The

chamberlain

from the Orient

Book 21

Max Seltmann

Recommended chronological reading list:

(with regard to Jesus’ life in flesh and Spirit, up to the time of the book of Revelation.  All books are written by Max Seltmann, unless otherwise indicated. The book marked with bold, is the book currently opened.)

1. Childhood years of Jesus (Jakob Lorber)

2. Book 1 – John the Baptist

3. Book 2 – John the Apostle in his youth with Jesus (Love overcomes Part 1)

4. Book 3 – Jesus’ Life

5. Book 4 – Jesus’ Life

6. Book 5 – Jesus’ Life

7. Book 6 – Jesus’ Life

8. Book 7 – Jesus’ Life

9. Book 8 – Jesus’ Life

10. Book 9 – Jesus prepares for His ministry Part 1

11. Book 10 – Jesus prepares for His ministry Part 2

12. Great Gospel of John, Volumes 1 – 10 (Jakob Lorber)

13. Great Gospel of John, Volume 11 (Leopoldt Engel)

14. Book 11 - Good Friday

15. Book 12 - Judas Iscariot in the beyond

16. Book 13 - On the road to Emmaus

17. Book 14 - The Risen One!

18. Book 15 - The New Life in man

19. Book 16 – At Bethany – story of Theophilus

20. Book 17 - Ascension

21. Book 18 - Pentecost!

22. Book 19 - Among the first Christians

23. Book 20 - Divine guidance of the first Christians

24. Book 21 - The chamberlain from the Orient

25. Book 22 - The God-spark and Saul's conversion

26. Book 23 - Awakening the Divine life

27. Book 24 - Experiences with Jacob, Part 1

28. Book 25 - Experiences with Jacob, Part 2

29. Book 26 - Experiences with Jacob, Part 3

30. Book 27 - Experiences with Jacob, Part 4

31. Book 28 - Naeme

32. Book 29 - John the Apostle as a guide (Love overcomes Part 2)

33. Book 30 - John the Apostle as a guide (Love overcomes Part 3)

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Table of Contents

1.  The healing of a blind man 4

2.  Jesus' presence is witnessed through His healing work 10

3.  Why does Jesus remain invisible to us? 15

4.  The chamberlain’s longing for the true God 20

5.  Themann experience Jesus in the spiritual world 25

6.  They mystery of God’s incarnation 32

7.  Themann as instrument of the Lord 34

8.  God's gift to the Queen 41

The healing of a blind man

In and around Jerusalem there was great lamentation in the ranks of the faithful, for the harshness and wickedness of the priests had stoned the popular Stephen - the mighty witness of the Savior Jesus - to death in public, without timidity!  Forgotten seemed the days around Pentecost, forgotten the great successes of the apostles.  The obvious hatred of the temple terrified the followers of Jesus, so that many hastily left Jerusalem and sought refuge with friends and acquaintances outside Judea.

Meeting a troop of such Jerusalem citizens on their flight to Samaria, Philip, the almsman, greeted them: "The peace of God be with you!"

"And with you, and all days" - thanked the elder of the fugitives.

Astonished, Philip asked: "Brother Kinkar!  Why do you also flee from your house?  Is it fear for your lives, or fear of the temple henchmen?  Do you not feel safe in the shelter and grace of God?"

"Brother Philip" - Kinkar answered him sadly - "behold, my wife and children and all who belong to my house, are afraid!  All joy is gone from us, and fear and terror tremble through our hearts, if someone approaches my house.  Is it not better to seek peace far away?  Only yesterday some of our brothers were again sent to prison - and who knows what fate awaits them?"

"My brother" - Philip answered graciously - "yet faith in the assistance of Jesus Christ possesses a power capable of overcoming all fear and terror!  Where the Risen Lord lives in us in reality, all worry or fear is unfounded!  Certainly, it is now a tremendous time of testing!  But when I consider what a precious and glorious thing we have received, it is worth fighting for.  What is all suffering, all fear and worry compared to what we have to guard here!  Are you not also chosen to be filled with His Spirit, with the power that makes free and can make free!  I would be doing a disservice to my Lord, if I did not let myself be driven by His Holy Spirit!  Your flight is weakness and makes the enemy strong.  Behold, what did the Master do?  Where could He turn, even if weakness wanted to invade Him?  He had only the holy faith in His mighty task, which was given to Him by Eternal Love, His holy Father.

Placed in the midst of His enemies, He remained faithful and obedient, seeking - and finding in His own depths - the sources of power from which He worked and created."

Kinkar said thoughtfully: "Brother!  You misjudge our situation, you do not feel my sorrows!  See, if it were only a matter of my life, I would gladly stay and fight with you.  But when I hear about the agonies of the prisoners and see the fear of my own, all courage vanishes.  But one thing has been added, namely: our prayers - have no more strength, and so we feel without support!  And therefore it is better to go out of the way of danger and then live there, to the glory of God, in a new home!"

"Now then, go your way in peace" - Philip replied - "and seek salvation there, which is Christ Jesus Himself.  But remember: He is neither here nor there to be found, if you have lost the connection with God in you!  Have you all then forgotten the gracious time when His eye sought you bountifully and the lure of His love wanted to bring you the greatest gift of grace?  Oh Kinkar!  Shall His great sacrifice have been in vain, which also wanted to make you and yours His children?  Now that the Lord needs witnesses, even blood witnesses, do you seek help from other people?  Never before have I been so imbued with power and full of the consciousness of victory as now, when I am in the life-battle for Him and His teachings and feel God's gracious presence so vividly in me."

Kinkar answered thoughtfully: "Brother!  I cannot let my wife go alone, since I must be a support for her and mine!  But my faith in the Lord will not waver, for the whole earth is God’s, and everywhere He Himself has called people who believe in Him.  So do not stop us, since duty exhorts us to move on!"

"You are certainly right, my Kinkar, duty puts us in our place!  Yours is with your wife, mine - is with my Savior Jesus!  He now speaks in me: 'Fear not! - Behold, I am with you!  And if everything would turn against you, yet I am the Lord, and everything must bow to My will!'  And this I not only believe, but I am sure of it!  He is my whole confidence!  But to you, I still say: Never, in any trouble, give away your faith in the grace of God!"

So Kinkar went on with his own; - but Philip prayed in his heart: "Lord!  If more fugitives meet me and carry fear and dread in their hearts, what shall I do?"

Then Eternal Love within him answered: "Strengthen your brothers!  Strengthen their weak faith!  Better that they flee for fear than that they deny Me!  But you be without worry!  I know My own and know all their sorrows!  But you go to Samaria, there are many people who will want to hear you!"

Philip did according to the will of the Lord, turned back and experienced more and more vividly the grace from above.  The more he witnessed of the Risen Lord, the more the power from God increased in him, and the noble self-confidence to be allowed to serve the Lord with it!

Thus he arrived at Sebaste, the capital of Samaria, which was built high on hills and made a friendly impression.  But the inhabitants of this little town did not show any interest in him, because Simon, a sorcerer who was in contact with lower powers, had known how to win the favor of the people.  An angel, however, who conveyed God's will to him, advised Philip not to retreat, but to seek out every opportunity where he could testify of the Lord and Master!

In the process of seeking out the magician, a blind man, led by a little girl, came to meet him and asked for a small gift.  Philip, however, had nothing to give him, but it grieved him to let the poor man go on like this, and so he asked in his heart: "Jesus!  You Savior!  You salvation of all the world!  Show Yourself also in this blind man as the glorious One, as the most glorious Giver of all gifts!"

Then it sounded softly back in him: "Would you give in My Spirit, then I can be in you the power to heal!

So Philip came to the poor blind man, saying: "Brother!  I feel your sorrow as if it is mine; but out of all sorrow, there are steps leading to joy!"

"Yes, you are right" - answered the blind man - "when Jehovah finally delivers us poor people and we join our fathers in the pit!  This is also my longing desire; but unfortunately it seems to be a certain joy for God when poor, miserable beings have to toil and agonize on this piece of earth."

"Man!  Don't talk like that" - Philip exclaims - "for it proves how little you still know of God!  Has life passed so meaninglessly before you and your misery in the last times?  Have you not heard how the great Master and Savior Jesus has restored so many wretched people to health and joy in all lands and cities?"

"Yes, I heard already" the blind man answered slowly - "but by the time I came, He had already moved on.  We were always too late, and we could never find out the right time when He passed through this region again.  But now He is supposed to be dead, crucified with two great evildoers!  What can I expect from Him?"

"Much-and, in fact, everything" - Philip spoke urgently; "for, though dead, He nevertheless lives in His spiritual being, and, though invisible, if His helping mercy is believed in, He can work precisely the same miracles as in His earth-life."

"Could you impart this to me" - the blind man asked briskly - "that I too might learn to believe in Him as the Helper and Healer?  Wouldn't it be the greatest benefit in my life if I could see again and no longer depend on alms from others?"

"So believe my words - and in the depth of your heart ask the Savior Jesus, then He could well help you too!"

Then the blind man knelt down and asked fervently: "I believe, Lord and Savior Jesus, that You will not refuse my request - and so help me, too, as You have helped thousands!"

Now Philip laid his right hand on the head of the blind man and his left on the head of the little girl and prayed aloud: "Lord! - Jesus! - In Your name and in Your love!  Show Yourself to be the Almighty in this poor man, and make him well by Your power and Your grace!"

A stream of living power went out from Philip and flashed through the still kneeling man - but the latter suddenly jumped up and cried out loudly: "I see! - Oh God! - I can see again! - For forty years I saw no sun, no man, no tree, and now I have my sight again as I once had!  Oh God! - Oh Jesus! - Only You could do this, so now I am all Yours!"

The passers-by became attentive, crowded around the three and asked: "Asher, why do you act so nonsensical?  What has happened to you?"

"I see! - I see you - and I see this man, through whom I was helped!"

Philip lifted up his right hand and said: "Listen, dear people!  This brother of yours, who lived only on your alms and on your love, has been granted a great grace!  The Savior Jesus, who sacrificed His life on the cross of Golgotha and rose from the dead, wants that all who believe in Him as Savior, should also receive the blessings of His love and His redeeming power.  He gave me the order to come to you in order to testify of this His saving power and His true life in us human beings.

The suffering of this poor and blind brother of yours pained me, as every suffering also pains the Lord and Master Jesus.

And so it happened that I, driven by His Spirit of all-merciful love, asked Him for power to heal this brother.  And behold, he believed in this love and in the healing power of Jesus, who is always present in the Spirit where one asks and calls Him, and so he received his sight back as a gift of grace for his faith.  But do not be so surprised because Jesus, the Savior, now lives everywhere!  But He will be able to work among us only if our hearts are invitingly open to Him.

Did not your hearts beat out to Him when He went through your streets and alleys with His disciples?  Did you not rejoice when He relieved your sufferings and restored happiness and right faith in God in many?

He left you His blessing and hoped that your love would remain with Him.  But the time made His gifts of grace forgotten!  Yes, it came to such an extent that you now cheer other people, who perform sham miracles out of falsified facts and deny everything Divine out of a disdainful desire for gain!  But the love of Jesus is still watching over you and once again, through me, calls out to all of you: "Do not forget God and His grace!  Remember His gracious and loving nature!  He wants to secure your salvation and your eternal happiness.  Only one condition is attached to it: Believe in His constant presence and act in the Spirit of His love!  But you, blessed by the love of Jesus, go home and give Him the glory always!"

The audience had been silent during Philip's speech, but then a cheer broke out and everyone wanted to press the hand of the healed man.  More and more people came and wanted to know what had happened here.  But Asher, the healed man, said to Philip: "You dear man and friend of God!  I am poor and can offer you nothing, but all my heart's love shall be yours if you will enter my poor hut and make it your abiding place.  As the Lord God showed Himself mighty in me, so may He show Himself gracious in us and give you food and drink!"

And Philip stayed with this poor man.  It was only a small ground, which was worked by the woman and her sons; with difficulty they wrung the fruits from the ground, and very meagerly, the four made their living with it.

The woman cried out when Asher shouted to her with joy: "I see you, Eva!  I see everything, here and everywhere, for God has made me see!"

"God?" - asked Eva at last, highly astonished - "didn't you beg and plead with God for years for healing?  How was it then that He only now answered your prayer?"

"Ask this one, and look at the road" - answered Asher - "many people are following us, for this man is a friend of Jesus and a messenger of God!"

"The peace of God be with you!" - greeted Philip, entering - "the love and grace of God willed that I should come here to Sebaste to proclaim to you the truth concerning Jesus, the Risen One, and His Word.  Just allow the people to come in, for all are concerned!  All should hear His message of God's peace in man.  All can now become bearers of the holy Kingdom of God through Jesus, crucified and now risen to eternal life."

So the little room was filled, and Philip did not tire of teaching, and finally he promised them to be at the market again the next morning.  Cheerful, faithful people brought gifts and food and drink in abundance, and gratefully the recipients folded their hands.

