Hello Nick
Thank you for reading the prayers and thank you for sending me all these lovely cards. I see , you are already celebrating Christmas.
When I became a Bahai about 37 seven years ago, I went to church with much enthusiasm during Christmas time. I had never enjoyed Christmas as a believer before, that is, as a believer in Christ. But at that time ,upon becoming a Bahai I really did. I was so touched and so filled with wonder that my eyes were filled with tears. It's always like that, I get so deeply touched by the wonder that there is God, there is spirituality, there is this Reality, THE REALITY, a world beside and overshadowing this one, a spriritual mysterious dimension that can be experienced so fully, that it changes everything.. Others being around, woudn't imagine you are in heaven, being transported there inside your heart, in that Extra divine heart, you didn't know you had. Faith is such a cleverly hidden thing, a hidden treasure, a secret. By one's acts it is revealed, by your smiles, and who can help smiling when you are in love... Surely the Creator is a Master. As an artist I usually think that we humans are like paintings which are divinely designed. We cannot create our beings= our paintings, through our own help, but the divine Master has created us, and He alone can give life to us paintings. And when He does, we fall in love, receiving life. I was formerly a painting that had no life, it looked perfect but life in it was lacking. The Divine Master, Bahaullah conveyed life into it, with His Word for this Age.
One can hide such a tremendous mystery and be right there, among people in the market, look "as if it's raining" as we say. They do not suspect a thing. They think you are thinking like they do, feel what they feel, about what to shop for dinner, that you have to wash clothes when you have come home , move things hither and thither, or planning a trip to somewhere, while in your heart you have already travelled into paradise. So it's a secret. That secret, the mysteriously enlightened heart is hinted at in the Bible as the "white stone" with a password on it. In the Book of Revelation. And which was to be given by Christ at His return. And none would know what is on the stone except the one who gets it. You know where that quote is. (Rev 2:17) It means the seekers has to find out all by themselves Him Who speaks the Word of God. To know for one self. This means, each one of us must again, anew , long for this confirmation, wholly turned to God listen with his or her own inner ear, cause none can interpret for you and say: believe me,this is the truth or that is the truth. And This is because we have reached the Age of fulfillment, or the Age of the Maturing of mankind. Therefore, we , Bahais, just inform people about this Faith, show the texts, and people may partake of this if they wish to. The concept or rather the sensation of Faith is something which takes place between the seekers heart and the Almighty. We, bahais, are only trying to take away veils of
prejudices that is like dust on the hearts of men. They may have mistunderstood some things and when we come to know those misunderstandings we can show what God says, present the facts in print. Like here below:
O Son of Spirit! The best beloved of all things is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with your own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbour. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily, justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.
I didn't know God would stand for Justice and I did not seek it. But I would come to know.
So I had no prejudice other than thinking that faith in a God is to believe in an old man with a beard, painted on old church walls and whom people believed in during the medieval ages. I surely didn't give much for the dead rituals at church. With time I realised more and more that my life was empty, I even became filled with fear in my very inmost hidden corner. A fear that meant I was afraid of becoming still more filled with fear. The psychologists didn't know what to do with me. In Swedish it is called the" existential anxiety." Understand?
I was indeed like one dead a long time ago. And on top of that I could feel that unknown fear. In the Bible we learn that when He Who is promised to all mankind comes back He will resurrect you from death. But I was given life by that mysterious unit called the Holy Spirit and so I have been resurrected from the death of unbelief, (which is the real death,)and found spiritual truths in the Bible which I had not cared for all since my so called "confirmation" when 14 years of age. Well hardly at that age either. I was a wild child and youngster.
Now, here is something new! Or, rather, in front of my newly regained vision, old truths were polished from the dust of centuries gone by. I found that Bahaullah encourages us all to study the Bible, so that I would be confirmed in that He is supported in His claims by the Bible.That the Bible is really speaking of Him and His attributes, Consequently a Bahai is a true Christian.
