“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
The word thief is a common word that everyone knows. Is there a child that has not stolen a cube or two of sugar from the sugar bowl, or is there a child that has not dipped from the honey jar without permission, or is there a child that has not touched his father’s money bag without permission, or is there a child that has not climbed up other people’s fruit trees to pick apples and pears without permission? In this verse, however, Christ does not talk about such kinds of thieves, but about thieves that act in three different ways: these thieves come to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. It is interesting to learn how the desire to steal was born in man. People have noticed that children are born with clenched fists; however, people die with their hands open, unclenched. What does the fist symbolize? It is one thing if a grown up man points his fist at you, and an entirely different thing if a newborn points his fist at you.
The word thief (kradetz in Bulgarian) is a common word, known to everyone, but it is also a meaningful word. Its root, sog, comes from Sanskrit and means causes and consequences, darkness and disharmony. In Turkish the root of the word thief is karas and is similar to the Indian word karma, which means fate. The notions of cause and consequences have a deeper meaning than the word fate. Light and darkness are two manifestations of Nature that possess different qualities: light brings warmth, whereas darkness, i.e. the thief, taken in its broadest sense, takes away warmth. Hence, at night, after the Sun goes down, one feels cool. Therefore, darkness absorbs the Warmth that carries in itself the element of Life. When the air temperature cools down the plants lose part of their warmth, too; then, in order to maintain their warmth plants absorb part of the Earth’s warmth, which causes the Earth to cool down. The overall cooling results in the formation of different atmospheric currents. Night is different from day in that there is less Warmth and Light.
When they look at the different manifestations of their lives, people say: This is our culture. Yes, this is your culture, but it is a culture of darkness, i.e. a mechanistic culture. Every mechanistic culture is transitional and inessential, for it takes away more than it gives. In the broader sense of the word we call such culture a culture of thieves. Take the pig as an example, for it has tried this culture, too. While the pig is in the process of fattening up it receives a few visitations a day from its master who gives it plenty of food; however, once the pig is big and fat its master pulls out his knife, puts it to the pig’s neck, and, a few squeals later, it is all over. Thus the pig tries out its master’s culture first hand. While it is in the process of fattening up the pig is like a factory for its master, for it accumulates a lot of material on its back. The master, on the other hand, is the thief who comes with his knife to steal the materials that his worker, the pig, has accumulated. From a Divine standpoint a thief is someone who is distancing himself from God. In the process of distancing himself from God man gives way to his selfishness, because he has lost his inner Light and Warmth. Jesus defines the thief as someone who comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. If you meet such a man he will destroy you first, and he will kill you, and then he will rob you. There are three types of thieves: there are the thieves in the physical world who rob other people’s safes and moneybags. Then, there are the thieves in the Spiritual world who rob people’s hearts and feelings. Finally, there are the thieves in the Mental world who rob people’s thoughts.
When people discuss a certain topic (like we are discussing the topic of the thief right now) they look for logic and try to find if it is present in a statement or not. It is important what kind of logic people are looking for. There are three types of logic: the logic of forms, the logic of content and the logic of meaning. The logic of forms is a mechanical process: for example, we say, “A man is a biped being and a chicken is a biped being, therefore a chicken is a man.” The religious people, on the other hand, say, “The blood of Christ saves and a man who has bathed himself with this blood is a saved man.” I’m asking this: is the blood with which a man has bathed himself really Jesus’ blood? This is a logical thought: it is true in content but not in meaning. Man needs to know the art of transforming blood into energy, into Power. A religious man should study the spiritual language; for example, blood is red, but what does the colour red stand for? Spiritually, the red colour is the carrier of Life: where there is Life there is also Warmth. Therefore, it is Jesus’ life that saves people and not His blood: this is the logic of meaning. Blood is a symbol; it is the form of something, and Life, presented in the symbol of the colour red, brings salvation for man. Man can save himself through living by the laws of Love, i.e. by adhering to Christ’s teaching: this is the deep meaning behind the concept of the blood of Christ.
