PAST EXPERIENCE. by Dean Gotcher

PAST EXPERIENCE.

by
Dean Gotcher

The commands of the past, relative to our time, the "here-and-now," do not negate the office of the father who is still in the present. When we focus upon these commands, regarding their restraint upon our current desires, our "felt" needs of the present, we tend to perceive the present with the restraining voice of the father. In other words we do not naturally see the father as being in the present with us, in our mind, when we set our mind upon the things of the present, when we focus upon the "here-and-now," upon things of the earth and our current desires. The very praxis of setting our mind upon things on the earth tends to negate the things external to that currant experience. In the current moment, our hope is in the things of the present and anything of the past which might hinder that hope tends to disappear, if only momentarily. It is when we move in the direction of our desires, in conflict with the commands of the father, that our conscience, the father's voice in us, reappears. We then either turn from doing what we desire in our human nature, or if having participated we repent before the father, or we use our "reasoning skills" and justify our present desires and the actions which follow, searing our conscience. The later praxis is dialectic. Earthly fathers die, but our heavenly father is alive forever. While our earthly fathers commands may sometimes become "irrelevant" in the changing times, our heavenly father's commands are always relevant.