Three Magic Words--You are God?

Bill Brown Xiamen University

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5

"You are God," ("Three Magic Words," a book by U.S. Andersen, printed with cooperation of Thomas Nelson & Sons, Bible publishers).

During the heat of battle on a Naval ship in World War II, Andersen, a gunnery officer, suddenly realized that evil is tan illusion and sin is error. I suspect that insight may have put a damper on his military career if at that point he quit firing at the illusory enemy.

After a varied career Andersen became a metaphysical self-help author, and one of his many books was "Three Magic Words." It took him over 300 pages to tell us those three magic words, which we find on page 313 are: "You are God." There is nothing but you.

What interests me is that the book was reprinted with the cooperation of "the world's largest publishers of English Bibles, Thomas Nelson and Sons. They've been printing Bibles since 1798, so I'm sure they know a lot more about the Bible than I do--unless I really am God and have just forgotten a lot.

This is going to be a rather long devotion today--so here is a brief summary for those on the go:
1. If God is my Father, does that make me God?
2. Heirs (God'sDNA) inheritance and timing.
3. Reigning on High and Serving on Low
4. God's Curriculum
But first, an excerpt from a book by a favorite author, Adrian Plass. (www.adrianplass.com)
Moving Mountains and Paper Clips (from Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Age 37 3/4").

Monday January 6th "Went into the Christian bookshop on my way home from work tonight.
"All those books!
"Gerald says Christian paperbacks are like Chinese meals. Very satisfying at the time, but it's not long before you want another one."
"Bought a really great book about faith this time, though. It's called 'Goodness gracious--in God's name, what on Earth are we doing for Heaven's sake?'
"A very witty title I feel.
"It's all about how Christians should be able to move mountains by faith, if they are really tuned into God.
"Very inspiring.
"Waited 'till there was no-one around, then practised with a paper-clip. Put it on my desk and stared at it, willing it to move. Nothing! Tried commanding it in a loud voice.
"Gerald came in just then, and said, 'What's all the shouting about, Dad?'
"Could hardly tell him I was shouting orders at a paper-clip.
"Said I was practising voice-projection.
"He said, 'What for?;
"I said, 'I don't know.' Felt really stupid."

Tuesday January 7th. "... Had another go with the paper-clip tonight. I really took authority over it. Couldn't get it to budge.
"Told God I'd give up anything he wanted, if he would just make it move half an inch.
"Nothing!
"All rather worrying really. If you only need faith the size of a mustard seen to move a mountain, what hope is there for me when I can't even get a paper-clip to do what it's told!"

Wednesday January 8th. "...Told Anne later that I'd heard about a man who tried to move a paper-clip by faith and couldn't do it. She yawned and said, 'Well, you always get your lunatic fringe, don't you!"

Thursday January 9th "Study-group tonight....Forgot about the paper-clip-business for almost an hour, quite distracted by thinking about Jesus......"

Saturday January 11th. "Got up early to have a last go at that blasted paper-clip. Ended up hissing viciously at it, trying not to wake everybody up. When I gave up and opened the door, I found Anne and Gerald listening outside in their night-closes, and looking quite anxious.
"Anne said, 'Darling, why did you tell that paper-clip you'd straighten it out if it didn't soon get its damned act together?'

1. If God is my Father, Does That Make me God? I marvel that in Matthew 6:9, Jesus said, "Pray then this way, 'Our Father who are in heaven..." Jesus clearly taught that not only is God his father but ours as well. In Ephesians 1:4 it says that He chose us even before the creation of the earth to be his. But does that make me God?

God's DNA Shannon and Matthew are my sons, but not me--though they are wired with my DNA (which may or may not be a blessing for them). Similarly, we are God's children, but we are not God--though we are wired with God's DNA. First, He breathed the breath of life into us in the Garden. His breath is our breath. His life is our life! When we are conceived, that life in our first single cell comes from Him! And he programmed the amazingly intricate DNA that dictates how we develop. So we are most definitely His children--but we are not Him.

As children of the Creator we all live vastly beneath our potential. Christ said we could do greater things than him, but I cannot even by taking thought move a paper clip at the breakfast table, much less walk on water, stop my thumb from hurting when I pound it with a hammer, or keep from getting angry when cut off by a Darwinian Driver in China.

I am indeed God's child, but I am just that--a child. And I won't receive my inheritance until I graduate from this brief but very meaningful life.

2. Heirs, inheritance and timing. Paul wrote,"If we are his children, we are also God's heirs. If we share in Christ's suffering in order to share his glory, we are heirs together with him." Romans 8:17 God's Word Translation (1995)

Shannon and Matthew are my sons and will inherit all I have (not much, I'm afraid!), but not before they've learned to stand on their own. They'll have to steward well what I've already given them before I give them more because I want them to multiply their inheritance, not squander it like the prodigal in a far land.

A Return on God's Investment Christ taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is God's investment in us and He expects a return on his investment. In Matthew 25:23, "Jesus said to the faithful servant, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things!" As for the servant who just buried his talent, Jesus called him "wicked", and even the little he had was taken away from him.