“The thief does not come except to steal.” Theft is a part of the idle, lazy man’s culture. If someone does not like to work, he lives off other people’s labour, and if such a person does not voluntarily receive what he needs he resorts to theft as a form of violence. You might say that this is strongly put. No, it is not strongly put, but it is the logic of forms, of content, and of meaning. I am using all three kinds of logic because I am speaking the Truth. In this case, the logic of meaning has an advantage over the other two kinds of logic. Besides these three kinds of logic there are another four kinds, but I am not going to speak of those today. All in all, a thought is true when it takes into account the three kinds of logic. Therefore, the concept of thief that Jesus talks about is true because the thief acts in all three worlds by robbing man of his form, his content, and his meaning; the thief also takes away a man’s Life, feelings and thoughts. If all you rely on is the physical logic of form you will inevitably fall into delusion. For example, if you see that someone is crying you might think that he is suffering, but tears do not always imply suffering.
Once there was a villager who loved eating ember-roasted eggs, but his wife would not let him eat eggs, for she wanted to sell them for additional income. It so happened that this villager’s wife fell seriously ill and died. The villager breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself, “Now I can eat as many roasted eggs as I want.” After coming back from his wife’s funeral he went right to the fireplace and put a few eggs into the glowing embers imagining the pleasure of eating them undisturbed by his wife. At this moment a few women, neighbours of his, dropped in on him to express their condolences regarding the great misfortune that had befallen him in losing his wife. Being so fearful of his wife the man forgot that she was not alive anymore, and so he quickly snatched the eggs out of the fire and hid them down the front of his shirt. The hot eggs burned him so badly that his eyes started streaming with tears. The women neighbours saw the tears falling from his eyes and commiserated, saying, “These must be such painful times for you, brother.” “Yes,” the villager replied, “It is really painful especially down the front of my shirt.”
This sentence is true in form, but not in meaning, because the villager was not crying about losing his wife, but because of the pain caused by the hot eggs hidden down the front of his shirt.
Here is another story: in an evangelical school there was a young man who would cry every time he would read the Bible. Seeing this, those around him would think to themselves: “This young man will make a good preacher.” Why was the young man crying? He would look out at the windows of the women’s school that his beloved attended. He was in love with one of the schoolgirls, but she did not respond to his feelings and this is what made him sad and cry. However, the people around him thought that he was crying because he was so touched by the Word. This young man merits respect because he expresses his feelings through his tears, but people did not understand the content of his suffering and drew the wrong conclusion.
I will give you another example to help you see the religious convictions of some people and the logic that they are based on. One young mister went to an evangelical preacher and started crying and wailing: “My sorrow is so great, I feel like I will burst. Please, pray for me so that God can help me fulfill my desire.” The preacher thought that the young man had repented about something and that he had realized his mistakes and was wishing to get back on the right path of life. He turned to the suffering man, saying, “Come with me and let us pray together.” Then the preacher started praying like this, “Oh, Lord, help this repentant sinner, cleanse him of his sins, enlighten his mind and soul, and let him come into our enclosure.” After finishing his prayer, the preacher asked the young man, “What is the cause of your suffering?” “Oh, my suffering is great”, the young man replied. “I love a young woman and I want to marry her. If I cannot do that, I will kill myself, for I cannot live without her. If God helps me fulfill my desire I will believe in Him. If He does not help me, I will not believe in Him.” After saying that the young man went home hoping that his prayer would be answered. Not before long the young man paid another visit to the preacher and told him, “Praise the Lord for not fulfilling my desire. I went to a gathering where I saw my beloved dance with a young officer all night long without paying the slightest attention to me. I do not want a woman like that.” The Turks have a saying about young men and women like the one from the story; they say, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
To be religious does not mean that one has to belong to a certain sect or that he should enter into some enclosure. If a master has ten thousand sheep he can put them into ten enclosures, and not only into one. By studying the internal meaning of Life man comes to the conclusion that because he is a thinking being he belongs to God first, then he belongs to humankind, then to his people, to his family and finally, to himself. Therefore, if someone asks me if I am a Bulgarian, I will respond like this, “I am a thinking being that belongs first to God, then to humankind, then to my people, then to my home and finally, to myself.” This is the logical and correct way of thinking for anyone who wants to have a correct grasp of the deep meaning of Life.