The sun had hardly risen, when many curious people came to see the miraculously healed Asher and to listen to the words of the great messenger of God.  Devoutly, some sang a hymn of praise before the tabernacle, and joyfully all sang Psalm 130 (vv. 5-8).  "My soul wait for the Lord, and I hope in His Word.  My soul waits for the Lord from one morning watch to another.  Israel, hope in the Lord!  For with the Lord is mercy, and much redemption is with Him, and He will redeem Israel from all their sins."

Philip stepped in front of the still singing crowd and blessed them.  And when the singing was finished, he raised both arms again and prayed aloud: "Lord and eternal God!  It has pleased You to move these hearts, that they now wait for You in supplication!  Send us Your Spirit of grace, of love and of life, so that their hunger may be satisfied, but their desire for You may become a lasting one!  Lord Jesus!  Reveal Yourself to us through Your Word for the sake of Your love and truth.  Amen!"

Then he continued, speaking to all: "Friends and brothers!  Rejoice, all of you, for the God of peace and truth is proclaiming to you anew through my mouth that He has seen your hearts and your desires and wants you all to experience how God loves His people and His children!  But you must first learn to understand this love of God, so that error and false desire do not take hold in you.  The great Savior has already given you many things, but they have slowly fallen into oblivion. Therefore, keep in mind that all these gifts, which the eternal God gave to the earth through Jesus, were spiritual goods from the heavens, and should serve to make us mature and worthy for the kingdom of God (in us).  But the influence of evil was stronger than the grace from the heavens, and so the One sent by God had to fall victim to darkness.

But listen further, dear people, the enemies triumphed for a moment, but they did not know that they were passing the death sentence on themselves.  They could not suspect that through the willingly accepted sacrificial death of Jesus, a Spirit was released in His innermost being, which will bring redemption from the hard bondage of matter to all His followers.  As the Lord, our Master, transformed His own night of death into the fullest day of life with the light indwelling Him, so also in all those who trust Him and follow Him in His ways within, His light and a new life will arise.  So I am sent to you and bring the good news: Jesus – lives!

And all who believe in Him, may live with Him in His kingdom of purest love.  Jesus has overcome all death - and the cross, the symbol of the most sorrowful horror, has been raised by Him to the foundation of the new life.  For as soon as man acknowledges his sufferings on this earth, his cross - as burdens imposed on him by God's permission, and no longer asks for exceptions, but for strength to carry them willingly, his innermost spirit, his spark of God, is also released!  This shines through us the holy purpose of all sufferings and can make us the light-bringer for others still searching and suffering in darkness!"

Deep silence followed the words born in Philip's heart; then, after a pause, he concluded his sermon: "I am a witness of many things!  I have seen the Lord and heard the sound of His mouth, I have seen Him heal the sick by His word and make glad those who are saddened to death. But as great and mighty as all this was, it cannot be compared to when He came among us as the Risen One from the night of death, full of the life of the Holy Spirit! His pierced hands and feet were His outward features, but His great goodness, His holy love revealed to us more than all the signs of His Divine omnipotence!

They revealed to us God's love greatest and most holy longing for their likenesses - in man! Thus, in His grace, our God bent down to each one to ask us: "Become - My children!"  Deeply moved by his own words, Philip stepped back.

After that, Asher felt the urge in his heart to once again thank aloud the Lord and Savior Jesus for the tremendous grace of now being allowed to see again, with which He have so visibly manifested His love for suffering people to all.  And so a general rejoicing began, which ended in a psalm of thanksgiving.

But one of them came to Philip and said: "You dear messenger of God!  If you had not opened the eyes of our Asher, your words would have passed away like chaff in the wind; but now they have touched our hearts, and we all feel obliged to give great thanks to our God!  But how right you were to warn us that the best of the Savior had already been forgotten!  We now realize that this mistake must be rectified.  Therefore we would like to ask you: Stay with us until we are again faithful followers of His purest teachings of God.  But now come with us to the marketplace, there are still many waiting for your teachings of Divine love, but you will also see that there is much misery among us."

Philip said: "Go ahead, dear friends, until I have taken an early meal, and tell everyone that my heart and my love are already with them."

Jesus' presence is witnessed through His healing work

After the morning meal, the diligent Eva wanted to do the usual housework, but Philip said to her: "Your son Kenan will do everything in the best way!  Only come with us, so that you too may experience the glory of God today and know what is possible for Him in whom we trust!" And so it happened; the little daughter, however, walked as always close beside her father, for she could not believe that the father now found his way without her.  A lot of people had already gathered in the marketplace, and Simon, the magician, also looked at the arrivals, but with very mixed feelings, because he knew that his actions did not always bear the character of honesty.

Philip lifted up his hands, blessed the crowd and began to speak: "Men and dear brothers!  With the greeting of the Lord and Savior Jesus: Peace be with you!  I come into your midst and make known to you the will of the Lord, as I find it in me for you.  Almost all of you know about the dark days in Jerusalem, where the Templars swore to kill by force the noblest and best among all people.  And they succeeded!  But why?  Because this sacrifice, was the expressed will of the Master!

For all His teachings, His proofs of love, His miraculous deeds would not have achieved this revolutionary effect in the whole world, if He had not voluntarily taken upon Himself the sufferings and the most bitter death on the cross!

He had enough power to destroy His enemies, but He did not do it because He knew: Only through My love can I be victorious!  For this eternally invincible power over all enemies lies in His sacrificial love for all created beings.  He died! - and through His death, created a new way from the earth to the heavens. He died! - and rose again!  He broke the laws of matter and thereby bridged the existing gap between God and man.

If we let all His teachings and deeds pass before our eyes, we stand admiringly still before the greatness of His Spirit and His power!  But if we put ourselves into His death, with which forbearance, with which sublimity He endured His most bitter fate, we shudder before the greatness of His love.  But the temple, with it's servants, deliberately acts against God and heaps guilt upon guilt!

Jesus' resurrection, His miraculous appearances here and there, as well as His ascension into His heavens, they stubbornly deny and persecute with fire and sword all followers of His love-teachings!  Only a few days ago, the infuriated Templars stoned Stephen, the faithful witness of Jesus' teachings, but also here the glorious promise proved true: God stands by all those who love Him, even in the greatest suffering, and gives them wonderful courage and strength to persevere!

Stephen experienced the living God within, and his death became a triumph over all God's enemies! (see Acts 7).  The unshakable faith in Jesus' living presence, creates completely new sources of strength in us and gives us daily evidence of the intimate union between God and man.  The highest thing a person can receive here, is the clear awareness: My God and Father has also adopted me as His child!  This experience, however, obliges us to point out this grace to others through our whole way of life, because a believing child no longer belongs to itself; and so I now belong to you!  Eternal Love has called me here, and His grace makes me your servant.  But above all of us stands God, the Eternal, who in the Son of Man Jesus, confessed to us: I am the Alpha - and the Omega!  The beginning and the end!  So also be You, Lord Jesus, in this morning hour the beginning here - and the all-gloriously leading to the end! Amen!"

Philip was silent - he looked at those gathered around him - and over them as if into vast distances of the past.  Then he continued slowly: "Until now you believed in the God of Abraham, in the great God of eternal justice, and kept strictly His law given to you.  The conditions to fulfill were difficult, and it seemed as if not even one would be found completely righteous.  Now God Himself came to us in the Son of Man Jesus, overcame as a man with the mustering of all the spiritual powers slumbering also in Him, the soul-fetters of the bitter bondage in this matter and thus fulfilled as the first, God's prescribed commandments.  God was justified!  Because now nobody could say: Lord!  Your commandments can not be fulfilled!  You demand too much!  God now lets everyone say: Behold, what this Son of Man Jesus has overcome as fetters of His soul in Himself, is now also possible for everyone who has the same good and serious will for it!

And now listen further: In order to make it possible for everyone to become a child of the eternal God and to bask in His glorious Father-love already here in earthly life, Jesus left us the great promise that everyone will be filled with His holy, victorious Spirit as soon as he strives to keep the conditions of His new, easy love-laws.  Many of you have heard from the Lord's mouth the message of God's kingdom of love and peace, which will arise in man as soon as he entrusts himself to His teaching.

Therefore, dear ones, let the earthly life of the Master be our example and constant mirror!  May His love and His mercy be the driving force that urges and drives us to strive towards His kingdom!  Whatever doubts His death still caused about His mission, became a victorious certainty through His resurrection!  In His ascension, we experienced His hopes for us, as far as we embraced Him with the whole love of our hearts.  And at Pentecost came the fulfillment of His promise.  The fulfillment of all our longing for Him!  For against this Holy Spirit, Who flooded us, all the world is powerless!

Whoever has not yet been touched by this Spirit of light is still blind to the glories of His kingdom, because it is only reserved for this Holy Spirit to completely loosen our soul from the innate fetters to the worldly and to bind it to Him.  This overcoming Spirit is already the returning Jesus as an Entity and Power in the breast of Him who received Him from the heart of His eternal Father!  If you want this holy Spirit of Jesus to live in you, believe in His love and hope in His grace and serve all fellow men with a loving heart.  Then His hope will also be fulfilled through you, that you will become children after the heart of God!”

Philip was silent - his speech had penetrated deeply into the hearts of his devout listeners, and silence reigned all around.

Then an old priest, Joram, came to him and said: "Dear friend! Your speech was like a source of light, which illuminated many a dark thing in my heart.  I have seriously examined and recognized that a new life force emanates from the teaching of your Jesus.  We know about His death and also about His resurrection, but we believed that His mission was completed with it.  But as you put it: this life of Jesus should be an example and mirror for our perfection, for this, friend and brother, we lack much!  The goal is too high!

Philip answered him: "Brother!  Look, if a man fears to tread the first paths to such a goal, he can never attain the great and glorious!  Think of Abraham - he believed the word of the Lord and went forward obediently and full of trust on the ways which God Himself indicated to him, and reached his high goal!  Think of Joseph in Egypt.  He remained faithful to his faith in God despite many tribulations.  Silently he endured in captivity, hoping for his God's gracious guidance, and thus overcame all opposition and then experienced the glory of his God's guidance. And so I could name you many more who, despite many tribulations, firmly believed the word of the Lord, trusted His guidance and climbed up to the goal.

Is it so hard to believe: God!  You most pure Love!  You Who became man in Jesus!  You want man to transform himself into the purest love through Your grace and help!  It makes me so easy and comfortable to believe this, I am inwardly filled with such blissful happiness that even having to suffer death for it must seem like a grace to me!"

"I cannot yet understand this so quickly" - Joram apologized - "perhaps I will learn to understand you better."

Among the audience was one who often suffered from possession.  He was badly afflicted by it at that moment and the demon shouted: "Into the fire with him - there is his place!  Wind snakes around his hands and feet, for he is partly to blame for our great misery."

Then Philip went to the poor man, made the sign of the cross over him, and said to the demon: "In the name of Jesus, the Crucified and Risen!  Leave this house and go into the wilderness to your own!"

"Never, never!" - he cried - "will I go away anytime soon..."

"In the name of Jesus I command you!" - Philip now said loudly.  "Obey my words, or you will miss even the last grace!  But listen: Jesus has also made His sacrifice for you.  Go there, as I told you, and Jesus, the Lord, is ready to help you too!"

The sick man became calmer - then Philip laid his right hand on his head and said: "So Love bless you and give you strength!  But you, Lord Jesus, make him whole!  Your holy name be praised.  Amen."

The poor man was helped.  After a while of reflection, he said: "You people, listen to my few words.  I lived in a hell, terrible was the place and hideous the figures.  Then a light-messenger came to me and freed me from it.  How glad I am that I could hear the words of you, God's messenger, which brought me healing.  Yes, Lord Jesus!  May your name always be highly praised!"

But Simon the sorcerer was somewhat frightened by the scene with the possessed man, for he did not feel free of guilt; he was now afraid of Philip and wanted to leave quietly.

This was noticed by the healed man.  He immediately went and held him, saying: "Listen, Simon!  This man brings us a different gospel than you, and I have not yet heard a word about payment!  It is not good of you to go away now that I have been delivered from the evil into which you brought me.  Thank the messenger of God that you do not receive the reward that is due to you!

The sorcerer said excitedly: "Silence, Jonah! -for you want to harm me.  I am innocent of your condition.  You should not have lost yourself, then you would not have become miserable."

Then Philip came to the two and said: "Listen to my words, you men, and do not carry quarrels and dissensions among yourselves.  You, Jonah, rejoice and be thankful that the helping hand of Jesus came to meet you in serving love; and you, Simon, go into yourself and keep in mind that in spite of your unscrupulous actions, the Savior and Redeemer Jesus also offers his hand to help you!  Your actions and deeds only seem to be of use to yourself.  Not for long, then it will be night in you, because you are surrounded by dark forces.  But Jesus brings light to all!  He is the Light!  In this light, you too will experience a new life - life out of the fullness of God, just as your brother Asher experienced it yesterday and you, Jonah, experienced it today."

