The Day Of The Lord
Grace Van Duzen August 31, 1977 p.m.
To me it is a pure joy to be in this Holy Place. And it certainly is a very special privilege to stand in this position in this Holy Place. And it is a very special privilege to stand in this place, in this Holy Place in this Dome, with all of you special people in this Holy Place. But it is to me a real privilege and a great joy just to be in this valley. I think I’ll share something with you by way of recall. I’ve shared it with individuals, maybe all of you along the way. But when I look around now and see the wonder of this beautiful valley I do sometimes recall my entrance into the valley some years ago.
Today it is exquisitely beautiful from every standpoint. No one would have to try to find the beauty in this place. And this year there have been so many comments about how very especially green it is and how the bushes and trees have grown twice their size—I’ve said this anyway. It is so obvious. Well when I came here it was very obvious to me because I was so thrilled with the spirit of the place, but when I think of what it looked like with hindsight there wasn’t any outer evidence of it. Yet the spirit which was here is exactly the spirit that is here now. It didn’t require one blade of grass or one gorgeous rose to make it the valley of Eden, or the garden. And of course that is why it is all here: because of the spirit which established this place. If it were not so, what would be here? So this emphasizes itself to me, looking at the beauty and wonder of this really beautiful valley. I often say, “What could heaven have more?” I can’t picture, on another planet or somewhere, anything more beautiful. What do we want?
It really is just pure joy to breathe this air and walk this valley and see the beautiful roses. A long time ago Uranda said, “The desert shall blossom as the rose.” Well it certainly has. It was a brown deserty kind of place then; and the year I came it just happened to have a plague of grasshoppers and you couldn’t walk up the road without making a path through them. But it was exactly the same; it was gorgeous. And so the substance has been allowed to bring the form of that spirit. And now we sit in this Dome. I think it was three years ago when a group of us outlined the foundation for this Dome. I wonder how many are here who did that? Oh my! Spiritual substance in the flesh is the foundation for this beautiful temple of the living God, and it has taken form because of that established in the spirit. How exquisite! The very form which we have around us was first set in form by a group of us, many of you in the field and some of us here, during a Servers Conference. And we held hands and outlined this place.
I thought of this this morning with respect to this Holy Temple. When Martin spoke, spoke on the tape—it was as vivid as though he stood up here and said the words, wasn't it? He recalled an incident, or a reference to Solomon of old; and if we look back I think the Temple of Solomon is the one Temple that stands out. There don’t seem to be any others that were worth mentioning along the way—but this mighty Temple of Solomon, at the climactic point of the First Sacred School. So we have the symbol of something in this. I would say it was a symbol, this whole valley is a symbol, of the garden of the whole world to be restored because this valley has been restored to wonder and beauty. In those old days there was no water coming out of the ground—not very much out of the skies either! but no wells; certainly no beautiful canal running back there. It was very obliging of them to put that there just for us! But it is more than irrigation, isn’t it? We don’t irrigate the rimrock but it is green all the way up to the top. And we could say a change of weather. A change of what? It is here and that is all that matters. I don’t care about any dire predictions of droughts or anything else. It is as green as we could want it. And the garden is here.
So to me this very valley is a symbol of the Garden which shall be restored in the whole earth. Certainly this Dome, this beautiful Chapel, is a symbol ... what is it a symbol of? For some years we have had the Little Chapel, a symbol of the holy, holy place on the face of the earth, and then comes something else, a huge one. When we outlined this foundation the sky was the dome over us. Now there is still some sky to be seen through this Dome, rightly so. But this circle was formed by many of you who represent what is out there, represent this to what is out there. So, surely it does bring to focus that which is coming to the Lord on the face of the whole earth.
