The Privilege of Serving the Lord of Love
from The Love That God Is
Uranda October 1, 1951 100 Mile House, BC
There is the opportunity, from the standpoint of God, of sharing the ever-newness which provides the never-ending thrill of eternity. The human mind tends to make things grow old on the basis of old translations, the old patterns, and they become distorted and outdated, and they do not fit the immediate circumstances. They are not adequate to the present state of development and progress. So we let them go, release them, and we remember that in each evolving moment of eternity the spirit of God's expression contains within itself the patterns for its own fulfilments for this moment. And if we see these patterns with fresh vision, not contaminated by the old, we can begin to know what it means to live in eternity here and now. The future here depends upon us. To the degree that you can meet each moment in newness instead of in some old pattern, which because of the unfolding expression of life moment by moment causes every moment to be jammed in the old pattern, you will be adequate to that which God would reveal in life here and now. Here is the key to living in eternity. We must face the fact that until our minds are trained to let this process take place we cannot truly let the spirit find expression through our words. We cannot allow the new visions of truth to take form in the realm of thought until the mind is conditioned to this process. If you let your minds relax, let the past be past, let the future rest in the hands of God, let this moment, untarnished, free of all human patterns and forms and thoughts and translations, reveal what it will in the current of the spirit of God, we can turn to that subject which is old in the sense that it is eternal in the past and it will be eternal in the future, but in each unfolding moment it will be eternally new.
Let us meditate tonight on love—God's love, or the love that God is; for God is love. We recognize that this is essential, because it is only by reason of love that we can maintain the correct polarity in harmony with the One Law. We recognize that truth can shape and mold our lives according to the patterns of eternal beauty only as love holds us centered while the operation is performed. Truth contains the patterns, it contains the elements necessary to shaping and molding and bringing forth that which is God's will, in God's design. But that operation is impossible except as the individual is held in position while it takes place. Only as we let love be the controlling factor, the means by which we center, can we be held securely in position while the changes take place. The moment the patterns of truth begin to reshape life, the individual who is not centered, truly, starts to hedge. He moves this way and that way; he sets up barriers against the truth; he tends to make reservations within himself. And he says, in fact, “Lord, you can make this beautiful over there, and I would be so happy if you would just correct that ugly thing over here, and correct this in someone over there. That would be lovely, Lord, but let me alone.” Until we are bound by the cords of love, in absolute slavery, we cannot be held steady long enough for the patterns of truth to be meaningful as God seeks to make all things new in us.
We have for a long time found great joy in the idea of freedom. We belong to free nations, where people are free to worship God, where they are free to speak and to do. Lands of freedom! And we thank God for the freedom we have enjoyed and the freedom we enjoy now. But this freedom can become the barrier between us and the heaven that is at hand—the human concept of freedom which resists the process by which we become the servants of God. We must become servants in the absolute sense before we can become friends. Until the former things have passed away and all things have been made new in us, we cannot be accepted as sons and daughters of God in the absolute sense—because we would be attempting to take distortions and limitations and ugliness into the kingdom. We would be trying to inject into the kingdom on earth those things that have made hell in the world that man now knows.
How can this change work out? In one way only. Regardless of human whims and fancies, desires or concepts, there is only one way: only when we have responded so in love to God that we let the cords of love draw us near and bind us so that we may be servants. In such a state we do not say, “Lord, I will be a servant for two or three weeks, with the understanding that at the end of that time I will be a son or a daughter with the full privileges of heaven.” Is that being a servant in a true sense? No. We cannot bargain with God with respect to servitude. It has to be so real with us that we do not care if it will last for eternity. To be a servant itself is enough. And we find it is in that servitude that we find our freedom. Why? What is it that makes it possible for me to have certain freedom in the divine sense, from the standpoint of that leadership that is offered to you, assisting you, directing you, working out the problems along the way? From any outer standpoint I have to answer to no one on the face of the earth. You say this is freedom. Yes, freedom. But why do I have that freedom? For one reason only: because there is a point where I am not interested in freedom; because there is One to whom I give my absolute, unwavering devotion; because there is one point where my greatest satisfaction is in being a servant, a servant who has no thought of questioning his Lord's command, who never thinks of offering excuses, whose one desire, one purpose in life, is to obey. It is because of that fact—and I speak to you from an inner standpoint on this.