Simon replied: "What do you know about my life and my actions?  Ask all the bystanders here what I have offered them; were they not delighted and excited by my performances?  Of course, I cannot make the blind see or heal the possessed.  But I would have great desire to learn it from you!"

Philip, full of the Spirit, spoke earnestly: "Simon, and all of you!  Hear calmly and with an open heart what I must say to you, since the Spirit of pure and unselfish Love urges me to do so!  There is not one among us who could say of himself: 'I have at all times fulfilled the commandments of God' and the will of the Lord Jehovah of hosts, and there is none who could testify: 'I can do without the grace of God!'  All of us are guilty, and all of us are in need of His grace!  But since the Lord sacrificed His life for us out of supreme love, a whole new way has been paved, which offers everyone the possibility of reaching where the goal of our longing lies.  I am not sent to you to talk about your desires, but to show you the way to this new life, and to tell you whose Holy Spirit's children you can become, if you want to follow these ways.

You, Simon, were not a forerunner, because you endeavored to be a great one in everyone's eyes.  You showed the way into the world, where lust and distraction entice, whereby you served a spirit, whose final goal is ruin and death.  Now I have come, driven by the Spirit of God, and reveal the opposite to you.  The way, which I show you, is called humility, devotion and renunciation and leads you to the height, to the inner perfection and to the eternal life with God!  You have to choose now, since you have seen the consequences of a wrong action in your brother Jonah, and you were allowed to experience the power and the grace of Jesus, which brought him salvation.  You should not only learn this message of peace, but experience for yourselves the grace and presence of Jesus!  I am nothing, but Jesus is everything in everything!  He wants to give us His spiritual life in the hope that we will then hand over our lower self to Him.  Now choose the best of the best - your will is free!"

Philip was silent - and the crowd also remained in reverent silence.  Simon did not dare to speak anymore, because the truth of all these words had been proven by the healing of Jonah.

So Asher's wife came before Philip and spoke aloud with a rare brightness in her eyes: "Men and women!  Let me also speak about what is troubling me.  My heart is so overflowing with joy, and I would perish in the dust if only I could do the great Savior any service.  You all know about our years of misery.  We bore it patiently in the hope that one day the hour would strike that would mean salvation, or that death would free us from all misery.  But since yesterday, I have been taught otherwise.   I now know what all suffering should serve us for.  It is not proper for me to speak before men, but my inner experience is too important, therefore I want to confess before you what wonderful happiness has seized me!

You can easily imagine that I could not sleep for joy and gratitude until I learned that this healing is not true happiness at all, because misfortune could still befall us again.  When I prayed, as Hannah once did, and directed all my thoughts to God, the holy Creator, a wonderful light came around me, and in a short time, also light in me!  I looked around in astonishment - our house has disappeared, my husband and my children have disappeared, as well as our dear, dear guest!  I am frightened and feel so strange to myself, but a dear voice beside me says: "Do not be afraid, for behold, I know you and have found you worthy to receive what your heart has longed for.  The end of your suffering is only there, when you can renounce every earthly desire, since I am the One who can replace everything for you.

Then I asked: Who are you? - and where are you? - and where am I?  But the voice said in a much more sweet tone than before: "I am the Love that carries everything, and My life is the salvation of all the world!  Look for Me in you, for only there am I to be found.  I want to turn around, I want to see the speaker, the light fades away, but what remains is an inner joy, a joy such as I have never experienced before.  And at that moment, Jesus stands before my eyes, as I knew Him, with His right hand pointing upward, but His left hand pointing toward the heart.  I wanted to hold Him, but it was not possible, He disappeared, but the great joy remained!  And in this joy, I only want to fulfill my duties more faithfully, because now I am only 'a handmaid of the Lord'.

When the woman was silent, Philip blessed the whole crowd once more and said, full of the Holy Spirit: "Bring, then, as in the Lord's lifetime, all your sick, that your outward affliction also may be bound up, and that you may arise in the all-quickening and all-satisfying Spirit of Jesus!"

After all had hurriedly brought their sick, and those who could not walk were gladly carried, an expectant silence took possession of all hearts.

Philip, praying aloud, invoked the presence of Jesus and glorified His indescribable love in His name! - In that holy moment, all were healed!

There was no end to the praise and glorification.  The faith in the invisible presence of Jesus, was reaffirmed in the opened hearts.  And even Simon the sorcerer humbly accepted this faith.

Why does Jesus remain invisible to us?

The next day Philip sent Asher to Jerusalem to the apostles with the good news: In Samaria the gospel of Jesus Christ has been accepted!  Philip had an easy job here, for the fame of his healings preceded him everywhere in the village and city and made hearts receptive; and everywhere the grace of God was visible.  Hearts were opened to the joyful news: Jesus is alive and we can experience His presence!  But it were specially consecrated hours when Philip baptized men and women in the name of Jesus Christ.  A new life began throughout Samaria.  Almsgiving and welfare were introduced as in the churches in Jerusalem, so that in the houses of the poor, there was no end to thanksgiving and praise.  Philip often taught in Asher's house, and not a day passed without the grace and power of the Lord being vividly felt by those present.

The Samaritans experienced the climax when two disciples from Jerusalem, Peter and John, arrived with Asher in Sebaste and also took up residence in his poor hut.  Peter, as the elder, preached with zeal of the Lord's words.  John, however, only blessed.

Some priests, who disliked this enthusiasm, wanted to turn the people away again.  To these the apostles of the Lord went into the synagogue, and many people followed them.  Pleased, but also somewhat frightened by the large crowd of listeners, the priests nevertheless displayed great dignity and began their service.  The text chosen was Isaiah 44:6-28 (the foolishness of idolatry).  The priest Israel tried to say with eloquent words only what coincided with the law and the prophets.  "For" - he continued - "no-one sees danger better than he who has himself been in danger.  Therefore the Lord's request through Isaiah: keep away from everything new, from that which is likely to create idolatry.  Even today, sorcerers are respected more than Jehovah and His servants, and greater honor is given to miracle-workers than to the Word of God and the place where His Holy Spirit is worshipped.  Therefore, turn back and do not let yourselves be blinded by the new truth, which is not truth at all!”

The listeners became restless, anxiously they looked at Philip and his companions.  But they remained calm and waited to see what would happen.  When the priest was silent, he blessed the congregation and was about to step back, but Jonah, the one who had been healed, came up to him and asked aloud, "Israel!  Your sermon was good, but it made me uneasy, for you call Him a 'miracle worker' who delivered me from the devils?  How often did you yourself try your power on me when I was still in misery, but you always left me helpless and at a loss.  Look, a single plea to Jesus the crucified and risen One, from the mouth of this man was enough, and I was delivered!  You must not have understood my misery deeply enough and must feel little joy in my rescue and salvation, otherwise you would have had to speak differently today.  Must only your insight and your will be decisive, and all others must not want anything else than you?  Look at these three, they have no will of their own anymore!  The will of their Lord and Savior Jesus has become their will.  You priests, go into the huts of those who patiently endured sickness and hardship, but today are healthy and full of joy!  Be convinced, they praise not Philip, the bringer of salvation and joy, but Jesus, the Anointed and Holy One of God!"

The priest was astonished to hear Jonah speak in this way, so he answered loudly: "Jonah, listen!  You are the first to say such words to me with a bold spirit, therefore you shall also be the first to whom I say: If everything is true as you say, then I will repent in sackcloth and ashes and also confess Jesus of Nazareth!  Nobody shall say that the old Israel has ever been a hindrance to his fellow men for the bodily or spiritual well-being.  As a sign of my solidarity with you, Philip or someone else may now speak to all of us."

Now the way was paved for Peter and John, and Peter began to speak: "Men!  Dear brothers!  The love and grace of God be with you!  May the Spirit of peace be your portion, because it is a portion of Jesus Christ our Lord, Whose witnesses we here, are!  Witnesses of His life, activity and work, but also witnesses of His death and resurrection!  It is right, if you hold fast to the Word of the only true God and Lord and want to give glory only to Him!  For that is exactly why we are here, to testify that Jesus wanted and taught nothing else.

God from eternity to eternity, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, saw His creations in danger, because the spirit of destruction, the enemy of all life, tried to fill not only all senses but also the hearts of the people with his godless nature.  From Adam on, and ever since, God has been fighting the battle against His adversary.  But this fight is only a protection of His holy goods of grace, because God never wanted to destroy His enemy!

God became a man, and gave the enemy of all existence and life again the proof that the preservation of all things is the basic principle of His nature!  With the death of the Lord on the cross, His Spirit of eternal serving Love revealed itself to us even more.  We, His witnesses, saw His glory in His resurrection from death, and still today experience His presence and the streams of power and life from His Spirit!  May His enemies rage and with fire and sword try to eradicate His Spirit of serving love in the hearts of His followers, they will not succeed!  Because Jesus – lives!

Examine this with open eyes and keep the peace in your hearts, which the love of Jesus gives to all who act fearlessly and faithfully according to His will!  And so may the grace of the Lord be your portion in all things!  Amen!"

Now John stepped forward, blessed those gathered and spoke: "The caring love for your souls does not allow me to remain silent - for I, too - by the immeasurable grace of the Lord - have been made worthy to be a disciple and witness of His power and glory.  It is not necessary to speak much about His signs and wonders, since there are still enough eye-witnesses of them.  But I am urged by the Spirit to speak of His love and His service to the human race, which is the most glorious gift of grace and intended for all who want to follow His footsteps.  Jesus Christ, the Light and Salvation of all the world, has called not only us, but all to be bearers of this His Spirit.  For only then can we recognize in all fullness: Who and what Jesus was - and will remain forever!

You know much about Him, but to recognize His essence and to understand Him in such a way that you want to give up all the old concepts rooted in your soul for the new light from His love, is still beyond you.  Your misery and distress did not pass His heart without a trace; that is why He came to you, as to so many others, and extended His hand to you in holy union and wants to be your Helper and Deliverer.  His whole endeavor was to reveal in the service of humanity, the Spirit that was lost to it.  It is the Spirit of love, which has His original home in all heavens, and is the driving force that cannot rest or stop until all and everything created is filled with Him.  Thus the kingdom of God is the infinite space where His holy will is the eternally sustaining and the perfection-striving principle.

Especially this earth with all it's inhabitants is called for His kingdom and was raised as a place of grace and school of education for them.  Do not think: Why do we learn this only today?  Know that this mission and high destiny was already revealed to the first man.  The Lord has now tremendously shortened the long way, which was conditioned by the keeping of the Divine commandments, and showed us through His love, the new, shortest way to this our destiny.

'I give you a new commandment: that you love one another as I love you' - were His words, heavy with content.  And therein lies the key for all of us to enter the eternal, glorious Kingdom of God.  Love one another!  - and you will be loved back!  Love one another! - and heaven will be opened to you!  Love one another!  Then you will build a dwelling place on this earth for the Spirit of all life from God.  In this love, hatred and envy disappear, suffering and affliction become the preliminary stages of inner enlightenment.  The antagonisms between people, nations and churches cease, and we let God again wisely guide all our destinies.

Only this love will be able to transform every human being inwardly in such a way that he will only want to do what this love, as his innermost life, will urge him to do.  So give this love room in your breast, so that His Spirit becomes the creating and redeeming principle in you!  And so you, Jonah, come and receive through me the Spirit, which is holy, more than holy, and work from it according to God's holy will!  Everything will be possible for you, if you really believe, but always remain grateful in humility and devotion to your God, who approaches you in Jesus Christ today!  Now you need never fear any enemy, for God is strength and power and glory forever and ever!  Amen."

Jonah knelt down, and John laid his hands on his head at these words.  Then Jonas arose, and looking around him with radiant eyes he said: "Oh God! - Oh Father! - I am transformed!  What delight do You cause in me!  What happiness is in me!  But for this I give thanks not to you alone, dear John, but to the holy God in Jesus Christ."

"Let your whole life be one of thanksgiving" - said John - "and let no sacrifice be too great for your love!  For in your love you shall testify unto your brothers Jesus crucified and risen.  Behold, this Spirit, who has been given to you as a gift of grace, shall now be your guide and lamp.  He will renew your whole inner life and existence, so that you can now testify like a new man to the great goods of grace that you will now find within you.  So be blessed out of this Spirit and become a blessing for others.

But you, Israel, who are a priest in this place, you too are called to work out of this Spirit!  Life will beget life again, and love is always looking for opportunities where it can prove itself as love, and to witness that this is our service to our human brothers.  Do not be afraid of becoming unfaithful to your God, for you will realize that in this Spirit, which is life and love, you are a thousand times closer to God than if you keep to your statutes and dead letters.  The time has come when every cover will be taken away, when only the core - or the Spirit - as the innermost and truest life in the word, will serve you as a guide.  You have seen what is possible to him who believes, and have experienced the stream of fire from the power of the Spirit out of God.  And so I call out to you a word from the mouth of the Savior Jesus: Only he who does so, will realize that these are not words of man, but of God!