I’ve already mentioned Solomon, and I’m going to read the words which Martin read this morning on the tape. This is in Matthew, the sixth chapter: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
One lily, one flower! Solomon in all his glory couldn’t equal one little flower. That is impressive to me. Solomon in all his glory; not just the wonderful clothes he wore but his whole kingdom, that was his glory. And it was a great kingdom; from the standpoint of this world it was a glorious kingdom. The world of mankind found its focus in that part of the world at that time and Solomon’s kingdom outranked all the rest and actually included all the rest. I am reminded of the third so-called temptation of Jesus, when Satan said, “Bow down to me and I will give you all the kingdoms of this world and all the glory of them.” Well Solomon did bow down to Satan—and all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them were not like one little flower. Why? Because he was separated from the substance of the LORD, and that is absolutely worth nothing at all. Solomon had become subject to that over which he was meant to have dominion. The material wealth, the wonderful realm of this world, all its glory, his own being, his glory, went for nothing because of the separation from the source. There was no substance. He was focused in that one realm, that level. We might just take note as well of the substance as it relates to what has been called sex, because if numbers had anything to do with it Solomon should have had it made! It was limited to this physical level, and it was all nothing! So we have this sorry state, terrible state of failure, actually, at this point.
“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” I think that is overlooked sometimes in reading this. The idea is that we are not supposed to want food or drink or clothes, and of course some have gone out and said, “We don’t need it. You feed us but we are not going to lift our little finger to get it,” or, you know, wear the miserable attire. But that is not what it says. It says, “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things,” that you have need of the food and drink and clothes. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
And as I heard these words read this morning something came vividly to my consciousness, which has been there but I always let it alone. And that is this phrase, “...all these things shall be added unto you.” Now I can only speak for myself; maybe it is all right with everybody else but there is a phrase that is bandied about. I think it at least borders on a distortion. That is these words used as a noun, all these “added untos.” Am I the only one who ever heard them? Are they really added unto? Do we worship a God who hands out bonuses? “You’ve had your pay now but you’re really special; here is an added unto.” Personally, using that as a noun I think should be a thing of the past. I’ve heard it so many times and had it written to me: “This is wonderful; this is an added unto.” It is the working of the Law. It is the clothing with physical form, material form, the spirit, because the substance of the spirit is present. And isn’t that enough? It is the wonderful working of the Law, and the way it is worded here is just fine: “It shall be added unto you.” It is the clothing in outer form of this substance; it is further substance, shall we say. And all of this comes by first seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” That puts thought and things on the same level. Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness—spiritual expression—righteousness in every moment of our living, and then the thoughts and things of the day take their rightful form. I think it is one of the most exquisite passages in the Bible actually.
So the First Sacred School had its failure. To me it is interesting that our Master, in His magnificent life, met those so-called temptations, that third one, which was the failure of the First Sacred School. Well all of them are contained of course, but the victory was established by the Master on every level of being—such a magnificent thing. So I would look at victory now instead of letting it go at failure. The first victory in the Bible goes back very far, doesn’t it? It goes clear back to the beginning, the story of creation. But I’m not thinking of Genesis. There is not too much victory in the story of Adam and Eve unless you go to their son Seth, who allowed the calling on the name of the Lord again.
But as for that personal magnificent victory we go to Job. I bring him up because he has been referred to quite a lot recently, it seems to me; or his day has been referred to, that day when the sons and daughters presented themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. Martin has remarked that Satan’s voice is the only one you hear in Job’s story. That is very interesting and very true. You see, I took note of the number of chapters where Satan speaks. There are forty-two chapters in Job and thirty-seven are taken up with Satan. He is only called “Satan” in a few of the first chapters; after that he is called Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar—it would have been better if it had been “zo-phar and no farther”—and then the last one is Elihu. But they are all Satan, all the voice of Satan, in all those arguments. They are so modern. You couldn’t find them more up to date at any symposium, or at what Alan called this morning a new age circus. They are all there, all the arguments. Interspersed in these arguments are a few words of Job, generating some substance whereby eventually the rebuke of the LORD to Satan could come out. And that is the magnificence of the Book of Job, his victory over every seemingly subtle argument. They are not subtle to the LORD; they are utterly ridiculous, double-talk, nonsense—hogwash, Martin calls it.