There has been the idea, the concept, that all God Beings are equal. Yes and no. Principally no, because the structure of the body of God, made up of God Beings, is on the basis of absolute laws and principles that are never violated under any circumstance, something that is absolutely dependable in structure, never a break or wavering under any circumstance. And what is position? Human minds are inclined to think that position is so important. There is only one position that is important to you, and your outer mind does not need to know even what that is, the one position that you have from the inner standpoint of the body of God. When the outer part of your body and mind conforms with that, you have the ultimate satisfaction, the absolute joy and peace. There is no cause to aspire, according to human concepts of ambition, to something else, because that is where you fit in the divine scheme of things. Now whatever that place or part may be, the same is true of all God Beings, because in their places all are equally happy, all are equally satisfied, all are equally filled, according to their capacities, with the glory of God. There may not be equal capacities, but is equalness of capacity such an important thing? A washtub will hold much more than a teacup, but must we all be washtubs? I have seen some beautiful teacups. The Pacific Ocean has a tremendous capacity, but who wants to be the Pacific Ocean? There are so many things that the human mind by its wrong interpretations discolors, distorts, until the truth doesn't get through; because the mind wants to get everything pigeonholed, indexed. Yes, the mind hears this—“That's how I heard it; let's stick it here.” I have had people come to my services or lectures and at the end they would say, “Yes, this is just like I heard so-and-so say it.” It wasn't. They had simply translated everything I said into their old concept and had not learned a single thing. A number of years ago, maybe seventeen years or so, anyway a lady came to three or four of my lectures. It was a little group of ladies, and they had a leader, a spokesman. They came to three or four lectures and then they decided to go somewhere else. And this spokesman of the group was heard to say, “We know now everything he has to offer. We have heard everything and we are going over there now.” Well you know how foolish she was, but she didn't know. Those extremes illustrate the point.
We reach the point of being a slave, and love that slavery; we would not exchange it for anything else in heaven or earth! I am not interested in exchanging my position in relationship to this little world for some supposedly higher position in the universe or cosmos somewhere. There are all kinds of positions that are higher, up and down, and greater and more far-reaching. Is it because I have no ambition, no desire for any of those positions?—and I speak from an inner standpoint, not from the human form. No desire whatever. I am not interested in changing my position. Why? Because from the standpoint of the God Being, I am perfectly content to be the slave of my Lord and King, His servant.
In the outworking of the cycles of time as they have appeared in the past, the faithfulness of that servitude has been emphasized over and over again. And as a result, I know what it is for Him to call me friend. In the world if someone is a slave to some domineering human being, the result is supposedly degradation. One is walked upon, one's rights and privileges are destroyed, etc. Because of that, human beings have translated all ideas of servitude to God into the old human patterns, and they have assumed that God would treat a slave the same as a human degenerate would treat a slave, and they have rebelled against the idea of becoming a slave to God. Is it not rather blasphemous and sacrilegious to say that God would be governed by the same lack of ethics as degenerate human beings? And yet, when you stop to think of it, even tonight, could one of you say you did not have at least one little twinge of response to the idea of becoming a slave, a servant, in the absolute sense? Giving up freedom? It is the only way to reach the point where you know what freedom is. When my Lord and Master bids me go and do something, He gives me a command. Do you think He should stop to tell me every little detail of what I should say, or what I should do, or what I should think? And do you think I should go running to Him, asking how to do this and that? “Do that.” That is all there is to it. From there on it is my responsibility, and I do not have to go to Him, asking Him to solve anything. As far as my responsibility is concerned, it is my decision. He asked me to obtain a certain result. True, there is a plan, a blueprint, that was included in the instruction. But in the scope of that pattern I have absolute freedom. Various people have tried to challenge that freedom, but I have absolute freedom to do it this way or that way, according to my best judgment, and I have to answer to no man.
I am talking about this as I am, to help you to understand your own opportunities; and perhaps it will help you to understand me a little better too, and help you to understand God's principles and laws, and the outworking of His will. So, having that commission—the general pattern, blueprint, yes—but that which evolves when the work is done is mine. I have received the whole from my Lord and King, with the ultimate purpose of turning the whole back to Him. But in the interval, while it is in my commission, it is all mine in the absolute sense. “For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”; in other words, that which is, is within the scope of that commission which is mine. He knows it is His, and He will receive it back in season, after certain things have been accomplished. Meanwhile it is mine. When it is done it will be mine to give to Him. It will be my creation, but it will not be mine in the sense of one individual or something. That which provides the focus has to take the lead, but actually, in that it is mine it is ours, to the degree you will receive and share in the responsibility and accomplishment, the share of privileges, the privilege of sharing in God's creative work here on earth. It is ours. You could not, by any means whatever, obtain a share in that except through me. No one on the face of the earth can give it to you. But you can have a share of it, and so can anyone else on the face of the earth who is willing to do so. Because it is mine it is available to all. So we can build something wonderful and beautiful and glorious, and in season present it to our Lord and King. But in the interval, if I seem to be dictatorial or something of that nature, as according to the human mind I seem to be, in the final analysis it is my responsibility. I cannot say, “He or she wanted to change the plan a little, and so, Lord, I thought it would be all right.” Oh no, not me. It is not that I am dictatorial; there is a purpose, and it has to conform to certain laws and principles, regardless. There is a pattern; there are laws that cannot be safely violated.