But you, Asher and Eva, arrange your house, we want to take the meal with you!  But believe firmly that Eternal Love already knows all your worries and your desires!"

The synagogue emptied, but on the road a procession of people met them, accompanied by wagons drawn by beasts of burden.  Peter went to meet them and was immediately recognized.  How the arrivals rejoiced when Joseph, their elder, greeted Peter: "Praise be to Jesus Christ!" - and Peter gave thanks, saying: "His holy peace be with you!"

Joseph held Peter's hand tightly as he said, "Thank God we found you!  All Samaria is full of wondrous talk about what is said to have happened here in Sebaste.  My brothers are longing for help and truth, for the Lord's fate has a paralyzing effect on all of us.  We know about His death and resurrection, but we can no longer bear the uncertainty: What will happen now?  Our sick have no more hope, and all confidence is gone.  For them, the Savior is dead!  But the news of the healing of the possessed man and the healing of the blind man has again raised new hopes, and that is why we hurried here and found you."

"Your doubts shall be destroyed, and your faith shall be restored" - Peter answered - "but you must be able to believe that it is not we who can help, but only the Lord and Master!  But if you still seek help from people, you will experience great disappointment.  What has happened here in these days, is not the power of miracles, but the result of the power of faith.  But it is not a good sign that you could doubt the words of the Master, because any doubt is a betrayal of your love for Him.  Therefore, brother Joseph, see to it that the group entrusted to you gets back into the right inner order.  For now, lead them all to the inn, but you come to us, we will stay with the healed Asher!"

This was done; the whole company could be accommodated in an inn, and all the sick on the wagons were also well taken care of.

In the dwelling of Asher a crowd gathered, because many did not want to separate from the apostles; but John, all love, spoke: "Brothers and sisters, listen: it is enough for today!  Therefore, seek out your homes and join with us in spirit, so that a stream of power and blessing may fill our outer sphere of life!  Remember, where there is a heaven, there is also a hell, and where there was a sowing for eternity, the enemy of all life also seeks to throw weeds into it.  Your hearts must become quieter so that you can understand the greatness of these holy miracles of love and become more receptive to experiencing even greater miracles.  But the greatest and most glorious miracle is to experience His holy Word in ourselves, which has all abilities to make us blessed and happy!

Make His Word your own, for it has eternal value!  Tomorrow we will come to the inn where your brothers have lodged, and I invite you to there, because there it shall be revealed to all how the Lord and Master redeems His Word!"

It quieted down, but not all went, for the longing for pure truth was great in them!  Soon the meal was laid out: bread, wine, honey and fruit, and how astonished was Eva to find all this in her food pantry, where for years there had been almost nothing!  But in her heart it sounded like silver: "See, I am not only love, but also power!  Therefore rejoice, that I may also rejoice over you!"

How quickly and joyfully she wanted to satisfy all the guests; but she carried a quiet sorrow in her that no-one asked where all the goods came from?

Peter blessed everyone and then the meal, and everyone took it with joy.  Soon old Joseph, the leader of the caravan, arrived, and Asher led him to the three messengers of God, who blessed him and gave him bread and wine.

Joseph spoke with emotion: "Friends and brothers!  I feel as if the Master Himself blessed me and gave me bread and wine to strengthen me!  Therefore I will not give thanks to you, but only to the Lord and Master Jesus."

"Do this, brother Joseph!" - answered John - "for we seek no thanksgiving, but hearts that can give thanks from the depths of their souls to the great Giver of all gifts!  Then we feel one with them, and in this oneness, new powers are released again.  Common prayer and thanksgiving makes every heart freer!  We can feel like children who only want to fulfill the will of their holy Father."

So Joseph asked: "Brother, tell us why Jesus, the Living and Risen One, could not stay here on our earth?  It would be for all people the greatest conceivable proof of His Divinity and His mission, if He were to associate with His human children everywhere in all His glory and in the indestructible body.  How soon all evil would have to give way and make room for the holy truth."

John answered: "Brother Joseph!  In your question there is still much ignorance about the true nature and life of Jesus.  You start from your human and intellectual concepts, and these hinder the pure and true knowledge in you.  Above all, be assured that the Lord, according to His holy words, is always and all days present with us until the end of the world!  He will never leave His own!  Only personally and physically He had to remove Himself from us, and thus from all people, in order to give us and all human beings the possibility to work out of their freest love, and to do according to His holy will.  Man, who by nature is predisposed to inertia, is thereby compelled to enter into right activity, so that he can experience the great, purest joy of shaping many things differently and anew in a creative way.  The Master, as a perfected man, not only showed us His ability, but He let us experience the great, mighty overcoming of all evils, through which He united Himself with God and everything became possible for Him!

The whole of mankind has arrived at the lowest point, and their eternal lot would be misery, death and destruction.  But the Lord had mercy on them and by His exemplary earthly life, created ways and means so that everyone could escape the evil!  His mission as man was finished, and with His sacrifice, He sealed the new covenant He made with all people!  His overcoming-Spirit is now His legacy to all, who with honest good will have His goal in mind, and this is called: To become one - with Jesus!  If you, as well as all others, would be influenced by His constant personal presence to fulfill His will, you would be deprived of the most glorious thing, namely of the freedom of your will and action and thus of being child of God as His eternal inheritance.  You would be His servant and receive the reward for your service, but you would always have to be aware that this state and service of yours could also come to an end one day.

But if you want to cooperate in the great work of Jesus out of your own free decision, and do not ask for reward or for His visible personal presence, you take His life or His Spirit into yourself and become His child.  As His child, you are the bearer and realizer of His great thoughts, and with the whole strength of your love for Jesus, you also seek to realize what rests in you as an idea and ideal.  Your longing, however, is still like closed gates that will only open when you become active in His glorious Spirit.  But to be allowed to be active in His Spirit, is the greatest grace and holds the only true happiness!  And only for the sake of our eternal happiness and salvation, Jesus could not remain with us in human form!"

Joseph was silent, but these words worked powerfully on him and the others. And so that day was ended.

The chamberlain’s longing for the true God

When all had gone to rest, an angel visibly came to Philip and showed him new tasks for his work.  Astonished that the Lord did not himself give him the assignment in his heart, Philip asked: "Dear messenger of God, how is it that the Lord - your and my God - shows you my tasks to be done, since it is my greatest delight when I hear the Lord and Master Himself within me?"

"My brother!" - the angel answered - "Behold, we too have a longing to serve the Lord in many things, and blessed is it for us, if we can connect with you earth-dwellers.  We look for such opportunities and ask the Lord and holy God for them, and gladly He grants us such requests.  You are astonished because you, as a human being, in your naturalness cannot yet quite grasp our nature; but when we come to you, our service is not to you, but to the nascent life of God in your bosom.  You are still kept in darkness about all the spiritual effects which this sanctified God-life produces; but rejoice, if you too may now experience and learn how you are supported by many forces in your inner love- and truth-life out of God!

The spiritual night has fallen upon the earth and is hammering with it's silent forces at the gates of light.  It's demand is light.  But it is reserved for the light to open the gates, to shine into the darkness, so that everything may be illuminated, and everyone may recognize in the light the great, holy truth about God and the holy meaning in all the forms of life.

So now, brother, according to the will of the Lord, go toward noon (south) to the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza, where it is desolate and empty all around.  But take one more thing into your consciousness: That the whole heaven bends before the awakening life out of Christ in your breast, and you give in this existence and life the formation of a new heaven, in which the Lord and eternal God wants to take residence as now your Father!  Therefore I evaluate my service rendered to you, as if I had served God Himself with it.  The peace of God be with you!" - and Philip was alone.

Immediately he got ready and went straight towards noon, towards his goal shown by the angel.  Glad in heart, and without asking much about the task waiting for him, he wandered with only short rests through the night and morning hours and finally arrived in a sandy desert region, which could well be his destination.  Here Philip saw from afar a small chariot in which a man was sitting, and the Spirit within him alerted him to his mission, saying: "Go and stand by this chariot."

Without much thought, he walked toward the vehicle and heard the man reading aloud in the prophet Isaiah (Acts 8:26).

Philip greeted him and asked: "Do you also understand what you are reading?"

"How can I understand it when no-one has yet taught me and given me the knowledge necessary to understand your writings!  I came to Jerusalem to worship the only true God in your temple, and they gave me these scriptures!  Will you get up and give me the necessary guidance?  I am Themann, the confidant and counselor of my queen Kandaze in Moorland, and who knows when I will ever come to Jerusalem again!"

So Philip sat down with him in the little chariot, took the Scripture from his hand, and read aloud the following passage in the 53rd chapter, verses 7 and 8: "When He was maltreated, He bowed down, and opened not His mouth, as a sheep led to the slaughter, and as a lamb that before it's shearer is silence, and opens not its mouth.  From imprisonment and judgment He was led away.  But who considered in His day that He would be torn away from the land of the living and be struck to death by the iniquity of His people?"

Themann looked at Philip and said: "I ask you to explain to me the meaning of these words!  Of whom does your prophet speak such things?  It is difficult to understand anything  from your sacred traditions."

Then Philip answered: "This is only your own opinion, since our God is still something foreign to you!  If you knew this our great God, you would also understand His Word, for in the Word, He is near to us all!  His holy Word gives us promises of a Savior from all evils.  And of this we have just read in Isaiah.   You have heard of the great events in the whole Jewish land and the greatest of all at the Passover feast in Jerusalem?  Here the prophet Isaiah already points to this future Redeemer, to Jesus and His crucifixion!  He was called by the great redemption plan of God to prepare a way for all of mankind, on which they can return to the only true life of God, easier than through laws.

Only a few recognized in Jesus of Nazareth the fulfillment of all these promises and the great glory of His inner Being.  From the earliest youth, He knew: Great things can only be solved by a great spirit, by a Spirit which this earth has not yet known!  Thus all in Judea and Samaria were richly blessed by this Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth.  It was not enough that many a miracle and many a deed of love stirred up the hearts and made them beat faster when it was said: Jesus of Nazareth is coming!  Much, much more powerful than His deeds were His words.  Words of the inner life!  Words - from the life of God!  All the old concepts in us became like new.  New hopes and new life created new people, people who now experienced in Jesus their inner support and their eternal salvation.  Thus a new Spirit was given to the earth, and this Spirit was the Life, the love and the Being of Jesus!"

Thinking, Themann spoke: "Dear friend!  But I still cannot understand how you want to connect this Jesus with the present scriptural passages?  You told many great and amazing things about your Jesus, but these words here indicate much sadness and a quiet humility; and that He fell victim to the malice of His enemies."

Philip replied: "I am not yet quite finished with my testimony of the Great and Glorious One, who in His boundless love became the Mediator between the Holy God and us sinful men.  Behold, the world is seduced to the core by a spirit that wants to destroy God and His works.  It has come to such a point that this enemy of all peaceful life lives under the delusion that he is the Lord.  Yes, there is no human being living on this earth who has not already become a victim of this destructive spirit!  Still a short time, and the whole world would stand before it's own destruction, from which there would be no more redemption.

But this man Jesus not only saw these dangers and the consequences.  He banished them and put His own life, His whole will and ability in the place where the enemy of all life wanted to erect a throne for spiritual death.  His life full of purity and exceeding love and faithfulness, is the eternal support on which every sin and it's consequences must be shattered!  He made Himself the vessel, took upon Himself all our guilt and iniquity, and bore in His body all the curse on the cross!  If Jesus had only fulfilled the will of God, His holy mission would have been accomplished, but without the great value for the coming generations.  He had to add something of Himself, and this, as the greatest, people almost never consider.  Above all, He had to forget who He was, had to live in His human self, had to seek out that distant God of lost mankind in His own inner world, by finding Himself again completely as a natural man.

From this state He had to pay back every tribute to the earth, His flesh and His I by overcoming all human weaknesses and temptations.  Now, as a Lord and Commander above the earthly processes and above all natural forces, He, as the Son of Man, always remained simple and helpful to all the poor, and thereby visibly lived this God-life risen in Him for all of us.  How highly the people of this earth were esteemed by Jesus cannot be expressed in words, for He, the Great and Glorious One, laid His life on the line for the salvation of the lost.  He took up the fight with the enemy of life and was apparently defeated.  But - after three days the whole of infinity had to experience that Jesus, as the Lord, also became the victor over all death and could loudly exclaim: "I - live!  And through Me, all will live who believe in Me and want to follow Me!  One must have experienced this triumph, must have been in all stages of deepest suffering to understand: Jesus was the victor!  Jesus is now finally the Lord to whom all powers must bow!  His dominion, however, is like a balm for all sore hearts, is a call and an invitation to enjoy with Him those great spiritual goods of grace which He provides in His endless love for all who have gone astray!"