Of course we know that marvelous rebuke: “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Oh how often that could be said. And we don’t have to look out into the world, do we? But I love the verse in the fortieth chapter where the LORD answers Job out of the whirlwind: “Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.” This is man in all his glory; not Solomon in all that glory, but majesty, excellency and beauty, the wonder of divine being on earth in human form. This was the victory of Job over all the mouthings, blatherings, of Satan.
Something else was emphasized this morning: that in this generation of substance man is the one instrument through which the Lord can reach into all the kingdoms of this world. What a terrible reversal that was when Solomon wasn’t equal to one little flower! Through man, in man, is the means through whom the Lord can reach all of His kingdoms on the face of this planet, and in no other way. And in the generation of that substance—we’ve given it names—the substance of the spirit by which the Lord is connected with His creation, here is the answer, and how beautiful it is. In all His glory!
There were many victories in the First Sacred School, individual victories, but not that necessary collective victory, so that our Master had to come into the world—and here we go with the same One for the next absolute ultimate victory again. But while we are way back there in Job, which was on the other side of the flood, we know just through reading this magnificent book, particularly from chapter thirty-eight on—in the answering of Job to the nonsense of Satan, by whatever name, we have a picture of the majesty of the source of life through a conscious mind. These words had to come through a conscious mind or they wouldn’t be written in this book. Yet they reveal a conscious awareness of the workings of the cycles on this planet and the relationship between this planet and not only the planets of the solar system out there but constellations. Inherent in these words is truly the wisdom of the Lord. There is also revealed an awareness of the cycles on this planet, the cycles for instance of certain animals, knowing down to the tiniest detail the time of their bringing forth, the period of gestation, their habits. And the beauty of Job is that there is not really any separation—“That’s marvelous out there but with regard to this, I happen to know this.” The same wonderful emphasis and wonder is present with regard to all this, because it is all the same thing, isn’t it? What could be more glorious than the creation we know.
As I say, since we are back that far we could look at something that was established in the earth in that dim past of which there is no record except, we might say, Job and the creation in Genesis, and that is a monument called the Great Pyramid. Now don’t get excited because I’m not going to go into the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid is a marvelous monument, and to me the wonderful message of it is contained in the fact that beyond a doubt there were beings walking this planet, human beings, with a vital awareness and at least a certain degree of oneness with the Creator in a conscious sense, which man has lost. He has dragged himself up to the point where he can understand some of this now but—I used to wonder how the Pyramid could represent the earth in the shape it was; I mean straight lines, and angles and corners and flat surfaces. But you know the keys are contained in the Pyramid. As probably most know, the squaring of the circle is contained in the Pyramid—it’s been there all this time. Not too long ago man figured out this great wonder himself, pi, the squaring of the circle. Also the cubing of the sphere is there. Now I won’t take time to explain all this to you tonight—there’s no time you understand!—but can’t we sense something wonderful here? Here is all the representation of the earth in symbolism in the Pyramid, but also in the whole very shape of it all. Anyway there is magic, and I think we all know that without an explanation.