The Self, i.e. the individual, selfish element in man is related to life on earth. Hence, to live for oneself first means to think only of one’s stomach and lungs. However, man’s meaning and purpose does not come down only to his head, or lungs, or stomach. Therefore, the Self is a form that needs to be in concord with all other forms that have content and meaning. In other words, just like there needs to be concord and unity among all people, so should there be full concord between the head, the lungs and the stomach; then we can call such a man a man of strong will in whom the wise and conscious willpower unites the mind, the heart and the body. Under the word willpower, in the broader sense of the word, we understand the inner content of the human, the inner strength that must participate in the creation of forms. Every form is created so that it can be filled with certain content. In this case, the relation between the form and the content corresponds to the relation between the content and the meaning of things.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus speaks of two opposite characters: that of the thief and that of the shepherd. The thief has three distinctive features: he steals, kills, and destroys; the shepherd has one- he gives Life, and gives it abundantly. The word life means movement; it is willpower that gives one an impulse to move and to live. When God created the original man He breathed Life into his nostrils and he became a living soul and started to move and live. The phrase abundant life means conscious and sublime Life in which one’s judicious willpower finds the correct way of expression. When he speaks of the thief who takes and the shepherd who gives Jesus takes into consideration not only the external logic of things, and not only the theory of knowledge, but also its application in practice. By living and by applying things man learns to distinguish different forms and acquires true Knowledge, for he learns to distinguish the thief from the shepherd.
If you want to acquire positive Knowledge about Life you need to focus not only on the theory of Christ’s Teaching, but also on its application in life. Theory is condensed knowledge and practice is diluted knowledge; theory is condensed Wisdom and practice is a diluted one, i.e. Wisdom that has been put into practice in Life. Consequently, every theory about Life, no matter how correct, true and good it might be, remains misunderstood to a certain extent unless it is applied in practice. The logic behind things is tested in Life and through Life. For example, a young woman wants to get married and she thinks, “I will marry this young man, then I will have a few children, and I will bring them up well. I will treat my husband well, etc.” The young woman has good ideas, and her theory is correct, but her logic is wrong, for the young man whom she intends to marry is a bad apple and she cannot fix that. There are so many fathers and mothers who advise their sons and daughters about going down the right path in life, but their children just won’t listen and they end up being off track. I am not telling you this to discourage you, but to let you know that a man who is off track cannot be set right. A man that is off track is someone who has consciously distanced himself from God. These are those people who live only for themselves: they regard Life from the viewpoint of physical logic, and because of that they have distanced themselves from God and they cannot be set right. They are right for themselves because they live according to their own selfish and limited logic; however, those around them should not delude themselves to think that they can set such people right. There has not yet been a young woman to set right a man who is off track, nor has there been a young man who has set right a woman who is off track. The only being that can set right the men and women who are off track is the mother.
The art and science of setting one right who is off track is the sole domain of the mother. When can a mother do that? She cannot do this after she has given birth to her child, nor while she is pregnant, but she has to do it at least a hundred years before becoming a mother. You might say, “How can she find these children and how can she raise them if she cannot see them yet?” I will clarify my thought by using the following example: when a chemist describes the properties of some colourless and invisible gaseous substance people are not very likely to believe his words because they cannot see anything. This, however, does not mean in the least that the substance does not exist. Once he knows all of its properties, the chemist takes this substance and condenses it until it turns first into a liquid and then into a solid substance; then, once it is in this new state the substance becomes visible to all people and they can believe the chemist’s words. The same holds true about the children who have not yet been born, but who can still be influenced by their mother, nevertheless. Even though invisible they still exist in the form of the thoughts and desires that have been cherished by the mother in the distant past. All the mother needs to do is condense her thoughts and desires, and turn them into liquid and solid bodies until they become real and visible to all.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” What can the thief steal? He can steal the most valuable thing in man, namely, man’s thoughts, feelings and desires. It is scary when a thief comes to you and steals your heart. What does a thief do when he wants to steal a man’s heart? He starts circling around this man and telling him that he is good, smart and beautiful, that there is no other like him, etc. If this man gives in to these flatteries he will lose his heart; later he will cry and he will be sorry that he has believed the words of this flatterer. A popular story tells about a rooster who found a piece of cheese and perched up on a tree to eat it in peace. A fox saw him from a distance, quickly trotted to the tree, sat down underneath it and started talking up to the rooster, saying, “You are such a beauty, my little rooster, I have never seen another one like you! And your voice is so melodious; I cannot get enough of your beautiful warble! Sing me a song, please, to fill me with happiness and joy.” Flattered by the fox’s words the rooster opened up his beak and started singing. The cheese fell down onto the ground, and the fox snatched it in its mouth and ran away; it did not even wait to listen to the rooster’s ringing song. Is this fox a friend of the rooster or is it a thief?
