Cosolargy Newsletter February 2024
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Services for the Week of February 24, 2024
Saturday, February 24, 2024
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RRF Gene Savoy, Jr.
Lector: Rev. Greg Klinedinst
Cantor: Rev. Harold Boulette
Reader: Dea. Radheka Savoy
Sunday, February 25, 2024
SUNRISE DIVINE SERVICE
Church of New Epiphany
Leave: 5:45
Gate: 6:20
Service Starts: 6:30
Sunrise: 6:45
RRF Gene Savoy, Jr.
Concelebrants:
RF Robert Petrovich
Rev. Bruce Kanzelmeyer
Assistant: RM Barbara Whitney
OPEN-AIR COMMUNION
Church of New Philadelphia Rev. Greg Klinedinst
Church of The New Qumran Dea. Radheka Savoy
Church of The New Bethany Rev. Gary Huss, Jr.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
12:00 NOON COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child,
RRF Gene Savoy, Jr.
Friday, March 1, 2024
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
Rev. Michael McIntyre
Flesh Cannot Be the Temple of God
“Christ said. Unless ye turn and become as children, ye shall not see the Kingdom of God. Again, he said to Nicodemus; except a man be born again, of Water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
“Scripture positively declares that the fleshly natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know or achieve them.
“Now seeing that all of us have Flesh and Blood bodies, and are mortal, as we find by experience, and yet scripture says that we are Temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in us, and the Kingdom of God is within us. … Therefore we should seriously consider what kind of person it is that is capable of being thus like the Deity.
“For it cannot be said of the mortal flesh … that it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost; much less can it be said that the New Birth comes to pass in this earthly flesh, which dies and putrifies.”
Become as Children
This is one of the most misunderstood things that Jesus said. He didn’t mean that we should physically shrink down to the size of children. Nor did he mean that we should be uneducated in a general sense. What he meant is that by the time we become adults, we are full of beliefs, ideas, and concepts that are sometimes false, or only partially true. These beliefs and concepts prevent us from seeing things that do not fit in with our beliefs. The best example of this is the Story of Christopher Columbus landing in the New World. The Native Americans saw the small boats that brought Columbus and some of his crew to shore, but they could not see the large ships those boats came from. Their beliefs blocked them from seeing something that contradicted those beliefs. Only the Medicine Man, the most open-minded of them, saw the big ships and slowly described them to the others. Once they were told about them, they were suddenly able to see them. This is true for many beliefs that we hold about God, spirits, and just about everything. It is most important for the spiritual student to learn to push aside those beliefs and concepts in order to see what is truly there.
Water and Spirit
This is an allegorical saying as well. It does not literally mean water, as in baptism, but the Spiritual Water, the Grace of God. The point is, to reborn does not mean to study scripture or to be ordained a minister. It means to take in the Spiritual Light that awakens and develops the Spirit. That is being Reborn.
Flesh is not The Temple
The material body of flesh cannot be the Temple of the Holy Spirit, yet Scripture tells us we are such a Temple. It is the spirit of man that is the Temple. The spirit is our link to heaven, to the Angels in Heaven, and to God. But that link doesn’t function if we allow the spirit to stay in the dormant state it was in when we were born. We must awaken and develop the Spirit until it becomes a conscious Soul. That is what the ancient mystery schools taught. It is what the Gnostic groups taught in secret to their members. It is what was truly taught by Jesus, Buddha, and the other founders of great religions. It is the developed Soul that will go to Heaven, not the physical body. The physical, being created by the Demiurge, cannot go to Heaven. In the not-very-distant future, though, matter will change back to its original form as spirit and all will be as God wants it to be.
“Scientists Find Record-Breaking Planet-Like Object Hotter Than The Sun”
An object orbiting a star 1,400 light-years away is seriously confronting our notions of what’s possible in the Universe.
It’s a brown dwarf, the curious category of objects that straddle the gap between planets and stars, but it’s on such a close orbit with its very hot host star that its temperature exceeds a blistering 8,000 Kelvin (7,727 degrees Celsius, or 13,940 Fahrenheit) – hot enough to snap apart the molecules in its atmosphere into their composite atoms.
“Webb telescope captures image of most distant star ever seen | CNN”
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe Earendel, the most distant star ever detected.
Earendel is so distant that the starlight glimpsed by the Webb telescope was emitted within the first billion years of the universe. The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.
Previous estimates suggest the star is 12.9 billion light-years away from Earth, but given the expansion of the universe and how long the light has traveled to reach us, astronomers believe Earendel is currently 28 billion light-years away.
Link contributed by Gene Savoy, Jr.
“NASA telescope spots cosmic question mark in deep space | CNN”
A cosmic object in the shape of a glowing question mark has photobombed one of the latest images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — and scientists think they know what it might be.
The original near-infrared image, released July 26, depicted a pair of young stars named Herbig-Haro 46/47. Found 1,470 light-years away in the Vela constellation within the Milky Way galaxy, the stars are still actively forming and closely orbiting each other.
Link contributed by Gene Savoy, Jr.
Services for the Week of February 17, 2024
Saturday, February 17, 2024
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RRF Gene Savoy, Jr.