My point in this is that while there is not prophecy in the sense of saying Johnny is going to marry Mary on the fifteenth of September, 1895, there are cycles indicated in the Pyramid. I would suspect that in this conscious awareness, this oneness with the Creator, there was as well the awareness of certain times, cycles, not just in the earth but with regard to all the cosmos, these cyclic outworkings, and that there would be a point of cyclic outworking at certain places. Now to say that the children of Israel would come out of Egypt then, I don’t think that they could have said that; they didn’t know anything about the children of Israel or Egypt. But there was an awareness of an outworking. And of course, as you may know, there are these points indicated very definitely down to very precise and accurate times: the birth of Christ, for instance, Jesus the Christ; the crucifixion. So the idea is that the crucifixion had to be and was prophesied. Something happened, something would happen, but are we to say what it would be? What determines the outworking? Again we come to the substance, and there is a cyclic outworking and fulfilment in every moment. But there is a building to these points. Of course you find the dates of the First World War, the Second World War, and I find it very interesting that there are a few dates in there that have question marks on them and they don’t know what happened. But we do. One of them—please don’t go and read up on all these things; it doesn’t matter—but I am going to mention one that has a question mark on it and that is 1909. And in Revelation it says that there would be one—“on his vesture and on his thigh... KING of Kings, and LORD of Lords,” the representation on this earth again of the One who had the victory clear on the other side of the cataclysm and again two thousand years ago. It is a great date, a marvelous one, when our most beloved Martin came into the earth. So there are these cycles very specifically set forth, but the substance determines what will happen on those dates, at those times. There is a choice, so that we don’t just go along and say, “Well a cycle is going to happen; I don’t have to do anything; I’d just mess it up if I did; I’d be self-active.” There is no substance generated unless we are with it and we are identified with what is generating the substance. This is the whole point, isn’t it? It is in the building of that substance, so that when these cyclic points come around—and we hear there is one coming up not too far away—there is the substance of victory right here on this planet. And that victory means that every victory since man fell has meaning. I think that is a mighty responsibility.
On one of the tapes we’ve heard this week, Martin said something that really had an impact on me, just about the saddest thing one could hear, and that was that at one point probably the Master was winding up the Second Sacred School. Those words have an impact. All these points indicated are points identified with great cycles outworking that have nothing to do with man’s self-active will. They have everything to do with letting the LORD take over, the one means on earth that He can use so that these magnificent cycles can come to fruition in victory. And really, you know, those points in the Pyramid don’t cover such an awfully long time. They start before the First Sacred School, but not very long before; and it stops, and I mean really stops, nothing else, at about what we would call A.D. 2000. So we’re coming to a point, aren’t we? We’re in it really; we’re not coming to something. And this magnificent responsibility and privilege and pleasure and delight in being present at this time is an unspeakable one.
Uranda often spoke of the prophets and how they looked forward with longing to this day, to be here. Well we are here. Do we always act like we looked forward to this with longing? Is there any feeling, you know, that “I was sent, I had no choice”? What a great and glorious privilege we have. So a grand cyclic outworking is what we are in, and that substance is the vital requirement. We all know what dissipates the substance and we all know how it builds and we all know how it is generated: seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
I’ve thought a lot about these cycles and it is most exciting to see it working today, and I don’t mean “this day,” like this era, the new age. I mean today and yesterday and the day before when we met in the west Chapel, because how about these cycles? We’ve had the pure joy of listening to people from all over the face of the earth, bringing the substance of the kingdom, wonderful workers in the harvest fields. It is said it would be gathered into the Father’s barn—a pretty nice barn (indicating the Dome Chapel)! I have been impressed with years of movement, of letting substance be developed, and now coming very specifically to culminating points of fruition. It is not a close of something; it is exponential, isn’t it? Cycles do work out and it comes to this point only because there has been substance all the way along, and not with any feeling of “Oh it is going to be a great day! There is a great day coming, a great cycle of outworking!” The outworking is right now in the moment and the joy is in the generating of this substance in every moment and letting it remain. The Master said, “Your fruit shall remain”; not just, “Ye shall bring forth fruit,” but “It shall remain.” That means it is not dissipated, and we all know how it is dissipated.
And so, it is with respect to these grand cyclic outworkings that I am delighted to have this time with you to share it. Let’s not think of some outworking that is going to come in 2001, going out in a spaceship or something! But here we are and, if the Lord is in form on earth with the substance He is not subject to any periods of time. We’re talking about the LORD of the Cosmos. That LORD doesn’t go and check the calendar every day. Jesus said the LORD is Lord even of the sabbath. Well the LORD is Lord even of constellations and solar systems and whatever. How do we know what vital part is played on this planet through the instrument of the LORD with regard to all of it “out there”? The times and the seasons are in His hand, praise the LORD! And today is the day of the LORD. “This is the day the Lord hath made,” not some cycle but this very day. And in victory the LORD has dominion over all the earth.