There are many such thieves walking among people, too, but today they capture only the ones that rob the full moneybags, and not the ones who rob people’s hearts. The latter thieves are more dangerous because no one can see when and what they are stealing, and, as such, they are invisible thieves. Everywhere you go today- be it among scholars, or in the schools, in court houses, in churches- everywhere you will meet thieves who rob people but go by unnoticed. Do not look for the thief in your neighbour, but look at yourself and you will see that he is in you, too, and if you find it in yourself you should work on him to correct his ways. One should be honest with oneself and with one’s neighbours. You should correct yourselves first and then your neighbours. To do this you will need to live a pure and holy life; you will need to be a lit candle that brings everyone together. If your barn is full of wheat, then people will come to you one after another. The heart of the good man should be filled with good feelings and desires, his heart should be filled with bright and sublime thoughts, and his willpower should be applied to noble acts: this is what it means to be perfect.
Nature has put a mark on specific places on the human body to show when one’s mind, heart and willpower are distorted: all these can be seen on one’s nose, mouth and chin. You may say that no one can see this. All of Heaven can see this and knows you: they know what thoughts, feelings and acts are important to you. The beings in Heaven, in the Wise world, observe you through people around you: this is what makes people look at each other from tip to toe. As soon as you meet someone you take a good look at him and think to yourself, “I want to see what God has written on this man’s chin, mouth and nose.” A man’s head is a book which tells about his whole Life. Just as you know a man by his house, so can you tell what thoughts he is preoccupied with by looking at his head, for man’s body is his house.
Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” Who may have Life? Those who want to understand it and look into its inner meaning. Man should understand Life the way it is manifested today and not the way it was manifested two thousand years ago. The present-day Jesus is what matters to us, and not that Jesus who lived two thousand years ago. Someone might call this blasphemy. I am asking you this: what apple are you more interested in- the one that you have in your hand today or the one that grew in your garden some ten, fifteen years ago? Back then it used to bear fruit that was good for that time, but what is important now is the fruit that it bears today. Jesus of the present day is more important to us because He lives among many people, whereas two thousand years ago He lived only among the Jews. Back then He let himself be crucified, but today no one can crucify Him. Jesus was strong back then, too, but He sacrificed himself willingly. He said, “I am ready to sacrifice the form and content of things for their meaning.” Because people today are already looking for the meaning of Life and understand it, Jesus says, “Now I require of people to understand the content of Life, as well as the forms through which this content is expressed.” Back then Jesus wanted to turn people’s attention to the logic that lies behind the meaning of things; today he wants to turn their attention to the logic that lies behind the content of things. In the future He will create the logic of forms. Therefore, man becomes perfect when he combines in himself the three kinds of logic: the logic of the meaning of things, the logic of the content of things and the logic of their forms.
A perfect man is like a lit candle that burns with white Light, i.e. it burns without soot and smoke. Whenever I meet someone who presents himself as being spiritual, I ask him, “Is your candle burning? Is it saving your neighbours? Is it setting their minds, hearts and willpowers right? Do you have a secret room, a temple, or a sanctuary inside you?” Whenever I hear someone call his father and mother feeble-minded or foolish I already know that such a person does not have a sanctuary in his soul. A father was once complaining to me about his sons, saying that after he had them well educated they would call him a simpleton and an ignorant person. He told me, “I am a simpleton and an ignorant person, indeed, but I realized that one needs education and made sure my sons received it.” On a different occasion a mother was complaining about her daughters and about how after they finished their education and became teachers they would turn around to call her a simpleton. She said, “If I were to become a mother again in the future, I would put my daughters at the loom and I would teach them to weave so that they can appreciate what they don’t have.” It will be good for your rude sons and daughters if you could give them each a hoe and send them out digging so that they can learn the logic of content.