If you threw away Christ on becoming a Bahai, you aren't a Bahai. I threw myself into Bible studies for many months and I truly found that, when comparing with what I learned about His, Bahaullahs, Life and His Teachings, He really was supported that way by lots of texts in the Bible. I have written about it here at the Forum. The Bible is
flooded with His Name, "The Glory of God" or "the Glory of the Lord", in both parts of the Bible. He has fulfilled prophesies, none is sealed any more (since 1844), He has given true divine fruits=teachings and divine manners,(judge them" by their fruits "Jesus), by which we can judge who is false, who is not. So therefore I was, as my studies of the Bible widened, increasingly getting more amazed and fashinated by this old Book. I went to my fosterparents exclaiming look here, the Bible is true, this is a divine document.!!!!! Spirituality
is the real world on which the Bible is resting They just said, take it easy, will you, and do not come and ...well. They know better by know, looking from above. I even sought out the Christian sects of the town, at their cafées and libraries and tried to show them that the prophesies are true, and fulfilled, but none were interested in the old promises, for one thing,- they were satisfied with cooking their church- coffee and shielding their little cookies from drying on their church- coffée tables,n't did they as much as lift an eye-brow. I experienced what the early Christians had experienced. They, the believers in Christ whom
I happened to met in Lund, the university town in southern Sweden had turned "luke-warm", knowing the Bible by heart, verses with numbers and all, but,----Where was the keen interest in the ageold promises and propheties that should have set them on fire? I was utterly surprised, and much frustrated at first. My friends in the Bahai Faith said," their cups are full." I came to see that there would be a so called "falling off" from faith. and hearts would be cold. Actually I have learned about the "falling off" here at AdlandPro. Again I am meeting Christians here, after a lapse of more than thirty years, and I, for my part, am still on fire.
Bahaullah says regarding the falling off from the Faith:
The vitality of men's belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it?...The Word of God, alone, can claim the distinction of being endowed with the capacity required for so great and far-reaching a change.
I really became sad for their sake, for the sake of those people. I was filled with a love that the world doesn't know and they were deprived of that.!!!! I am not one who is mistaken in this. I knew it is not just me being a lively person, quick and impatient , a curious and searching artist, eager to know new things, to try new methods and ways of developing myself and my art. No. But, they were really not interested in Christs Return at all, the Return of the Holy Spirit. And the new Name of Christ, mentioned- in Rev 3:12-13 nobody was interested in. I was truly shocked and I still am, that there is so little interest in the Main Theme of the Gospel. It, the holy return as I wish to call it, is mentioned at 250 places. Count yourself.
In the 19th century, especially in the 1840ies, there appeared, naturally, a fresh revival of interest in it,and thousands upon thousands from all Christianity of missionaries were sent out to preach the Gospel in the whole world, themselves creating that very Sign that Christ would soon return, but alas,when the interior of Africa, as the last spot to be introduced to the Gospel, had been reached by the 1844, most of the people thought that Christ would come flying on a cloud in this space of oxygen and H2O. There was a Great Disappointment.What a an anticlimax. Many are they who try to repair this mistake in different ways. But, I and my friends in the Bahai Faith believe, that He indeed came as a Thief from the heaven of the love of God in a country, old Persia, which was not even Christian. Christ came to a dark and oppressed country 2000 years ago. Persia was during the 19th century a very dark country, spiritually,socially, economically, politically, ruled by "religious"fanatics as has been reported by several western deputees and ambassadors. Most people were analphabetic, and all were dominated and oppressed by a clergy of self proud ayatollahs and mullas, holding their sway over ignorant masses with an unprecedented fanatiscism and ruthlessness. It was a most hostile climate, each religious sect hating and shunning all others in the most acrid way. It is well documented how deep Islam had sunk into bigotry and superstition in Persia, a country though with a glorious past.
The atmosphere of hatred and stupidities that was holding its devastating grip of the people of persia, also meant that Bahaullah and His Herald, the Báb were met accordingly. See the link below for glimpses of the early days of the Faiths Inaugurators.
A Christian may object and say that "not even the angles" will know "When the World Redeemer is to come, so who am, little Laila, i to tell. This has been said,yes prophesies have indeed been sealed. Yes,
but not after the time of the end. And when they are unsealed it will be due to the Redeemer having come. He it is who unseals the prophesies. It happened in 1844. I have pointed that out at James Wrights Forum that by that year the three promises by Christ were fulfilled:.
The return in 1844 by the Jews through the establishment of the Edict of Toleration and that by the year 1844 the Gospel had been preached all around the world. The third promise is based on a prophesy by king David, James explains that very elegantly.
So I believe...
He Who is the Quickener of all mankind is come in the person of Bahaullah, a name meaning "The Glory of God" . I believe He came when the world was fast asleep, when engulfed by warfare, misery and unbelief, superstition. Womens status was the lowest in history by that time, a clear indication of the low mental state of mankind. The west was starting off the industrial revolution while in the East people experienced a spiritual revolution. Old Persia saw the Babi movement, which you may see glimpses of on this link, and after 9 years of His, the Babs proclamation, Bahaullah made His, in Iraq,(old Assyria). For this very exiting part of the history of this Faith see this link:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bahaullah+and+the+bahai+faith&search=SearchI have tried with my falthy English to present my way towards truth, received Faith although being quite illiterate in spiritual things. But, to reflect a little,
so where the early Christians, Petrus and his friends. It's not so bad, really. I feel they like my way, because I am one of them, 2000 years later, it is again an apostolic age. Surely, but see for yourself. I will give texts but they are also to be found at
www.Bahai.org and www.Bahai.us.
Bye for now
Laila