As We Choose So Will We Become
Volition on any level short of the absolute
encounters limitations which are constitutive in the very personality exercising the power
of choice. Man cannot choose beyond the range of that which is choosable. He cannot, for
instance, choose to be other than a human being except that he can elect to become more
than a man; he can choose to embark upon the voyage of universe ascension, but this is
because the human choice and the divine will happen to be coincident upon this point. And
what a son desires and the Father wills will certainly come to pass.
"Many of you have this day come to the parting of the ways;
you have come to a beginning of the making of the inevitable choice between the will of
the Father and the self-chosen ways of darkness. And as you now choose, so shall you
eventually be. You must either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else will the
tree become corrupt and its fruit corrupt. I declare that in my Father's eternal kingdom
the tree is known by its fruits. But some of you who are as vipers, how can you, having
already chosen evil, bring forth good fruits? After all, out of the abundance of the evil
in your hearts your mouths speak."
The word God, the idea of God as contrasted with the ideal of
God, can become a part of any religion, no matter how puerile or false that religion may
chance to be. And this idea of God can become anything which those who entertain it may
choose to make it. The lower religions shape their ideas of God to meet the natural state
of the human heart; the higher religions demand that the human heart shall be changed to
meet the demands of the ideals of true religion.
"And now I declare to you that I, if I be lifted up on earth
and in your lives, will draw all men to myself and into the fellowship of my Father. You
have believed that the Deliverer would abide on earth forever, but I declare that the Son
of Man will be rejected by men, and that he will go back to the Father. Only a little
while will I be with you; only a little time will the living light be among this darkened
generation. Walk while you have this light so that the oncoming darkness and confusion may
not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness knows not where he goes; but if you will
choose to walk in the light, you shall all indeed become liberated sons of God. And now,
all of you, come with me while we go back to the temple and I speak farewell words to the
chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the benighted
rulers of Israel."
"The Father sent me into this world, but only a few of you
have chosen fully to receive me. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, but all men
will not choose to receive this new teacher as the guide and counselor of the soul. But as
many as do receive him shall be enlightened, cleansed, and comforted. And this Spirit of
Truth will become in them a well of living water springing up into eternal life."