Someone may object that I am not speaking in the spirit of the Gospel. Which Gospel are you talking about: the written one or the unwritten one? Jesus said a lot and of all that He said very little was written down. Where does the rest of the Knowledge lie hidden? Bring me those books in which Christ’s Words are recorded, and we will see which one of us is right. Jesus said a lot and presented matters in their broader sense: where is all of this? He who abides by Christ’s teaching should be the first one to be a role model by demonstrating how one can use one’s mind, heart and willpower. The one, who can work with those, is someone who has achieved something great and wherever he enters he brings the Divine blessing with him. Not having achieved anything, people argue on and on; every time they meet they ask each other, “Are you of the right faith? Do you believe in God and in His trinity?” What does the word trinity mean? This word is abstract and hard to understand. Those who argue on this topic know neither God, nor His trinity. This is why Jesus said, “No one knows Father, but the Son of Man.”
Religious people stand behind religion, and scientists stand behind science and every one is trying hard to bring out something new. The new is not in the form and content of things, but is in the three kinds of logic that pertains to the forms, to the content, and to the meaning of things. It is important that man should recreate his life according to the three kinds of logic so that he can enter the true and positive Life. Once he reorganizes his life man will have overcome the external conditions of his life and then there will be no external enemies for him, as well as no external thieves and bandits. Then man will cease warring with his neighbours and with those around him, for he will know that there are no enemies and thieves more dangerous than the ones that exist within him: those are the ones that crucified Jesus. What was Jesus accused of? He was accused of wanting to become a king, and of wanting to bring about reforms. Jesus was considered a political criminal for his time, as He opposed the rules and ways of the Roman Empire. Jesus was crucified, but what was left of the Roman Empire? Did it survive? People today need to think correctly by employing all three kinds of logic so that they do not repeat the mistakes of the previous generations.
Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Those, who recognize Jesus and have Him in them, talk constantly about all the Good that He did for humankind; they say that He atoned for humankind, and that He gave up His Life for people. Merely stating what Jesus did is not enough; you must apply His Love to your Life, you must try it out. Mere talking without any application does not do any good for man. If that was the case then the drunkard who leaves his wife, children and home, and goes from one tavern to another searching for the best wine in town, deserves more respect. How many Christians have given up their comfort, all their goods and privileges with the only goal of trying out Jesus’ Love? How many Christians have tried Jesus’ good wine? You may object that I am not speaking in a holy manner. I will repeat this to you: do try the good wine, i.e. the Teaching of Christ, and you will be able to differentiate for yourself between the two kinds of wine: the physical wine inebriates and dazes man, whereas Jesus’ wine clarifies and refreshes you. That man, who partakes of Jesus’ wine will find himself connected to Love and will love people and all living beings; he will love and be loved.
Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” This Life is already at work everywhere in the world, and among all living beings, both superior and lowly. Those, who are not in contact with Love, are still expecting the New Life to come from somewhere outside and above; they may wait forever, for this is not how the New Life will come. Where is Jesus’ Life? It is everywhere. Even if you look for it in the wheat grain or in the corn, you will be able to find It there; you will find It even in the animals if you were to look for It there. However, according to the law of similarities that states that similarities attract, every person will be able to use the kind of Life that is similar to this person, i.e. the Life that attracts him. Can two young people marry each other if they do not love each other; can a writer write a book if there isn’t some idea to inspire him? Man can attract to himself only the object that he loves. You cannot grow flowers unless you love them, for flowers have their own language that is known only to those people who love them. Do an experiment to test the validity of my words: take a pot and plant a carnation or some other flower, then start watering it, weeding it and growing it with Love. You will notice that this flower will have a wonderful aroma when it blooms. If you stop taking care of the flower it will stop giving off such a pleasant aroma. This is the flower’s way to tell you that it will return to you as much love as you give it. Old-time Bulgarians knew this law and applied it to their lives: they would cultivate their fields with Love, and they would seed and grow their wheat with Love, and that is why they would enjoy such bounty. Someone who does not know the reason for all this bounty would think that this farmer is a sorcerer; he is no sorcerer, but someone who applies Jesus’ Teaching and is ready to give up his life for his field. Consequently, the field reciprocates with the same: it produces a bountiful yield. You should do the same: invest your good thoughts and feelings into your neighbours so that they may evolve and become nobler.