The man grabbed Philip's hand and said with emotion: "Good friend!  You say that Jesus lives, that He passed through all death!  But was there no other means for Him than that of His most sorrowful death to lead people to God?  And say, what does this death of His have to do with me or with other people?  I have heard His name and have often had the desire to penetrate more deeply into the mystery that surrounded Jesus, until I wanted to convince myself of the mission of Jesus and His Divinity on the spot.  I gladly believe you, but I would even rather believe Jesus, if He could reveal Himself to me."

Philip said: "Friend!  Through me, Jesus the Holy One, greets you and calls you also to cooperate in His work!  His work is the restoration of the old order of God between man and God, and is the installation of mankind into the holy rights of God's children!

By the event on Golgotha, God has proved through Jesus that all flesh is only the protecting form of any spirit-life, and that by the inflow of Divine grace-currents, spirit must confess to the spiritual!  This redeeming love of God, which filled Jesus in everything he did, is the most delightful gift, which was offered to the earth as hereditary property.  It sure is written: 'Jesus was torn out of the direction of His life!'  But His Spirit is the all-pervading, all-embracing and all-sanctifying life and can never be torn out of His direction!"

Said Themann: "I see you are right!  And it has become easy for me to believe this.  But we are strangers to you, a foreign people.  But the streams of grace of your God, do they not belong to His people chosen by Him?  How do you want to prove to me that the Spirit of Jesus should become common property of all people?  No-one would be happier than I, if I could take this message of Jesus with me to Nubia, if I could say to all: I have now found salvation and bring it to you as a gift of grace of the eternal love of God!  Say friend, can you give me full clarity also about this?"

"Brother" - Philip replied - "do you believe that God only half completes His works?  We call ourselves His chosen people, but why?  Because the faith in our God Jehovah was preserved most purely through our pious arch-fathers.  But due to the errors and false doctrines still clinging to us, the ancient faith in God had to perish among us as well.  Only a few remained faithful to Him, consciously kept up a subtle connection between God and our people, and waited for the fulfillment of the promises once given by Him.

And so the promise was fulfilled that God Himself would testify to us one day.  And what was born as man - as Jesus - became the bearer and gathering point of the eternal love-life out of God.  Through many inner struggles against the human weaknesses also innate in Him, He made all suffering, all gloom and darkness of fate, necessary stages for an overcoming spirit, which should lead us to the spiritual heights.  He drew ever new inner strength from the Source of His humility to complete His high work.  His work and teachings were completely based on freedom of will, without ever persuading a soul to believe in Him.  He declared openly before all the world: Act according to My teachings and My example, only then you will experience that My words to you are God's truth and that My works were done out of the Spirit of God's love!

So it is now up to the seriousness of each individual to test Jesus' words, so that every doubt may disappear.  What good would it do you if you believed me without further ado, but on the next occasion acted in a completely different spirit?  Wouldn't your inner being get into discord and bring you unrest and new doubts?  There the great and glorious Master of all life has built ahead and shown to all people how only by doing according to His teaching of love, the Spirit of pure Jesus-nature can also manifest itself in them.  But what enlivened and inspired our Master, should also enliven and inspire all His followers.  And everyone will experience that only in this spirit of complete devotion, the proofs increase that he, too, is chosen to be His child.  Many are called - yes, all - but few are chosen!

And who are these elect?  Those who embrace the Spirit of Jesus and the life inherent in Him, and do not first ask the mind whether it is right; those who transform their heart into a new, great, glorious world of love, create space for new heavenly powers, and in their innermost life and existence, want to work and create only like Jesus!  But I am not telling you all this so that you will believe me, but so that you will set yourself the task of experiencing and living this delightful truth of Jesus' teachings.  Behold, faith in the literal word kills, but the Spirit in the word makes our spirit alive!"

Thrilled by Philip's answer, Themann took the hands of God's messenger and said: "My friend!  Your words sound like a greeting from the world of my longing and trigger joy and rare happiness in me.  I want to ask you to continue to speak of this Spirit full of life, which makes me see the world, the people, and now also God, completely differently.  There is a great difference whether I have to search laboriously here in this scripture, or whether God Himself takes the trouble and raises me, a strange son of the earth, to the level where I can recognize God in His infinite love for mankind."

Said Philip: "My dear brother!  That you could understand me and understand God's truth, is the infinite grace of Jesus, our Lord, as fulfillment of your sincere longing.  This grace could be granted to all people, but how few long for it and understand it!  But it is a blessed time of grace when a person receives this Spirit with his heart and becomes aware that this is the true life, which can carry us safely through all the surging situations of life and strengthens our will to hold on to this great goal of life.

If you, as a human being, filled with the Spirit of all life from Christ Jesus, consider your further life only as a gift of grace, you are already indissolubly connected with the Lord!  Although you still wear an earthly body, you become an inhabitant and citizen of the eternal world of God, and through your active love, you can impart holy life forces from God to this earth of ours, which is at the same time a gathering place of satanic and destructive forces.  But also in this we recognize the caring love of God, as the Master of Life has endeavored to give the earth and all it's inhabitants a Spirit that carries within Itself the strength and power to transform, without violence and completely in silence, everything that would otherwise have fallen prey to spiritual death and ruin.

We lived in the hope that God would give our people full freedom in the Redeemer!  But we now realize that you, brother, as an earthly man, are also called to be a co-worker and co-performer of His great work of redemption!

But how could this happen?  If you undoubtedly believe that Jesus Christ, the great holy God and Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, is also your God, your Father and your Redeemer,  Who - through His sacrificing and giving love - has also urged you to be a bearer of His life and a realizer of His thoughts of love!  But Who now also - since He Himself brought the greatest atonement sacrifice - no longer regards you as a sinner and enemy of life, but as fruit of His work of redemption and as a child of His love.  In this faith, His Spirit will fill you and make you capable of witnessing and working for His eternal kingdom of love.  But how this His kingdom is constituted, the love and grace of the Lord Himself wants to show you, because you already carry the desire within you to reveal this great salvation also to your brothers and fellow men."

Themann experience Jesus in the spiritual world

They had descended - and Philip now laid his hands on Themann's head and prayed: "Lord Jesus!  My love advises me to give this brother something that only You can give him.  So I ask You, in this holy hour, to be the only Giver and joy-Giver for the sake of Your love and truth!  But let me continue to be Your servant and worker.  Amen!"

Then a stream, hot and yet producing bliss, flamed directly from the heart of Philip to Themann.  The latter closed his eyes, then opened them again and asked in amazement: "Am I dreaming - or where have I come to?  Around me is much light! - and a world, like I have already felt it in my premonitions.  But you are still there, my friend, and wear a radiant robe!"

"Brother" - said Philip - "the Lord's grace took away for a moment the earthly covering of all the glorious things that are prepared for those who want to be active in His Spirit.  Therefore look around you attentively and do not feel like a stranger here in this spiritual world, because what God gives you herewith, comes from His loving heart and shall remain a light on your way for all times.  So now accept this grace for your eternal salvation!"

"Friend and brother" - replied Themann - "do people live here in this light?  I feel the desire to see people!"

So the two of them walked along a street, on both sides of which there were tall palm trees, but on the right and on the left green meadows with colorful flowers spread out.  But this road seemed to have no end, so Themann asked Philip, who was accompanying him: "Where does this road lead to?"

"To where your longing drives you and wants to bring you fulfillment!" - answered Philip.

"Longing? - and fulfillment?  Oh God, you must be truly good if this goal is to be reached on this sunny road!"  Then Themann asked himself: "But is this fulfillment possible without ever seeing God or talking to Him?  Should not all longing be fulfilled as soon as God Himself would come to me?  Oh, this wonderful world, but still - without God?  Thinking, he stops, and since Philip remains silent, he continues to speak to himself: "What has happened to me?  Either - I am dreaming now - or my earthly life was only a wild dream?  The beauties of these meadows almost do not touch me anymore, and yet it is as if I used to hunger for them. ... Then a long silence. - -

Far away lies a village. To the right and left of the road, small houses can be seen very clearly, and now it comes alive in Themann: "There must be people there!  Let's hurry!  There is already a man coming towards us, do we know him, or does he know us?"

Philip is silent. ... Now they are with the one coming towards them, and he greets them: "The peace of God be with you!  Welcome to your homeland, it is waiting for you!  I am sent to meet you, for all brothers and sisters long for the time to be united with you!  You come, after all, from the earth, where the great God lived as a man and will now certainly continue to live."

Philip said: "Brother, thank you for your welcome.  The ineffable grace of the Lord sent us to you to serve you and to receive your service in return."

"Brother" - said the man - "I have a presentiment of great things!  It is to me as if through you, the Lord himself comes to us.  Light-messengers have informed us and brought us exact news from the earth, but they were angels and inhabitants of the spirit-world.  But you are humans, even if your bodies remained on earth; and must return again according to the will of the Lord."

Answered Philip: "You are right; our state is not a natural one and is only possible by the extraordinary grace of the Lord!  But the Lord's ways and means, though often wonderful, are never without reason and special purpose!  Therefore, let us hasten, lest this reprieve pass uselessly!"

The three hurried to the place where the inhabitants were already waiting for them.  All hands were raised and shouts of greeting rang out to them.  Philip greeted them and blessed the congregation with the words, "May the love of Jesus fill you with joy and power and make you completely His children, so that He Himself may come to you to prove His great Father-love!"

An old priest came forward and said: "Thank you again!  Welcome to our midst, which has now become so sweet and harmonious through the holy Spirit of the great Savior.  We also consider you our brothers, because we know nothing else, and we ask you to be among us for the short time as if you were at home.  We want to show you our dwellings and then go to the temple, so that you, and especially you (turning to Themann) may see what is possible for us in the Spirit of right will!"

Themann is delighted by the friendliness with which these people meet him, he would like to speak - yet he has to remain silent.  So they enter the apartment of an old couple who are visibly very happy about this visit.  Everything here is beautiful, small but spacious, and the view to the morning enraptures all.  Themann remained mute with admiration - then the old inhabitant spoke: "Oh friend, tell us a word from Jesus, to Whom alone we owe this lovely home!  For our hearts are pining away with longing for Him!"

"Brother" - said Philip - "the Lord's love and longing for you is infinitely greater than yours!  Soon, very soon your longing will be fulfilled, but the time and hour - He alone knows!  But remember in your lightness also those who are still in misery, in inner night and ignorance, so that a reflection of your love may illuminate their dark inner world and they too may seek and learn to recognize the great Redeemer from all darkness!"

The people listened reverently to these words, and then the priest said: "Come with us to our temple, so that all may hear what these brothers want to testify to us about Him!  So they all went through well-kept streets to a hill where the temple was already visible from afar.  Philip, too, was amazed at the splendor of the temple: resting on ten pillars, the roof shone out at them in all colors, and climbing and flowering plants climbed up the pillars in a wonderful harmony of colors.  The floor was covered with snow-white tiles, and the benches looked as if they were overgrown with golden-yellow moss.  Opposite the entrance stood an altar, adorned with a cross at a man's height, which shone at them from afar as if in a red blaze of fire; but as they approached, they saw it decorated with flowers and blossoms.  On the altar was a jar of wine, and next to it was the bread; wonderful rays of light fell on it and made an unforgettable impression on everyone.

When the priest entered the temple, the people cheered.  Blessing him, he approached the altar - then an incident occurred: from the other side of the hill, came a procession of many, many people, led by some who themselves still seemed like strangers in this area.  When they reached the temple, they all fell on their knees and shouted loudly: "Oh Lord and God!  We thank You for having brought us here!  Oh Let us rest in the sign of Your holiness that emanates from this temple."

The priest hurried, blessed them with outstretched arms and said: "In the name of Jesus I greet you and welcome you too!  Whoever you are and from where you come, I do not ask, because I know that you are also called to become children of the eternal God and Father and want to join our community.  Your appearance tells me that you need help and want to be delivered from many a hardship.  But that is not so easy, for you must try to cleanse yourselves of the filth which still clings to you from the earth.  Our help is assured to you, but, dear friends, our readiness alone is not enough for this, you must also want to be pure!"

Then the leader stood up and said: "Thank you for your greeting and your willingness to help!  We would like to be redeemed and freed from all our evils, but we do not have enough strength.  For a long time we have been searching for the right way, but it was as if we had to take the same way as the people of Israel through the desert!  We have often suffered hunger and thirst and are already happy to have landed with you.  Our eyes are dim, so we cannot judge whether it is beautiful or not so beautiful here, but if we are allowed to stay, we want to reward it with true gratitude!"

"Stay" - the priest asked - "but first let us worship, and let us all intimately unite with the Holy Spirit of God, who has been revealed to us by His grace."

With a prayerful heart, he returned to the altar and asked for assistance and blessings from the hand of the Almighty for all. "Full of grace is this hour" - he continued - "which we now experience here; but many times more is our life worth when it has come forth from the love in our hearts.  Our love only proves to us the life out of God, because without this His life in us, a connection with the eternal living God is not possible!  But I would like to be silent, because this messenger of light of the supreme Savior wants to tell us how he became a witness of all His love and fullness of life."  And turning to Philip, the priest continued: "Therefore, dear brother and trustee of our Lord, make us all alive with your love from your overflowing heart, so that we too may become His children!"