What is it that is going to hold us centered while this takes place, while the patterns of truth are allowed to appear in the realm of form? There is one thing only—love. Together we serve the Lord of Love. There are no words by which the privilege can be adequately described. Why do you think there is that written in the Book here, that there was a certain disciple who was spoken of as the one whom Jesus loved? Why did Jesus love him? Favoritism? Oh no, no! Do not ever accuse my Lord and King of favoritism, at least not when I am around. No, because he loved our Lord and King with absolute devotion that did not consider anything else. He had no other purpose than to fulfil that devotion.
The Lord of Love. When we pause to consider it we can recognize that whatever there is in the world of man, even as it now is—to say nothing of heaven, heaven here on earth, heaven that is at hand—whatever there is on earth that has any meaning or value, that meaning or value comes from love. You can take the grandest castles or mansions that have ever been built on earth, remove all traces of love from them and from those who live in those halls, and what do you have? Something beautiful? No. What is it that makes a mansion out of the most humble cottage on earth? It is love. For what purpose does a man or woman work? If there is no love, no one who cares, who trusts—because there cannot be care or trust without love—what does it avail? Name me one thing in life worthwhile that is in the world, even as the world knows it, without love. You cannot do it. Not one thing. The meaningfulness of whatever we do anywhere, under any circumstance, depends upon love. It is first and foremost and in all things absolute. And we have the privilege of serving the Lord of Love. What is it that distinguishes heaven from the world that man knows? What is it that provides the atmosphere of heaven that makes it heaven? Love. Take love out of the most glorious place God ever made, the most wonderful setting that God ever made, and it becomes meaningless, valueless, until love returns. And we have the privilege of serving the Lord of Love!
When we begin to realize what a glorious privilege that is, we do not find it difficult to love Him. Who ever thought it was something hard to do, to try loving the Lord of Love? Isn't that a rather foolish idea, “trying” to love the Lord of Love? If one is alive and awake to the realities of life and love, how could one help but love Him? How can you keep from loving Him? That is the question. We do not have to try to do it. I don't know how a human being could keep from loving Him! And any idea otherwise is so foolish, so idiotic, that it is not even rational. It is insensible. It shows such an immaturity of concept it cannot even be given consideration. We have the privilege of serving the Lord of Love and loving Him with body, mind, heart and soul, loving Him with all that we are all the time, loving Him with such uttermost devotion that we don't care whether we are called slaves or servants or anything else. Of course, there is a special thrill when He calls us friend, but we know that thrill is so wonderful that we would not care if it would take ten thousand times ten thousand years in eternity waiting for the day when He would call us friend! It would still be worthwhile. Until we have shown ourselves to be servants, slaves if you please, how can we be trusted as friends? If we allowed the human concept of friend to enter in here we would say, "Well if I am His friend I have a right to change this around; I can change this around to suit myself. I don't have to pay attention, I can ignore this. I am His friend and I can fix it this way. I am His friend and I can do it this way to please myself." There the old translation would be revealing itself, the human idea of what it means to be a friend.
What is a friend of a great King? Would we find any joy or satisfaction in trying to suit ourselves? trying in our own minds, or the minds of others, to be equal with Him? I have no desire to be equal with Him—not the slightest desire. He is my King. What good would that do me or anyone else? I have no interest in any such thing. Equal with Him? What would that mean? It doesn't mean anything. He is my King, my Lord, my Master. To try to set myself up with Him, that would destroy everything that is worthwhile to me. It would destroy my relationship to Him whom I love. It would destroy my position in the cosmos. It would destroy my opportunity of being of any service to you. I would have nothing.
What is a friend of the King, a true King, a King such as ours, the Lord of Love? A friend. A friend is one who is true to his King, faithful. He never does the things that betray. He is not guilty of betraying the trust to the traitor. Traitors, especially in times of war, traitors in the outer sense, are generally shot. When we are traitors in the outer, worldly sense in relationship to the things of heaven, to our King, when human beings are, are they shot? No. Sometimes they destroy themselves if they go far enough, but the Lord of Love is always ready to forgive. If the individual has not destroyed himself and turns and asks forgiveness, he will have it. That is the kind of a King we have. But it is not safe to be a traitor. It does not bring satisfaction. It does not help to build anything, whether it be a little betrayal or a big one.