What do we see in the world today? The relationships among people are typically based on some interest. It is rare to meet someone who can love truly: most people love someone either for his knowledge, or for his riches, or for his status in society. If someone tells you that he loves you, ask him why he loves you; in any case, you will be able to know that he loves you either for your knowledge, for your riches or for your looks, for if you lose these qualities, his love will disappear, too. Therefore, you should love man for the essential man in him, who is but a ray radiating out of God. If you find the real man, you will be able to love him regardless of his external qualities: he will be your brother and your sister. The world will become a better place when people start loving each other like that. And then the verse that says, “I have come that they may have life” takes on a new meaning: Jesus came to give Life to the poor, to the suffering and to the wronged, because they have the right conditions to manifest the essential man.
God says, “I will remove from them their heart of stone and I will give them a new heart, in which I will write My law, and they will know Me.” Today the new heart is being made: God is collecting the blood from the battlefields and is using it to write down His law into the New heart. What does this war today represent? It is judgment day for mankind; in other words, today all people are being judged, but not in Heaven like they expected, but on Earth. Some religious people think that man lives on Earth for a certain time, after which he dies and goes up to Heaven, where he stands before God’s court to be judged. Man’s judgment is on Earth and so there is no need for him to come out of his grave where he has been locked up and to go to God for judgment. Man is locked up in his body, i.e. even while on Earth he is already in prison and will be judged here.
What should a man do to improve his Life? He should open up the windows of his house, i.e. his consciousness needs to be awakened. If his windows are narrow, he should widen them, for man needs more Light. In other words, broaden your thinking, and open up your mind to let more Light in. People today have many ideas, beliefs and convictions, but they need to broaden those by putting on big, wide windows. Big windows can let in both a lot of light and very little light, whereas narrow windows only let in little light; big ideas encompass small ideas, but small ideas exclude big ideas, for there is no room for those. It is time now to widely open up the windows of all churches, schools, homes, and courthouses. It is time now to set correct and truthful relations between the human soul and God, between priests and their congregations, between teachers and their students, between men and women. It is time now to let more Light into everybody’s minds and hearts, just like Light is emanating from their souls, illuminating them. I wish you that you may open up the Bible and the Gospel of your mind and your heart and that you may start reading in them everything that God wrote thousands of ages ago.
Jesus says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” What does this thief want to steal? He wants to steal your candle. Once he has stolen it you will be left in darkness, but one cannot read in darkness. There are many who live in darkness, saying, “This is how it was meant to be; there is nothing we can do about it, so we will have to resign ourselves to the way it is.” This is the way Turks understand things; they say, “Put seven layers on top of it, and seven layers on the bottom and do not even think about it, for this is how God has made it.” This is incorrect logic; one should not think that way. God did not create the wolves, the bears, the foxes and the bad people: He created the good and reasoning people. Do not think that everything which exists was made by God: God allowed for the existence of evil, but He did not create it. When you meet someone who wants to be close with you, first ask yourself what kind of people he belongs to: the ones whom God made of soil, or the ones whom He made after Himself. Present-day people were made of soil: their culture is the culture of soil, and of mud. God took some soil and made man out of it, breathed into him and he turned into a living soul. God put Life into man, so that he can live and learn, and understand that Life has a deeper meaning than what he can imagine. By talking about the thief Jesus wants to protect humankind from him, for everyone can look at oneself and realize that evil is in himself, and in his distorted views.
Therefore, if you want to culture people, and if you want to culture yourself, you need to apply Christ’s Teaching, the Teaching of Love. If you have a child that is stubborn and willful, you should try an experiment on him: apply the method of Love with this child. Start loving this child and don’t ever think of his negative features; instead, try to think that this child is good and reasonable and you will see that after a while your child will improve.