5, 2 and 1 It is interesting that one servant was given 5 talents, another 2, and the laziest was given one. The Master obviously knew his servants. He knows us as well. He has invested in each of us, and given us abilities commensurate with that trust. "To him who has much, more will be given; too him who has little, even the little he has will be taken away!" That is a hard saying, but life is tough--at least until we graduate.

Just yesterday I read that Robert Schuller removed his son from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral, and now the sermons will be preached by guest speakers--strangers, as opposed to his own son. I've no idea if Schuller was right or wrong in doing this; fortunately, I've no doubt that my own Father has perfect timing and will neither give me my inheritance too early nor take it away unjustly.

3. Reigning on High and Serving on Low
Many Christians sing about "crowns", and "reigning on high," but we will never reign on high until we learn to "serve on low." We will never rule until we've learned the rules. The problem is we don't want to serve but be served. We want Instant Enlightenment and Gratuitous Godhood.
Adam was obviously created with great power and knowledge if he could take dominion over the entire planet, and name every creature. And in time humanity would gave grown in knowledge and wisdom, but eating from the fruit of knowledge was like cheating on the exam, or reading the Cliff-Notes of Life, or going to the back of the book to see how the mystery ends. We were expelled from full-time school in Eden to engage in work-study, laboring upon earth until we've earned the knowledge we tried to steal in Eden.

4. God's Curriculum
This life is our opportunity to learn God's ways, which are justice, love, and truth. But He does not force us to learn. We can play hooky all we want--but if we don't learn, we won't inherit.
On Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008, at Xiamen International Christian Fellowship, Lindell T. remarked that Skinner discovered that instant reward or punishment can condition people to obey but then we would be no more than robots. God has chosen instead to give us free will, and threescore and ten years in which to exercise it as we work through life's curriculum, which does have principles but they are, as L.T. note, "predicatable but not mechanical," lest we attempt to manipulate God with them (as, indeed, is done with magic and sorcery).

Lindell noted, for example, the Biblical proverb "diligent hands shall prosper." Do diligent people always prosper? Of course not, but the proverb is not illusrating a "truth" per se but a principle. The generally holds true but not always, in part because our actions, on this earth, are influenced by others' actions as well. While we all live far below our God-given potential, that potential will not be fully realized until we receive our inheritance after graduation.

Quantum Uncertainty Even scientists have reached a dead end in trying to understand and manipulate "reality." The predictable rules of comfortable materialism cease below the atomic level, where reality dissolves into a dizzying dance of information-encoded energy that literally flashes in and out of existence millions of times a second. There is no certainty, only probability. The only thing I am fairly certain of (I think) is that I am not the one who keeps the countless elecrons in my body in orbit.

As I type, it is hard to imagine that my hand is by far empty space, the atoms within it farther apart, relatively speaking, than the earth is from the sun. If I cannot even move a paper clip by thought, or mentally add a few hairs to my head or inch to my height (Matthew 6:27), how can I keep the atoms within me in their orbits?

While even scientists cannot fathom ultimate reality, much less manipulate it, or understand the timeless singularity that spawned the Big Bang (and understand where that timeless Singularity is now, since we are now in time), we can understand the principles of this life, and those principles (order, justice, love) reflect the Creator behind the reality.

CREATED FOR GOOD WORKS Today I read a blog of a scientist/metaphysician who wrote that all is perfect as it is and we need do nothing. There are no emergencies, no problems--nothing at all to worry about. He also noted that he is an authority because he has a grad degree in science. How did he get that degree? Did he skip all his classes and the university gave him a degree anyway because he already possessed all knowledge?

I appreciate what the man is trying to say. At least he is considering the issues. Most people don't even get this far. But to take the attitude that we need do nothing in this life, that we are already God, is to hide our talent in the ground until the master returns.

I am not God, but I am his child, and that isn't shabby! And after I've learned from this school of life, and performed the good works that he created me to do, I will graduate.

And the first thing I'm going to do after graduation is to race Adrian Plass in moving a paper clip across the kitchen table.

Brief Bio of Uell Stanley Andersen
Norwegian-American Uell Stanley Andersen, a professional football player and then a self-help author in the 1950s and 1960s, also spent time wild-catting for oil, running an advertising firm, working at the Columbia Sawmill, and serving as a gunnery officer on a destroyer escort where, in World War II, in the heat of battle, he received the enlightening thought that Evil was nonexistent, sin is just error, and we are all God.

U. S. Andersen was influenced by Mary Baker Eddy, Edgar Cayce, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Scottish spiritualist Daniel Dunglas Home, philosopher Jacob Boehme, William Blake and Edward Carpenter. His publications
* The Key to Power and Personal Peace (1954)
* Secret of Secrets (1958)
* Success-Cybernetics: Practical Applications of Human-Cybernetics (1970)
* Three Magic Words (1972)
* Magic in Your Mind (1975)
* Greatest Power in the Universe (1976)
* The Secret Power of the Pyramids (1977)

www.amoymagic.com