-our-Creator designs and "produces" each one of His people, individually -- according to God's own plan and purpose for each individual. (It is inconceivable, to me, that Almighty-God -- the Supreme Mind of Heaven and Earth -- is not fully involved in the design and "manufacturing" of each one of His children, His servants, His saints...... His people.) (See link: God's People) (At this point in this "tablet", I want to "copy and paste" a short section from another chapter in this internet book. This section (from "God's People") expresses my opinion about whether or not God "assigns" the design and creation of His people to the "whim" of chance, and luck and chaos..... and to the vagaries of "Mother-Nature" -- and to the flippancy of Father Big-Bang. Here is the copied section: Can you imagine that He who designed each of us humans, individually; He who created every one of us, for this world; He who assigned the genetic make-up of each of us to be totally different from every other human creation; He who specifed our skin-color, and our "ethnic origin", and our family background; He who guided the young footsteps and the development and the maturing of each "Godsperson"..... can you imagine that this omniscient, omnipotent and everlasting Creator of the Universe and Heaven, does not know and remember and fully understand the qualities and attributes of those individuals whom He has designed..... and for what purpose each of His people was generated? (Do you believe that you and I were "released", helter-skelter, into this life, by an uncaring and insouciant "Supreme-Being" -- and that we...... we who claim to be God's people -- have been left to "fend" for ourselves, unassisted and unguided and unloved, in our journey through this life, in this world? I say "NO"! What do you say?) Does anyone believe that the Sovereign God-of-the-Universe -- without any plan or purpose for that which He is creating -- casually dumps into a cauldron, a batch of skin and bones, arteries and veins, hearts and lungs -- along with a sprinkle of a variegated DNA..... and that our Creator-God then walks away, and frivolously abandons the "forming" of the resultant human-beings to the "discretion" and whim of Mother-Nature, and Father-Big-Bang? Do you believe that God-Almighty leaves the design and development of "God's people", in the hands of "the-forces-of-nature" -- and that God then says to Himself, "Let's see what 'luck' and 'chance' and 'chaos' can come up with..... then I'll decide ("judge"), later, which humans I'll keep and 'save' and admit to My Kingdom.... and which other humans I'll condemn and discard -- and destroy"? My rhetorical question, of course, is this. Does God-the Creator expect each one of His people to be exactly like every other human-being? Are we humans "produced" to be clones of each other...... all of us having the same "spiritual" understanding; and all of us performing the same worldly tasks; and all of us "belonging" to the same "church"..... and all of us reciting an identical creed..... and each of us mimicking a preacher, or a monk, or a rabbi, or a "religious" academician? Are you and I to be condemned, by other humans, and by certain churches -- and by God..... if we do not fall-into-line -- and "obey" the laws, rules and regulations that a particular "religion" has declared to be the one-and-only-way to God's "salvation"? Should we individuals of varying "religious" understanding abandon the set-of-beliefs that we have conscientiously perceived...... the "faith" we have been led to believe? Must we abandon our own thoughts, and our own seeking...... and adopt someone else's "conclusions" -- so that we can "satisfy" this-or-that "church"? OR...... does God Himself guard and protect His people from the misguided perceptions of the "great-religions" of the world...... AND does God then construct and "cultivate" His own "spiritual" truths within each of His people..... according to God's own time-table for each "individual"? Should you and I be ostracized or shamed (or murdered) by certain humans, simply because we do not recognize and embrace the creed that a specific dogmatic group claims to be the-one-and-only "truth"? Should we, in our ignorance (or in our fear and superstitiion) "join" a certain doctrinal church..... and should we (in spite of our questions and doubts) "confess" our allegiance to that church -- by reciting a "profession-of-belief" which we do not genuinely understand and accept? Note the following Biblical references. Some of these are repeated from above. Read these scriptures out loud, so that you will hear yourself repeating God's thoughts: 1 Corinthians 12: 5 (NRSV) .....there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities; but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To EACH is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common good......11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to EACH ONE, INDIVIDUALLY..... just as the Spirit chooses...... 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body -- EACH ONE of them, as HE chose. 1 Corinthians 7: 7 (RSV) EACH has his own special gift from God; one has this gift, another has that gift. 1 Corinthians 7: 17 (RSV) Let everyone lead the life which the Lord has ASSIGNED to him, and in which God has called him. Romans 8: 29 (NRSV) For those whom He FOREKNEW, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son -- in order that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn within a large family. 30 And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified. 31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ROMANS 12: 3 For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment -- each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body, we have many members; and not all the members have the same function; 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. Isaiah 43: 5 (NIV) Do not be afraid, for I (God) am with you; I will bring your children from the east, and gather you from the west. 6 I will say to the north, `Give them up!' and to the south, `Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth -- 7 everyone who is called by my name -- whom I CREATED FOR MY GLORY -- whom I FORMED and MADE." 1 Corinthians 12: 27 (NRSV) Now you are the body of Christ, and INDIVIDUALLY members of it. John 3: 27 (NEB) (John, the Baptist speaking): "A man can have only what God gives him." Same (KJV) John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing -- except it be given him from heaven. Peter 4: 10 (NRSV) EACH ONE should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. So, what do you say? Does God "individuate" each one of His accepted human creations? Or, does God-the-Creator walk-away from the process, and leave the development and maturation of God's people to the forces-of-nature? And, of even greater importance..... does the Almighty-God-of Heaven-and-Earth-and-Universe frivolously abandon the spiritual development of His "chosen" creations -- to the multiplicity of churchy arguments and claims and disputes and fights and wars and hates..... of countless doctrinally-frozen, sometimes-supercilious, frequently hostile religious organizations? OR.... does God Himself carefully and lovingly "manage" the timing and the method of the spiritual awakening of each of His "children"? (This following paragraph, copied from above, is repeated here.) I say that God personally designs and forms ("individuates") each of His "accepted" human creations. I perceive, also, that God personally guides the spiritual awakening and development and maturation of His "individuated" ("chosen") people. I consider this entire process to be lifelong..... and to be under the constant watchful eye of God Himself..... and I believe that God molds, guides, locates, bends, plants, prunes, disciplines, loves, and "saves" those whom He has "individuated" -- for His own reasons...... unrelated to the begging and pleading of churchy human-beings -- and in spite of the admonitions and threats and warnings of "organized" institutional churches, religions, and rigidly doctrinal sects. So.... I have expressed my understanding -- my feelings, my "faith". What do you say? Do you, yourself, personally, have a "position"..... based on your own knowledge and decipherings and study and meditation, and prayer..... and based on revelations to you, from God? Or, do you simply say to yourself that you "believe" whatever the preacher says, or whatever your "church" has dictated to you? Solidify your own spiritual tenets. Share your understanding with others.... and with me.

"Bishop Doane, on His Dog" Posted here, 5/3/01; "doctored" 10/26/05 See link to related tablet: "ANGELS" I am quite sure he thinks that I am God -- Since he is God, on whom each one depends For life, and all things that His bounty sends -- My dear old dog, most constant of all friends; Not quick to mind, but quicker far than I To Him, whom God I know and own. His eye, deep brown and liquid -- Watches for my nod. He is more patient beneath the rod, Than I, when God His wise corrections sends. He looks love at me, deep as words e'er spake; And from me never crumb nor sup will take, But he wags "thanks" with his most vocal tail. And when some crashing noise wakes all his fear, He is content and quiet, if I am near -- Secure that my protection will prevail. So.... faithful, mindful, thankful, trustful -- He tells me what I unto my God should be. By: George Washington Doane