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PICKING UP THE SERPENT

Fr Jim Cogley


In the Book of Exodus when God is calling Moses to lead the Israelite people out of slavery in Egypt he assures him that all the power and authority he needs will be given. As a man of eighty Moses was acutely aware of his inadequacy and badly needed a sense of divine empowerment. God pointed to a serpent on the ground and instructed him to grab its tail and lift it up, whereupon it turned into his staff of authority. Later with that staff he would strike the Red Sea and command it to part. It is from the earth that our humanity emerges but it is not meant to stay there. It is also from that level that all the thoughts that enslave us originate. These are like serpents with a bite that can be fatal. We remain ‘earth bound’ until we lift our thoughts to a higher level, that is in alignment with our true spiritual nature. So Jesus would say ‘Make your home in my word and so you will prove to be my disciple’. The Bible teaches that ‘as a person thinks so they are’. Indeed we are our thoughts and it is our thoughts that are continually creating our reality. To live a life of empowerment entails lifting up our thoughts so that they are in alignment with the Divine will and it is only then that our particular Red Seas will part.

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