Story has it that one day Archangel Gabriel noticed that every morning God smiled down to someone and talked to this someone softly and lovingly. Gabriel was intrigued by God’s behaviour: he wanted to see the soul towards which God would pour so much gentleness and Love. He set out on a journey around the world to look for this soul. During his journey Gabriel visited many scientists, preachers, and priests, but could not find this soul anywhere. Then he went back up to Heaven to look for this soul from up there. As he still could not find it, he finally went back down to Earth one more time, determined to go to all the remote places around the world. One day he found himself at a primitive shrine where he saw an idolizer- a simple and wild man- who was bowing before his idol, and was talking to it. It was here that Gabriel found God who was smiling at the idolizer and was talking softly to him. At this moment Archangel Gabriel realized that the form of his logic was wrong. He thought that God could only be smiling to some scientist, or to some spiritual or holy person, and he didn’t even think that God could be smiling to someone who was so simple that he did not have a true idea about God. There is a Bulgarian proverb, which states, “God looks not at your face, but at your heart.”
Religious people today, who belong to various churches (Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Catholic, Buddhist), consider themselves to be of the true faith. It does not even occur to them that there are people outside of their churches, to whom God speaks softly and lovingly. Why? Because those people’s thoughts and feelings are right, and their soul aspires towards God. Man’s situation is defined by his soul’s aspirations, for it is the aspirations that determine the way God will look at this man. If God looks benevolently on people, they will be saved. God will talk softly and lovingly to that person, who has the right aspirations.
Now I wish that all Bulgarians may have the aspirations of that idolizer at the primitive shrine, so that God may speak to them softly and with Love. You might say that the idolizer had wrong concepts; his concepts might be wrong, but his aspirations are right. Rejoice if your concepts are wrong and you have delusions, because God has decided to be soft with and benevolent to all who are weak, lame, mute, suffering, wronged, lost and so on. God is God of the orphans, of the poor, of the widows, of the suffering, and not God of the rich, the full-bellied, and the dignitaries. Once God used to be God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, but now he is God of the poor, of the suffering, and of the widows. God says, “My servants did not do their work on Earth properly. Now I am going down to Earth Myself to finish My work: to make this world a better place.” This world will become a better place, because God is already working in it. He is coming down to Earth to give Life to everyone, so that they will accept and apply His teaching, and so that they may do that not for their own sake, but for the sake of all humankind. Some may say that they are poor, lame, blind: do not be afraid, for God is coming for your sake. Is God not coming for the sake of the rich, as well? He is not coming for their sake, because they do not need Him. He will turn to all lame, crippled, and blind, saying, “Work as hard as you can, all of you, so that you may learn My teaching, and so that you may become healthy, strong and rich. My Teaching is like a laden table, full of tasty dishes.” Partake of all of God’s blessings, be merry and rejoice!
I wish you all to open your ears, to listen, and to apply God’s Word. Those, who have not done their work well, need to finish it. When they turn to God, then God will teach them how to live and how to understand His words.
The judgment of the world is upon us: God is coming down to Earth to judge people and to give everyone their worth. If someone has lost an eye, God will order for a new eye to be put in; if someone has lost a leg, God will order for a new leg to be put on; if someone has lost an arm, God will order for a new, healthy arm to be put on. A judge’s verdict can be fair and well-deserved, but God’s verdict is even more just and reasonable. God will satisfy all and will provide them with conditions to evolve correctly in their mind, in their heart and in their soul. You should aspire for this God.
Many ask where God is and, not being able to find Him, they ask for proof that He exists. No matter what proof you receive, you will find yourself in a ridiculous situation, for it will be like lighting a candle in broad daylight when the Sun is shining, and then pointing the candle towards the Sun, saying, “There, you can see the Sun.” It is ridiculous to have to prove to someone that God exists. If someone wants me to convince him I will take him by the hand and I will tell him, “Come with me, open your eyes and look, open your ears and listen!” Your aspirations and your rightful concepts, your Life, and your movement are all due to God. He is the One speaking in you, and moving you, and so then, look for Him inside you, not outside of you. He says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Therefore, look for the One who gives Life, and not for the one who comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I wish you all to go deeply into yourself and to turn to God, Who is in you; I wish you to be able to understand Him, and to know Him. It is only then that you will understand to differentiate between the logic of form, of content and of meaning. Jesus pointed out to you the logic of meaning; now you are to study the logic of content, and in the future, you will study the logic of forms. Today you will interpret things according to their content, and in the future according to their forms.
May 6, 1917
Sofia
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