With regard to substance the words of the Master are magnificent. There is one word actually which describes that substance. Just within the past year or so, in one of my Bible classes, it struck me that the Master was telling the same thing over and over to His disciples, not to those people out in the world but His Core. That was “Love one another.” I don’t think He was being theoretical about it. He wasn’t saying, “Now you’ve got to radiate this so everybody out there loves one another.” There was a need and He was saying, “Love one another,” to just twelve men, and He had to say it over and over and over. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” And He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another.” It was new. After all those years since the fall, it was new! Isn’t that incredible? I’ll tell you what is incredible: if it is still new—because there is the substance. The first great commandment is to love the Lord with all, and the second, thy neighbor as thyself. The second is the proof of the first. John said it in one of his epistles. He said if you say you love God and do not love your neighbor you lie and the truth is not in you. It couldn’t be plainer. Let’s never think we love the Lord and we don’t love each other. That is a lie, He said so. But I think we’ve all heard it said, “Well my response is to him; he has my response. To hell with the rest of you!” If we have that attitude toward one other person we are proving that we do not love the Lord, because the commandment is just as strong as that.
Martin’s words Sunday were very strong, very strong. It is not a concept of love I am talking about, being nice to everybody, but I mean angel to angel. We know what that means. We can’t love each other unless it is the angel. It is so easy. If we find difficulty, that is where we need to look. But the angel loves. And it was the absolute emphasis in the life of our Master: love. I think we all thrilled to the strength and wonder of that service Martin gave Sunday. [https://greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2018/11/from-rebuke-martin-cecil-august-28-1977.html] There was just no way out, no excuse. I know that we have all had the experience of thinking, “But that person really does have an excuse.” Did you ever do that? Maybe somebody left—I don’t have anyone in mind but why shouldn’t we talk about it? If we are afraid to then that is so sacred, isn’t it? Well it wasn’t sacred to Martin on Sunday. The wrong thing is wrong and the right thing is right. And it has all been done; it is just a matter of sharing it, no big deal. It has all been done, and we all know it. We’ve all participated in it. But the Master was very strong, and Martin’s words are the words of the Master in this day. And the Lord included father, mother, husband, wife, sister, brother, grandfather, grandmother, everything and everybody. The door is always open for anyone, but what comes first? I am only mentioning this because sometimes there tends to be a little excuse; “Well in that situation, you can understand it.” Be careful if you can understand it.
I think it is time that we all shared that great mighty spirit of the Lord which simply brooks no nonsense in ourselves. That’s the only place we can do it really. It is not telling somebody else what to do. Others are told when we are doing it. We’ve all had the experience, all of you I’m sure, of having someone say, “Now I know the way because I see you doing it.” That’s what talks. Of course we all know that we don’t do anyone a favor when we side with something which needs to be left behind, whether it is a person or whatever. But if we side with it within ourselves we are going to identify with it outside of ourselves. It is time for the strength of the Lord. It has always been time but I would say it is very special, the time we are sharing together with this great company, representation of the whole earth in fact, not in theory. This holy place is indeed filled with love. It was built in love and it is a symbol not only of all that is out there but of that which we take with us when we leave this holy place, that we may let the will of the LORD be done because we live, not in spite of us, in love for Him and in love for each other.
Our great LORD and KING, we would acknowledge that of all people on the face of the earth, we are so greatly blessed, and we let that blessing extend into all the world, that finally in this day Thy word may be, “I would gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye will let me do it.” It is our will, and only so can we say with Thee, Thy will be done in all the earth. We acknowledge that Thy way is easy, Thy burden light and filled with joy. I give great thanks for the one who brings Thy wonderful presence and spirit and word in the earth today in its very specific way that all may see and understand. We walk with him in joy and we walk with each other in the oneness which filled Thy great and mighty prayer, “That they all may be one ... even as we are one,” now in this day, in Thy name. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
