He Came as a Thief in the Night

The Word contains many instances of fire and water in close association because purification processes of temptation/bitterness/affliction involve cleaning the will & the understanding with internal tests. Tests designed to make you a decent and loving person in God's sight. Let everyone who would be truly loving pass through fire and water; being purified as to their will & behavior, understanding & utterance as I, microcosm, also pass through fire and water. It is fire and water which cleanse the inside of the plate and the cup for His bread & wine Let everyone pass through fire and water who would end up in a wealthy place. How often hath it afflicted him? From a child. From a spiritual child. From the fire and water processes which follow our spiritual birth as a believer in the Church. Pass through the fire what is for the fire, and through the water what is for the  water. Answer the strident thoughtforms of recurrent sins and errors within us with truths from...

The living joy like music that loved me and everyone made it clear to me that it was God, Jesus, the God of the Bible. It is recognizably one intricately, oceanically intelligent and loving being perfectly identical with the risen Jesus Christ. It is the "joy unspeakable and full of glory" of which Peter speaks. And the recognizable characteristic of that glory is its inseparability from divine truth and from being taught by divine truth. It is this glory which one found in the Writings and knew on sight to be authentic concerning the Presence. After learning that Jesus, God, the God of the Bible was real, I read the Bible fully for the first time; and I found that verse of Peter's about "joy unspeakable and full of glory" and knew it to be authentic material about the presence of the Lord. It is the same voice which I recognize. His sheep hear His voice. There is a particular humiliation in the presence of the Lord that is uplifting rather than disheartening; t...