Philip bowed his head and came to the side of the honorable priest, blessed the assembly and said: "Sisters and brothers!  Like a radiant sun, the life and redeeming love of Jesus, our Lord and eternal God, shines upon us!  You think that my testimony of Jesus is greater than yours, because I am a contemporary of the Lord and still an inhabitant of the earth!  But this is not so, because where a heart is filled with the living consciousness of His grace, love and mercy, there the eternal Love of God has already anchored His true life and begotten His Spirit!

Certainly, I was allowed to experience many wonderful things in His human personality with Him!  Consider: He came into our world - and lived among us as a human being - and had to become a teacher and a guide to Himself, until He had overcome everything that could make His soul worldly.  That He did not fight this difficult battle with Himself in order to show all people what a fighter He was, will be obvious to everyone, if he looks at His whole life correctly.  But when one is accepted into His community, one realizes why He had to become His own bearer.  His life was to love and to serve!  And to be able to feel this great love for us human beings, is already the fulfillment of all longings and desires!  For there is not one who could say: 'I was pushed out of the realm of His love!'  This Jesus sacrificed everything to His love, even His life, and made us, who understood His mission, believe in Him and become active in His Spirit, representatives of His Spirit-personality!  All of you, too, are now included in this great community of His love-teaching and may try to embody it with all your heart, as far as you already recognize Jesus, the Lord and Savior!

Whoever sees your beauties here will say: Blessed are you in this glorious world!  But I call out to you: Blessed is only he who has overcome the outer world and knows himself to be one with God!  He is blessed because heaven is no longer outside of him, but has become a part of his own inner life!  To reveal this inner heaven in a serving manner towards all fellow men and devoted loyalty towards God is now our life's task, since in this heaven Jesus will then be the reason and the driving force for everything we do.

My dear ones!  Enough words have been spoken!  Let us now enter into the life of action, which will open all gates in us and break the fetters of old concepts.

Come, you shepherd of this church, let us prove that Jesus lives in His children through His love and truth!  So take the cup - and follow me!  I take of the bread and go ahead according to the will of the Lord, and all shall feel how good it is to live in His love!"

So both went through the rows with bread and wine and distributed the delicious gifts!  But when they came to the strangers, the priest wanted to hold Philip back, but he did not let himself be distracted, because this grace-food should be common property of all!  After all had enjoyed the bread and the wine, Philip showed them the remaining gifts of grace, which had not diminished, and asked aloud: "Is this not already a small proof of His fullness?  This bread and wine correspond to His love and His truth, which never diminish when they are distributed!

My brothers and sisters!  Let your hearts speak to all the poor and homeless!  Let them experience how happy it makes them when we are allowed to be handmaidens and stewards of His goods of grace!  For only there the Lord and Holy Father will take residence, where we act completely in the sense of His love!  So accept the blessing of His Spirit for your own and others' salvation!  Amen."

Now the priest said: "Amen, we also say here!  Since we are happy that this holy love reminds us not to slacken in our service to the brothers!  And so let us give thanks and vow: You good God, our loving Father!  We, as Your still imperfect children, recognize Your love, grace and mercy!  We want to be guided only by the Spirit of Your beatific love, now that we have finally learned that we cannot do anything right without Your consent and help!  Strengthen us all, and make us worthy that no one may suffer disappointment through us!  Oh come, You glorious and gracious Father, to us also!  We long to have You in our midst, and consider it the greatest happiness, if You want to take up residence with us!  But may Your holy will be done.  Amen!

But you, brothers who are still strangers to us, receive also from me the blessing, so that your hearts may be completely free from worries!"

Lovely singing resounded and all joined in the song of praise to the glory of God!  In the meantime, the priest went to the strangers, took the hand of the leader once again and said: "Brother, if I greet you and yours warmly once again, it is because my heart urges me to do so.  You have heard the words of love, the words of life, and have enjoyed of our consecrated gifts, which correspond to His love and truth.

Give thanks to the brother there, who made no distinction between yours and mine, and therefore, stay with us!  Accommodation and sustenance will be provided.  But I ask you again most sincerely: Do you all want to enter our community, and do you want to submit to our order?  I have the duty and the responsibility for everything that happens, and the welfare of my fosterlings is very dear to me."

The leader of the strangers replied: "Thank you very much for your kind words and for the invitation, which does my heart so much good.  What is the matter with me? - Nothing.  But the welfare of these poor people is close to my heart, who, as a result of false, wrong education, could not do anything for their salvation!  Their need has made them humble and then grateful, and that is why I ask for them, because I have grown fond of them."

"And you?" - asked the priest - "will you go on alone to foreign distances?  You, too, stay with us!  We will soon grow fond of you, as of the others."

"I would gladly stay with you" - replied the leader - "but with an inner force I am drawn away to the many other poor and abandoned.  What do you know of need and misery?  What do you know of those who know no home and no God and no helper?  My heart would have to burst with sorrow if I could feel at ease here with you and yet know that others are in despair."

During this conversation, many gathered around the two and heard these words, which penetrated to their innermost heart.  Then a brother came to the stranger, seized his right hand and spoke excitedly: "Your words are like molten ore and burned everything in me that made me so happy until now.  You want to go on looking for unhappy people?  Oh take me with you, otherwise I will become unhappy, for your words were like hammer blows that knocked on my soul, and I will never be able to forget them, for they showed me how dead and unfeeling my soul still is!  But you are alive!  Your soul is full of life!  So let me go with you and live with you, so that I too may awaken to life!"

Said the stranger: "Gabiel, you stay here!  It is already enough, if only one among you has embraced the Spirit, Whose essence enlivens My whole being!  Only one, and yet enough to awaken this new life in the others!"

"Who are you, stranger?  You know my name, and yet we meet for the first time!" - exclaimed Gabiel in amazement - "Consequently you are not a stranger, but only one still unknown to us!"

"Gabiel!  I know my own!  and their heart lies open before me!  Therefore ask no further, but look also you into my heart, which is always open to mine!"

Here Gabiel stopped, looked at the stranger, then at his father, the old priest, and slowly spoke: "Father, I know now why the stranger, to whom you offered home, does not want to stay with us: In His heart lives something that is still foreign to us all!"

Then, turning to the leader, he continued, deeply moved: "But now you are no longer a stranger to me!  For You awakened my slumbering longing and at the same time bring me fulfillment.  Let me clasp Your feet and pledge allegiance at Your feet and the liveliest zeal for Your work!  For You are the Lord our God, our Creator and Sustainer!"

Here Gabiel wept, he could not speak further, his whole interior was stirred too much.  Then the Lord bent down, lifted Gabiel up and gently said: "Gabiel!  Remain always so full of humility in your heart, then your place is not at My feet, but at My breast!  And be assured: you will be filled with the same life that I live!  Whoever is faithfully devoted to Me in serving love, fulfills all the conditions that are necessary to work beneficially out of My Spirit.

So receive My Word! Let it be the guiding star for your further life and stay.  Remain faithful to me, your Lord, then you will also be faithful to all yours, whom I then also want to call Mine!   And remember for all times: Only what love accomplishes in you is consecrated for eternal existence and life!  And what love has won, remains yours forever.  So take My blessing and remain mindful of My words – Amen."

The scales fell from the old priest's eyes, and he too knelt down and spoke with emotion: "Lord!  Your servant asks for forgiveness for not recognizing You at once, for not meeting You with due respect, and even for treating You like a stranger.  But now I recognize You, I beseech You, Lord, tell me what shall I do to obtain Your pardon, and to make myself worthy of Your grace?"

"Stand up!" - the Lord answered him - "it is enough if you are humble in heart and let My words blaze up in your heart as a firebrand, so that all your sisters and brothers will see in you My helper and servant.  And I will reward your faithfulness like a lord and prince!  But I will be a Helper and Adviser, a Father and Brother to those who arise out of My redeeming Spirit in love for their fellow man.  Their inner being shall transfigure My I and glorify My life, which is the reason and preservation of all creation!  Now you and all of you have heard the words from My mouth - act accordingly, then you will realize that I am the Lord and your God!

Do not be offended by My appearance, for it corresponds to the state of those poor and your knowledge, which you have of eternal life!  Only he who knows My longing, can also understand My Spirit of love and seeks to fulfill My longing!  Fulfillment of this above all causes true life, is transfiguration and development of the Most Holy in you.  Ask now no further, because only my Spirit can reveal to you this life out of Me.  My peace and My blessing will be your part, according to the measure of your serious will and actions! Amen."

With hands raised in blessing, the Lord was about to depart, but life came to all of them, they surrounded Him and asked loudly: "Stay with us!  Stay here!  We need You more than food and drink, for now we know that only You have been lacking.  Then the Lord spoke kindly: "Little children, it is still too early, and for your eternal happiness, it would not be advisable if I would stay with you in My person.  Let Me first experience your whole love in you, then I will come again, but in splendor and glory, which will correspond to your love for Me!  In Spirit, I am always with you, and will not cease to admonish and urge you to love, to tolerate and to serve, so that they all may experience that I am with you and among you!"

Empty was the place where the Lord stood!

The priest was distressed and said to Philip, "Brother, now there is only one way out: you must advise us what is actually now necessary to do!  For it was not a dream after all, but reality, the Lord Himself has been with us!"

Philip answered comfortingly: "Brother, and all of you, listen: the Lord has met you and confirmed everything I said before.  None of you is excluded from now availing yourselves of the means of grace that have been extended to you all in His love and mercy.

The fact that you have seen Him as a poor man must not make you unhappy, because in your imagination, the Lord was really a poor man!  And why?  Because true love is still something strange and unknown to you.

Now you all know from His own mouth that  true life can reveal itself only there where it is worked out of His glorious Spirit of love.  Only through your actions shall you prove that you have become children and His worthy successors.  He, the most loving and best Father, has hired you into His vineyard and given promises of a glorious kind.  As the work, so the reward!  As the sowing, so the harvest!  Be grateful for the great grace that has been bestowed upon you.  But it obligates us again to follow the now recognized Lord, Father and God most faithfully.  Then He will come again, will crown the work of your free love and will fill you more and more with strength and indestructible peace of heart.

Now we want to leave you, since the time we were allowed to stay with you, has expired.  It was grace, only grace!  You should also recognize it as grace, because we are still inhabitants of that earth, on which the Lord Himself as man created new ways - new means - so that all people can gain this childship, which is necessary to be truly happy!

His work seems to be finished, but His "It is finished" is still far from our life!  But He put us in a place, where also we can recognize and experience His Spirit of selfless love, which teaches us: Live in My sense and reveal to all My Redeemer-will, which will become more and more in you!  Then you will redeem your promise, and from you will shine a life full of joy and harmony!  May the Lord's blessing and His holy peace be with you!"

They mystery of God’s incarnation

When both awoke from their spiritual state, Themann asked in amazement: "Brother, tell me, did you also dream in broad daylight as I did?  It is so incomprehensible to me what I experienced in this dream!"

"Brother" - Philip replied - "like me, you have not dreamed for one minute.  Know that you and I were transported into a spiritual sphere that enabled our souls to experience processes of grace in another world, as only a few are permitted to do.  However, this happened only for your sake, so that your concepts about the Lord would become something clear and conscious; for your distant country and your brothers and sisters there will be able to appropriate the life of God only according to your recognition and your concepts.  The Lord gave you much to administer through this - but even more - and sacred things are entrusted to you, by placing the development of the becoming children of God at your heart.

Live into their still earthly love, and you will experience the Lord for the second time as a poor, longing one.  Nothing is more holy to you than to satisfy your brother's desire for truth!  And let nothing be greater to you than what you can give them out of your heart's love!  But what you want to give, let the Lord Himself give it to you first in the richest measure.  Thus you are only the steward and executor of the will of Him who loves you and has chosen you for such service.  You can be blessed, because your desire led you to this Source!  Oh, now become yourself a spring that never runs dry.  Become a bringer of salvation and blessings to your brothers, and become an image of Him who preferred to renounce His own life in order to help lost humanity to true life!"

Themann took Philip's hands and said: "My brother!  Now life has already taken hold of me!  I feel it alive: your words are not spoken to me out of you, but out of God!  There is no need for proof now, I am ready: I am ready to consecrate my whole life to God, as to the Lord in Jesus.  Where a love manifests itself in such a way, truly, it is made easy for us to profess it!  We only have to ask: Can and will I have the right strength and perseverance to do so at any time?  For I feel as if there is still great resistance to be overcome.

One thing is certain to me: Who wants to live in the Spirit of this Jesus-love, can no longer live in harmony with these material world-views!  There will have to come a deviation and a turning away, because the world and it's followers separate themselves consciously from the Divine.

If Jesus' sacrificial death was a voluntary one, then it cost Him tremendous struggle, because those who killed Him were representatives and followers of the world.  But if Jesus' sacrifice was, as I assume from the Scriptures, one willed by God, then, brother, even greater strength was needed for it, since it was an act of obedience."