Lector: Rev. Bruce Kanzelmeyer
Cantor: RC Amanda Buchanan
Reader: Sonya Savoy
Sunday, February 18, 2024
SUNRISE DIVINE SERVICE
Church of New Epiphany
Leave: 5:45
Gate: 6:25
Service Starts: 6:38
Sunrise: 6:53
RRF Gene Savoy, Jr.
Concelebrants:
RF Robert Petrovich
Rev. Bruce Kanzelmeyer
Assistant: RM Barbara Whitney
OPEN-AIR COMMUNION
Church of The Americas RF Ted Staver
Church of The New Covenant Rev. Mike McIntyre
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
12:00 NOON COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child,
Rev. Radheka Savoy
Friday, February 23, 2024
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
RF Ted Staver
Steamboat Hot Springs is Mentioned in an Article in the Tahoe Newsletter
The Lake Tahoe This Week Newsletter has a Valentine’s Day report on romantic places to go to for Valentine’s Day. They mentioned our Steamboat Spa as a place to “indulge in tranquility”. (Click here to read the article).
Steamboat does have a Valentine’s Special this month. Here is what it says.
Indulge in the enchanting embrace of our Love in Bloom special, a curated experience designed to elevate your senses and rejuvenate your connection.Enjoy a day of self-love or enjoy as a pair.This special includes:
- 90-minute Signature Massage with an Argan Oil Scalp Massage, Hot Towels, and a Soothing Foot Massage
- 60-minute Private Mineral Bath with our Elixir of Love Aromatherapy Blend
(Grapefruit, Bergamot, & Roman Chamomile)
- Free gift of R&R Retreat Grapefruit & Bergamot Bath & Body Products
- Take home a sweet non-alcoholic Blush beverage & Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Hearts
A package valued at $230, for only $195 a person!Available now through February 29th, 2024.Contact the front desk at (775)853-6600 to reserve your spot today!Wishing you a month filled with love, relaxation, and cherished moments.We can’t wait to welcome you at Steamboat Hot Springs Healing Center & Spa!
The International Community of Christ inherited Steamboat Hot Springs in 1986 by gift deed and has been operating it ever since as a health and wellness center. The history of Steamboat Springs, Nevada is told in the book A Steamboat in the Desert, written and compiled by Church member Reverend Roger Bowen Weld in 1998.
Spiritual Enlightenment is not achieved by Memorizing Scripture
“As the husbandman governs a yoke of oxen and tills the ground, so Jesus, the fair true husbandman, yoked the apostles two by two and sent them forth, tilling with them the ground of those who hear and truly believe. Only this is worth saying, that the Kingdom of God and the preaching of the apostles is not in the word of hearing only, like one who knows a set of words and rehearses them to others, but the Kingdom is in the power and the effective working of the spirit. This was the sad case of the children of the Israelites; always studying the scripture, and in fact making the Lord the theme of their study, and yet not receiving the truth itself, they parted with that inheritance to others. So those who rehearse to others words of the Spirit, while they do not themselves possess the Word in Power, part with the inheritance to others.”
-St. Macarius the Egyptian
As the Husbandman Governs
Many don’t know that a husbandman is not someone who helps women find husbands. A husbandman is an outdated term for one who cultivates the soil, or quite simply, a farmer. In the time of St. Macarius, farmers didn’t have tractors, but usually used draft animals such as oxen to pull the plow and till the field. Macarious is comparing this to Jesus sending out the Apostles to teach the true knowledge of God, and the practice of spiritual development necessary to reach the Kingdom of God.
Memorizing and Repeating Words
Parrots, Macaws, Ravens, and some other birds can memorize and repeat words. If the words they hear come from scripture, that is what they will repeat. They will not become enlightened as a result. St. Macarius tells us that the Israelites of Jesus’ time liked to memorize and repeat scripture, but that did not bring them to the Kingdom of God. Today, many Evangelical Christians do the same thing and are proud of the fact that they can quote from much of the Bible. The image I used to illustrate this post was from an article titled “ The Importance of Memorizing Scripture” and is one of many promoting the idea to Christians. The article promotes the practice because the Bible tells us to learn the Word of God, but the Word of God is not static and locked up in any book of scripture. The word of God is dynamic and must be learned directly. But a Parrot can be taught the same words, but it does not comprehend their meaning. Likewise, those Christians who memorize Bible passages, without understanding their actual meaning, or practicing the spiritual development teachings that were key to the teachings of Jesus, are not moving any closer to God. It is also important to understand that scripture is often written in allegorical language, so memorizing the words is meaningless.
Possess the Word in Power
What St. Macarius is implying here is that one must practice the teaching of holy ones like Jesus, not simply memorize their words. It is in practicing spiritual development techniques that we develop our own spirit. You don’t get the benefits of a healthy diet by reading about it but eating junk food instead. You don’t get strong, healthy muscles by reading a workout plan, but only by putting the plan into practice. Likewise, knowing that the realm of Spirit exists doesn’t make you a spiritual person. You must practice spiritual development methods regularly and develop your spirit, not just read about it, or memorize scripture.
“Where Did It All Come From?”
Why are we here? Where did it all come from ― the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn’t succeeded in providing many answers — until now.
As a young boy I found myself playing on the center of God’s stage; from some hidden celestial vantage point, so I thought, I was being scrutinized and watched by the Supreme Creator, perhaps almost as narrowly as I, as a medical student with a microscope, would one day scrutinize the cells growing in a petri dish. If, indeed, God had made the world, then who made God?