We have the privilege of serving the Lord of Love. What is love? As we pointed out in one of our earlier considerations, it can be defined as that something which provides a sense of oneness-with. It is the cohesive element in God. It is the cohesive element that holds the body of God together, that makes God dependable and eternal. And God has said: “If you will share this love, this cohesiveness, I will receive you unto Myself, that you may be a part of the body of God.” And human beings take the attitude, “Who does God think He is, to demand I should love Him?” Are we going to give something to God that He cannot have on any other basis? No, these commands are established so that God can share something with you. The Lord of Love says: “Follow Me. Follow Me and you can be the branches of the vine, members of the body of God on earth, through whom the works can be done, through whom My love can show forth to all who will receive.”
That something that provides the solidity, the unity, the oneness of the body of God, is offered by the Lord of Love to all human beings. And if they have love enough in the heart to respond, so that they can receive that love which is offered by God, they will be drawn into that oneness, they will be drawn to that point where they will be held secure, so that whatever it is that is wrong can be caused to slough away and that which is right be caused to appear. “Behold, I make all things new in and through and for those that have become centered in Me, who have become slaves to the Lord of Love. Until you are centered in Me you cannot hold still and steady long enough for truth to make any impression on you.” That is what the Lord says. You will be wavering this way and that way, bobbing all over the place, because you have no anchor, nothing to establish you, until you love. And when you love God more than anything else, more than anyone else, more than yourself, more than any relative or friend, then you have centering, then you can no longer be pulled and pushed this way and that way. You are held in position while the patterns of truth can work and take form in you and give you the opportunity to live. And then you find a strange and curious thing. You had thought that if you loved God more than a friend or relative, you thought that if you were not true to that friend or relative, that somehow you would be untrue to that love. Untrue? Then you can be of service and value, you can be meaningful. But if you allow yourself to be pushed around by what you think is love out here, then the things you do are not meaningful; it prevents you from finding your true centering in God, and all your efforts become meaningless. It is not that God would deny you the pleasure of companionship of the loved ones. God is not denying us the choice of love. He is offering us the privilege of knowing the joys of love and life still more, of knowing such companionship that we have never dreamed possible, of doing such things for the loved ones that could not be done in human strength.
When we become slaves bound with the irresistible cords of love, centered to a point, a foundation, there is no moving this way and that, no turning aside. We are God-centered. The old things that have no meaning slough away. They are cut off with the sword of truth. The new pattern takes hold and we begin to live, and the beauty of truth is revealed and we are able to serve others, our loved ones. But who are our loved ones? Our loved ones are those that love God. Oh I know what it is to have loved ones turn away. They were not ready to serve God first, last and always, and they wanted me to violate the laws and principles of being for their sakes. And they put it up to me, “If you really loved me, you would ignore these laws and principles of God and do what I want you to do.” If I really loved them? If I really loved them, would I do that? I know what it is to have loved ones turn aside. You can't tell me anything about it. But I do not, and never have, loved any human being enough to deny my love for my Lord and King! And when any man or woman, no matter how close he or she may be, denies my King, he ceases to have meaning in my life, regardless, period. I don't care how close, how wonderful according to any standard whatever, I don't care what relative or friend or wife or child, the moment it comes to that point there is no question. My devotion is one-pointed, and those that work with me must have that same one-pointed devotion. For anyone who denies that point to which I am devoted has no meaning to me, absolutely none! No matter what happens, no matter how much they suffer, no matter what happens, in any way, shape or form, it doesn't faze me one iota! They have been offered the privilege of serving the Lord of Love, and anyone who turns that down means nothing to me—and should mean nothing to you; that is my point.
Until you love the Lord of Love with that kind of love you can't know what it means to be centered and let the pattern of truth really shape and mold your life and environment, and provide the means of releasing blessing to your loved ones and others. “Who is my mother, my brethren, my sisters?” That is what the Master asked. And He answered, “He that doeth the will of my Father in heaven.” That is absolute—absolute! "He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven"; he who loves God and lets God's love have meaning in his life. Love—what a wonderful thing it is! It is that something that makes the body of God eternally new, eternally young, eternally glorious. Love is that something from which the glory of life springs. How can we glorify God on earth? By letting God's glory find expression through us on earth, so that it will appear in places where it has not appeared. We cannot increase God's glory, in the sense of the invisible realms, by giving glory to Him. You cannot add to Him, you cannot detract from Him in the inner sense, actually; but you can let that glory of the Lord appear through your life and shine in your environment and bless others. You can let that glory of the Lord fill the temple and shine round about, as it is put in the Bible.
From whence does that glory spring? From truth. Truth, if you can separate it from love—it is something you can't do—but if you could, it would be such a cold and meaningless thing. The beauty of truth has scintillating meaning and glory because of Love—the love that makes everything worthwhile, the love that gives meaning to life in all the things that are. And we have the privilege, the sacred privilege, of acknowledging and serving the Lord of Love. That is the invitation I bring to you and offer to all who respond to it: the privilege of serving the Lord of Love.
© emissaries of divine light