"My brother" - said Philip - "you have understood the meaning, but are not yet seized with the innermost life!  For see, Jesus is God!  From eternity to eternity!  Therefore His great sacrifice could not be a dictated one, but only a voluntary one.  When the spiritual night in mankind was the darkest, and the power of the prince of this world seemed almost unbreakable, God thought the time had come to give the world a new light.  He clothed Himself with the shell of a human being in order to become it's Savior.  But not with means coming from outside, but with the forces of His love, which were waiting for development in His breast - as in every human being, His great, mighty work of redemption had to be born, and had to be carried by a Spirit, which the earth and it's inhabitants did not know yet.

If you think that all this had to happen in order to fulfill the Scriptures, you must also consider that the One who once gave us these promises, is also the One who wanted to make this sacrifice!

Jesus as a man was fully aware of His task and mission - but for the sake of our salvation, He had to renounce all those powers that came from His omnipotence.  He succeeded in letting the light of truth shine on God's love for us humans.  The facts about the events on Golgotha, remain indestructible!  However, the merciful love of God for all the lost and captives is not at an end with this sacrifice, but is only a beginning for us, which holds out the prospect of much greater things!  For all are now called to become bearers of this new light, and to cooperate in the eternal building of His Kingdom of God in man, in that these powers of light illuminate the night of our worldly minds and give rise to overcoming powers against all temptations in us!"

Philip was silent, then Themann said: "Behold, brother, there is water there; what hinders us that I should be baptized?"

Philip answered kindly: "If you truly believe, then it may well be done.  But remember that you must then maintain this confession of yours for all time, for to whom you believe, you are bound to be faithful!"

"Let it be as you speak!" - replied Themann - "now I believe with all my heart in Jesus, Who as God and man, laid down His life to win me also, and that through His guidance of grace, I was allowed to experience His love and His mercy!  Since I was allowed to see into the realm of His true nature, I feel as if I could never be unfaithful to Him again.  Yes, I feel that through the connection with the Lord, I may penetrate still deeper into the essence of His great merciful love!"

"If your heart desires it and you want to give Him a proof of love in return, then I will gladly baptize you for admission into the fellowship with Jesus.  My love for you, however, would like to give you something in addition as a blessing from the bottom of my heart.  Always carry the knowing within you: Everything that you are and what you are allowed to do, has become yours through Jesus Christ, the Lord!  May His nature fill you more and more, so that you become a true witness and a zealous confessor of His holy teaching of life!  May His Spirit in you be the light and the strength, that you may struggle and persevere until His holy peace has become your portion!"

Now Philip baptized the chamberlain, blessed him then again and disappeared by the miracle-working power and might of the Lord and was found working in Ashdod.

Themann as instrument of the Lord

Themann was alone.  Nothing surprised him anymore, for what he had just experienced, made his heart so joyful and free that he spread his arms wide in jubilation and cried out from the depths of his heart: "Lord and Savior Jesus!  Let me become like You!"

Then he went on his way joyfully, for his goal was still far away; but in this solitude, he wanted to deepen himself rightly in the essence of God- and Savior-love, Who had chosen him, the son of a foreign race, to such great happiness.  At the same time, the memory of his homeland, where he had lived as a child and worked and created as a man, passed through his thoughts, and a great compassion came over him for his people, who still knew nothing of a God of love and of such happiness that this God was able to give.  He said to himself: "Have I been blind all this time that I have not noticed this misery?  What is gold, wealth and power against the holy things that have been given to me today.  Oh God!  You good one!  Help me to become a helper to my brothers!"

There arose in him a singing, a ringing, and everything around him shone in bright light.  He gave thanks and praise to God and lived in the spirit where Jesus had lived as a man, paying no attention to the way.  Suddenly he was startled, for dogs were barking around him; he looked around and realized that he had strayed from the right road.  As if guided by invisible hands, the horse went on calmly, but Themann also remained calm, for where there are dogs, man is not far away.

So he looked around, his keen eyes saw a caravan encamped in the far distance, and he steered his wagon there.  When he reached it, he was not warmly welcomed as usual, but briefly asked to enter the tent of the leader.  They were Greeks; the horse was taken care of, and Themann had time to look around.  He did not like it here, but his destination, Gaza, where his servants were already awaiting him, was far away, and so he was forced to accept hospitality for the time being.  The camp consisted of 15 wagons covered with tents; they stood in a circle with a fire burning in the center, on which kettles were bubbling.  The mules and horses were tied together and some of them were already lying on the ground.

Now came the guide, a tall, elderly, gaunt man, an Arab by appearance.  He greeted his guest and asked to be excused for the curt behavior of his people.  "It is an unlucky day today" - he continued - "two of my best people are in a fever, and of the people I have to transport, half have also fallen ill; a result of the bad water and the excessive heat."

Said Themann: "The blame will probably lie less with the water and the heat, but with the excessive haste with which this transport was carried out.  I can see from your animals how tired and hurried they are, and they prefer rest to food.  Do you not like to get some good water?  I found some half a day's journey from here.  Send for it, and you will be saved from even greater harm!"

"May I ask from where and to where?" - the guide asked distractedly.

"My destination is Gaza.  I'm afraid I missed the road, and I'm hoping for the right information from you" - Themann replied.

Said the caravan leader: "Your destination lies exactly to the southwest, and it is impossible to go astray; my destination, however, remains a secret, since I have committed myself to my employer!"

A Greek brought a hot drink and both refreshed themselves.  Themann, however, became restless; inside him it was working, and a feeling told him: "Be on your guard, but do not be afraid!"

Silently they emptied their vessels, then a messenger came hurriedly and demanded the guide to the sick.  Themann looked at the Arab and asked: "May I come with you?  I take a great interest in your fate."

"For my sake" - was the answer - "but I take no responsibility."

So they both hurried to the sick, and Themann was shocked at what he saw here.  They were Jews!  Men and women squatted together, visibly trying to relieve the suffering of their comrades, but lacking the most necessary thing - fresh water!  The sick groaned and demanded water - water!  Quickly he went to his cart, on which there were still some tubes  with water.  But when he wanted to take them out, they were no longer there!  He went to the leader and spoke: "I have to tell you something unpleasant.  Your people have taken my property, my water tubes are missing!  I wanted to water thirsty people, then I noticed my loss."

"Your tubes will be returned to you, even if without water, but the need and the lack of water made my people forget all good customs.  I ask forgiveness for them."

"That's all right" - replied Themann - "but that's why the sick don't get anything to drink; you must get fresh water by all means."

"Not for the sake of the Jews" - said the leader - "for they are doomed!  They are Nazarenes who have lost all right to sympathy."

"Why?  Explain yourself more clearly" - demanded Themann - "to me all this is so strange.  After all, I was worshipping in Jerusalem myself, and just today I have experienced exceedingly great things, and now this contrast!  What crime have these people committed, if they are already doomed in your eyes?"

"Crimes?  Nothing!  Only that they believe in the Nazarene, the Crucified."

"So, my friend?" - asked Themann, astonished - "because they believe in Him who is the supreme Love?  And because their hearts urge them to confess Him who took upon Himself their sins and iniquities, and gave His life in expiation of trespasses committed, these people must atone with death?  It is unworthy of an honest man to reach out his hand to them!  Give me these people, I will take them to my fatherland and give them work and bread.  My mistress will not reject anyone."

Then the Arab smiled mockingly and said: "Friend, you had better not worry about them, and keep it to yourself that you are also one of those who belong to such a faith.  Travel on quietly, I will not watch or follow any of your steps, for it is all the same to me in whom you believe.  But leave these people alone, and care no more for things that concern only me!"

"You are mistaken" - Themann spoke excitedly -  "to help sick, helpless people is a duty, even if it were the worst enemy!  Only a tyrant manages to pass by the suffering heedlessly!"

"How will you help without means?" - asked the Arab coldly - "be glad that the same fate has not befallen you!  Only for the sake of wages did I undertake this business, and now I have this inconvenience."

Themann, however, looked firmly at the Arab and said: "My friend, yet only inconvenient for him who has no heart.  How gladly I would like to help, if I could!"

"So try it!  You don't have to ask me for that!  Go to your Nazarene" - replied the Arab with a sneer.  "Cowardly sissies they are, preferring to be driven to their deaths in pairs than to fight back."

Themann had become restless, the behavior of the Arab repelled him, but he also did not know how he could help the many sick people, because there was a lack of water.  Hours ago he stepped into the water and was baptized; it seemed to him to be the greatest happiness.  Now, however, to have only a few tubes full of it for the sick, would be even greater happiness for him.

He remembered all that had happened around Jesus, and more and more clearly all the words of Philip became clear to him.  He looked sharply at the Arab and breathed deeply.  Now he had found the right peace in himself, and so he passed by him - towards the sick Nazarenes, because the need of the others had become his need.  So he listened to their words, which made his heart heavy and his eyes wet, and he heard a woman say to a man: "You surely expected more from the Savior Jesus, otherwise you would not make such a sad face!  But do not consider that it was your own conduct that you are here with the henchmen."

"Is it different with you?" - the man answered wearily - "what else do you hope for?  Only death can still be our savior!"

"Not at all!" - said the woman boldly - "I believe, hope and trust!  Even if the Lord and Master cannot come to us Himself, He has angels, men and servants in abundance!  I am convinced that it can never be His will that we suffer and die here.  It is enough that He suffered for us!  This condition now is only a test for us."

Themann stepped closer, greeted with his right hand and said: "Stay with your faith!  Your words give me the right firmness again.  I feel it vividly and clearly in me that the Lord and eternal God can only help where true faith and true confidence expect His help!  Since today I came to know the Lord through one of His messengers and I want to consecrate my whole life to Him!  All stories, which I heard almost as fairy tales from Him, are now truth and reality to me.  Yes!  I believe in His love and in His power, and out of this faith, I say to you who suffer: Be healed and healthy through the power and love of Jesus!  Be healthy so that you can fulfill His holy will!"

Those squatting on the ground slowly stood up and asked in amazement: "Who are you that you can speak like this in such power and glory?  We have become so comfortable!  Yes - truly, the Lord has helped us!"

Deeply moved, Themann said: "Do not despair even if you think you are at the end!  The God of power and love, who Himself wrestled with death and destruction - has won and left us and all people His Holy Spirit, so that we can become alive and full of His Spirit.  Now His power has performed the miracle!  So let us thank Him with wholehearted devotion and in right faithfulness!"  He could not speak further - for the Arab stood beside him and asked in high amazement: "What have you done here?  I don't see any more dying and suffering people!  Who are you, anyway?  You come as a seeker of help - and you help those who are doomed to die.  The temple council will be very happy if I report this."

To this, Themann said seriously: "Listen to me!  The temple will not know anything about this event.  I will take all these with me to my home.  But you go your way and look for another business.  Or do you want to lie sick on the road?  In your own interest, I ask you: Do not try God any more!  God was able to help these poor prisoners, to whom their faith was the highest and holiest thing!  See how you can stand before your own conscience, for you gave your will and your hands to the enemies of God.  You can no longer prevent me from doing the work of noble charity, because behind this will of mine, is precisely the risen Jesus Christ."

As the Arab was about to reply something, again a messenger came: "Shaba!  Come quickly before your people die, their sufferings are terrible to behold!"

Without saying a word, Themann went after the Arab, but stopped in front of the tent into which the latter had entered, and still heard him say: "Here all help is in vain!"  Then Themann could not help himself, he entered the tent and saw how death was preparing to extinguish the lives of both sick people.

Shaba looked at Themann - and as if after an inner struggle, he slowly asked: "Can you help them there, too?"

"No" - Themann answered - "because I did not help the poor Nazarenes either - Christ was their helper!  Only where the right faith unites with the right will, He can be the great Helper.  But you are enemies of this greatest Friend of man, therefore His helping love cannot serve you!"

"We are not enemies of the Nazarene, but only paid servants of the temple, and did not know that whoever carries out the order of the temple council incurs the enmity of the crucified One."

"Jesus is not your enemy because of this," Themann replied - "but you have joined the ranks of his enemies.  Now, if you will go back to honest business, and turn away from all evil, God will again be gracious to you and avert greater harm.  For now your prisoners are no longer the doomed ones, but you, because you carry the poison of destruction within you."

This made the Arab think - then he approached one of the dying men and said quietly: "So I am, for the sake of miserable money, your murderer!  It would serve me right if I were to meet the same fate!"  Then turning to Themann: "Ask your God to help my people, too, who have only become miserable because of me.  I now see my guilt and want to atone for it."

"May you not take pains to get to know this glorious God yourself, who helpfully and lovingly meets all seeking and asking people?" - asked Themann kindly - "To give you a right concept of His deep Redeemer-love, I tell you out of an inner urge: Your people are helped! - Death has no more power over them!  But they can only become healthy if they themselves want to confess Him who is Help and Salvation!"

