{"id":1106,"date":"2010-07-29T19:01:27","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T23:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2010-07-29T19:16:18","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T23:16:18","slug":"being-friends-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/29\/being-friends-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Friends with God"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<div id=\"attachment_1108\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/100_0455sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1108\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1108\" title=\"Two friends, Arian Brazenwood and Edward Denton, get ready for an Island adventure\" src=\"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/100_0455sm-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"Two friends, Arian Brazenwood and Edward Denton, get ready for an Island adventure\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" srcset=\"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/100_0455sm-300x222.jpg 300w, http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/100_0455sm-1024x759.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/100_0455sm-150x111.jpg 150w, http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/100_0455sm-400x296.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1108\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Arian Brazenwood and Edward Denton after doing dishes find that friendship also leads to many adventures, photographed on Dauphin Island July 29, 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>God gets a bad rap sometimes from those of us who believe. By our words and actions, we often portray God as a cop in the sky out to get people, or we portray God as a genie with a magic wand who fixes all our problems. No description of God is ever complete, but God is like the Wind, beyond our grasp yet within each of us &#8211; like the Universe, beyond our understanding but present all around us &#8211; and like a Friend, mysterious, surprising, and alive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>God is the Spirit connecting us All, the Infinite Lover of All, enlivening All persons and All things, bearing All individuals within All individuals, our All in All, our I-Am-Who-Am.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no need to shrink in fear of God. God is always calling, welcoming, listening, comforting, healing, forgiving, creating, \u2026 God loves each of us with an immensely pure, energetic, and endlessly generous love. \u201cI love you! I love you! I love you! Even if no one else loves you, I love you! \u2026 \u2026 \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inasmuch as we live as Friends with each other, we also connect with God as Friends. When we enliven others, nourish them, and bear them up in love, God thrives in us and we fulfill our destiny as God\u2019s Children. God is love, the deepest Wind within our lives, and where that Wind will carry us step by step is beyond our wildest dreams.<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/QnDMFcmreeU&amp;rel\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/QnDMFcmreeU&amp;rel\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God gets a bad rap sometimes from those of us who believe. By our words and actions, we often portray God as a cop in the sky out to get people, or we portray God as a genie with a &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/29\/being-friends-of-god\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[118,117],"class_list":["post-1106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-positive-energy","tag-friendship","tag-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/umpteenhorizons.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}