So Themann left the tent and went back to the healed people, who surrounded him joyfully.  But he admonished them: "Be quiet and thankful to the faithful God!  But let petition and supplication arise in your hearts for your enemies, who are now no more, so that they may become your brothers.  This is the only thanks to God, that He hopes for the help He gave you.  Your thanks should be that you pray for the lost brothers.  Every abusive word, every unloving action towards you must become an incentive to give them the best and holiest, your love and selfless service!  Also in your farther life in my homeland, carry this spirit into the hearts of all those who surround you.  And Jesus, the Savior and Redeemer, will work among you, helping and redeeming.  Now let us spend the evening in peace and silence to strengthen ourselves in the awareness that God needs us!  Then we will penetrate into His will of love, and He will reveal Himself gloriously to all of us!  But You, great God and dearest Savior and Redeemer, kindle the fire of Your love in our hearts!  Amen!"

Silence followed - all hearts became more joyful, and a single silent thanks flamed up to the heart of God.  Thus a new congregation was founded here in this hour, which vowed only one service: to help and serve for salvation!

But now the Arab came to Themann, saying: "Friend, I need you, because I don't know what to do.  Your words are like sharp knives that cut but do not wound.  Come with me to my tent, you will find in me now someone different than hours ago.  My people are much better thanks to your love.  Help me, too, as I realize how false and wrong my actions and deeds have been up to now!"

"It may happen!" - replied Themann.  "But do not think that I will readily give your words the credence that is needed to truly help.  For again I tell you, it is not I who will help, but I am only the instrument of the Savior's love.  But if you will keep true repentance and contemplation, then I will gladly follow you into your tent."

"Only come" - begged the Arab - "for now more than ever I feel responsible for my people and animals."  So they both went into his tent and Shaba said: "Friend, God must have sent you, because according to human judgment, we should have perished; I know this fever, whom it seizes, he is a child of death!"

After a pause, Themann answered: "You see that a holy power surrounded you, and that all your doings are supervised by God and His servants?  It is not by chance that rescue comes in hours of greatest need, but I believe only in providence and guidance.  Behold, I only wanted to give thanks in the temple at Jerusalem and to worship the high Being Who is called God.  But through miraculous guidance, God revealed Himself to me in all His greatness and love-glory.  My heart is full of the greatest gratitude, and out of joy I could only rejoice, but then God showed me, besides His glory, also the suffering and the tribulation among men, and I may now clearly recognize: all this bitterness is self-inflicted!  Where God in His love and goodness can unfold in the hearts of those who truly understand His essence, all suffering and bitterness has ceased!  For the misfortune of people is born out of their distance from God and their hard-heartedness.  Can you prove to me that there is no more hard-heartedness and insensitivity in your heart?  There is no reliability in your words, which are born only out of fear!"

Shaba answered: "Yes, but how could I prove to you at this hour that I am in holy earnest to break with the old man?"

Themann instructed him: "Friend!  If I were to tell you to do this or that, you would not have become free of yourself, and your heart would not be able to feel happy and free.  But if you would freely do out of yourself what your inner spirit drives you to do, the proof would already be given that you have repented and now want to offer your love to God.  Therefore, Shaba, listen: I leave you now!  I will rest there, with the healed, until the morning.  Ask me no more, but ask God: "What shall I do?" - so that you may finally come into contact with Him who also wants to come to fruition in you!  You have heard of the crucified One, you have heard of the miracle of all miracles - His resurrection, and you would have had enough time to test their faith, who would have even gone to death for the sake of their faith!  That a God lives, you know, but that you also need God, this hour teaches you!  His love also belongs to you, I may tell you with the deepest conviction.  So make up your mind, and may God's help and blessing be with you!"

Themann quickly departed and hurried back to the Christians, who were waiting in devout silence for the things that were to come.  They knew: Help is here!  So the night came.  The firmament shone starlit in wonderful splendor, but Themann had no rest.  The day had brought too many great and glorious things; everything came alive in him again, and once more God revealed Himself to him in His grace, because He wanted to make the decision a reality: Only do not go back to the past life!  What God gave me now, belongs to all people!  And this decision became more and more alive.  All of a sudden, he could not distinguish between reality and dream, a light figure stood before him and said: "Hold on to your will in the most active zeal, because the eternal Love will flow to you and give you what is necessary to accomplish it!  But remember that only a few experience this outflow of the most living grace, because they so quickly slacken in their will and desire!"

Who are you? - Themann thought, then this figure spoke full of intimacy: "I am the Love and the Life!  Who lives from My love, also carries My life in himself!  I am nameless - until you give me a name, and give Me your life for Mine.  I am nothing more, since I only want to be what you make of Me!  That is why I search with a longing heart for those who embrace this life in it's most holy terms, and shower them with the riches of My whole heart, so that they transform themselves into a bearer of My essence and My most living Spirit."

Again Themann thought: "Where have I heard these words before?"  Then the answer came to him: "It was not words which became present to you again as if from the past, but your spirit led you back to the hour when you prepared to enter this earth.  What the highest heavens consider as the task of their existence, you wanted to carry in your flesh- and test-life as a life principle in you!  Therefore God had mercy on you and smoothed your way, so that you would reach your glorious goal and no longer carry any other life in you than the life of God, which you have gained since eternity!"

And again Themann thought: "How can I understand and take this?  I have known a 'life' since eternity?"

Then the lovely figure answered: "Do not brood over the past, but look with clear eyes at the task you have set yourself!  A great goal beckons!  It is the fruit of your love, your will and striving.  What seems past to you, will arise anew in never-ending splendor and perfection, in which whole generations of this and that world will be refreshed and sated."

"Riddles upon riddles!" - thought Themann - "and yet soothing truths."

"Not riddles" - answered the glorious being - "but supreme fulfillment is granted to you, since all that is begun from this Spirit, holds within it new possibilities of creation!  Where this life is rooted, the All-Spirit also works and gives eternal value to every deed.  What often seems to be the greatest failure, can nevertheless lay the foundation of life for great things and will one day radiate back as good and sweet fruit.

Look at My hands and feet!  They are a proof of My words addressed to you.  They are the sign of My apparent defeat to My adversaries.  But what are they to My friends and confessors?  The greatest incentive to want to possess also this Spirit, which is sublime over all evil, and wants to reach love and understanding, where everything freezes in deadly hate!  But it can also give strength and comfort to all the weak, sick and suffering.  Only in this Spirit, you meet your true God and give yourself completely to Him!  And from now on you will no longer be concerned with your own longing, but with the longing of others.  So imprint My image on your heart and let it come alive in you, so that the longing of My love can also be fulfilled for the salvation of your brothers."

The apparition had disappeared, Themann looked around, he was alone!  He became aware: "It was the Lord after all!  I saw His scars clearly.  Oh, now I have the proof of His love!  He showed Himself to me, so that according to His words, His image might live in me!  Oh Lord, with this love You have also taken away from me the shadow that I, a child of a foreign race, am less than those chosen by You."

Blessed peace surrounded him, he felt safe as if in mother's arms; and so he said: "This moment tells me more than a thousand proofs from outside.  Oh Queen, rejoice!  What a wonderful, precious good I bring home to you!  Your people will become happy, they will experience how our God can love and bless!"

Now he was disturbed in his inner discourse by approaching footsteps; Shaba, the restless Arab, looked for him and found him still awake.  "Forgive me," he spoke softly: "I find no peace within me.  All the prisoners are well, only we are threatened with a bitter fate, and through my fault alone!  I see, I am the inferior; bitterly, heavily, my greed avenges itself.  I have come to the decision to hand over everything to you.  You may complete this journey according to your will.  Since I am the owner of all the horses, mules and wagons, I can dispose of them at my own will; that you will return my property to me later, I am sure, since you only want to help."

Themann spoke in surprise: "You really wanted, Shaba, to leave the free disposal of everything to me?  So the good in you has won the victory!  You will never have to regret it, for with this resolution, you have placed yourself in the ranks of those who want to serve the only true God!"

Answered Shaba: "Oh do not speak of it!  For even a long life of service to God will not be able to change the suffering that has occurred.  If you knew everything, you would turn away from me in disgust."

"Don't talk anymore, Shaba" - Themann asked - "you will come clean with God about your past life!  I am dealing with the present, because your decision to want to serve God already proves to me that you have turned away from the past.  Now lie down in your tent and rest, the coming day needs our strength."

It happened, and rest was granted to all, only Themann was awake; he spent the night in prayer, and with a glad heart he greeted the rising sun.  Now it was a matter of providing fresh water for the sick, and the helping love of the former prisoners worked wonders.  The fever subsided, and after three days, Themann was able to think about setting out.

God's gift to the Queen

Without incident, they arrived in Gaza, and there Shaba received his property back.  The numerous servants were astonished when they saw their master arrive with the many strangers.  But these were happy to have escaped from the land where death and destruction awaited them; and joyfully they went along to the home of their savior.  After a short stay, Themann and his entire retinue boarded the rented ship, into which the rich treasures purchased for his queen had already been stowed.  During this journey, the holy truth about Jesus was revealed to the servants and also to the ship's crew, since each of Jesus' followers had once come into closer contact with the Savior.  New things were told, but the greatest event was His resurrection!  A cross had been erected, and thus the ship had become a traveling church.

Days passed, until one morning the landing occurred at a place at the Nile, where Themann was already expected.  Since there were not enough wagons and animals for the many immigrants, they were left behind under the care of some of Themann's servants.

The farewell was cordial, and soon Themann did not see those who had stayed behind anymore.  After hours of sharp riding, he finally saw the city that was his home and also his field of activity.  His mind was now only on his queen, and a restlessness wanted to rise in him, but he wanted to remain calm, and so he prayed.  When the image of Jesus who had appeared to him came alive in him, he received the certainty: He is with me!

In this thought, he paid no attention to the beauties of his homeland, barely listening to the joyful shouts of his compatriots, until they finally rode into the courtyard of the palace.  Here he was joyfully awaited, the whole house had gathered to greet him.  When the queen called out to him a hearty "Welcome home", he took both her hands in gratitude and said joyfully: "Oh queen!  Hail and happiness have befallen me!  The most glorious and greatest thing that a human being can experience has happened to me: I have met God!  I bring to you and to all the people the proofs of His infinite Father-love for all people.  It is not fairy tales, what we heard before about the messenger of God, but all are deep holy truths!  Soon, soon all will hear the redeeming news: We, too, are called to become a child of the great and eternal God!"

Then the queen said: "Themann!  You were always prudent and did not easily accept something where you lacked proof!  If it is as you say, then your mission has been richly blessed, and you have done the greatest service to me and my people!  But let us go into the house, Themann, that I may know all from beginning to end."

And so it happened.  Here the queen immediately asked with burning interest: "Are you also sure you have learned the full truth of all that had come to my country about Jesus and His work, and how will you substantiate it?"

"Oh queen, listen!" - answered the chamberlain enthusiastically - "in the presence of the living God, whose omnipotence we all know, I testify that I will not find words enough to describe to you all the events as I was allowed to experience them!  Not enough that the message of the living Gospel was brought to me by a man of God, not enough that I was allowed to witness the almighty and healing love of the Savior, He, whose nature is still so incomprehensible to us, gave me a gift to you of seventy of His most faithful followers, who have been tested in their faith in the greatest suffering and in the face of bodily death!

Receive them!  They are waiting for your instructions and your love on the shore of landing!  They are men and women who have been in personal contact with the Savior Jesus.  Know: the hard, evil temple sense struck the best of the best to the cross in Jerusalem!  But He also overcame death and after three days, He could already convey the message to all people: "Behold, I live and he who believes in Me, shall live forever!"

The queen listened with a moved heart.  Then she said: "Themann, I believe your words.  Oh my people, rejoice!  For I will leave no stone unturned, all shall hear this good news!  How happy can my people become, if only the singular will comes to the breakthrough, to be a helper for the other!  Tomorrow I will visit your fosterlings with you.  This gift shall be a holy legacy for me!  I want to pave the way for them, so that they may be joyful and glad confessors of their God for us, so that they may take on the high task and become priests!"

The Queen kept her word.  With her great love for the truth and with energy that only wants to create great things, she overcame all difficulties of her rare priests.  In some beautiful places, crosses were erected with inscriptions, which were also gladly decorated by the people.

Themann remained the right hand of his mistress.  He himself knew only the one advisor, Jesus, who appeared to him in the desert.  He communicated with Him daily, and in his love for Him, he also found new tasks and duties every day, so that he soon became an indispensable teacher and friend to his queen as well as to his fellow men.

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Table of Contents

1.  The healing of a blind man 4

2.  Jesus' presence is witnessed through His healing work 10

3.  Why does Jesus remain invisible to us? 15

4.  The chamberlain’s longing for the true God 20

5.  Themann experience Jesus in the spiritual world 25

6.  They mystery of God’s incarnation 32

7.  Themann as instrument of the Lord 34

8.  God's gift to the Queen 41