Abide In Me: How Jesus Models Secure Attachment with God

John Clark Echols

This series surveys the Gospel of Mark with an interpretive eye, looking for Jesus’ offer of a secure attachment with God. This mental experience of connection is the physiological experience of salvation. Through the series, we will discover the benefits to our wellness of being securely attached. I invite you to follow Jesus and discover the path to discovering a mind and heart that so securely connects with God that you experience salvation; and, based on that relationship, you become so securely attached to others that you experience satisfaction, joy and peace here and now.

Episodes

  1. 13 HR AGO

    Abide in Me - Episode 10

    Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”  Mark 2:13-17   In the Word ‘physician’ means forms of preservation from evils and falsities because in the spiritual world ‘sicknesses’ are evils and falsities. Spiritual diseases are nothing else, for evils and falsities rob the internal of a person of good health. Spiritual diseases introduce mental disorders, and at length states of depression. Nothing else is meant in the Word by ‘sicknesses’. from Secrets of Heaven. “‘For I, Jehovah, am your Healer’ means that the Lord alone preserves them from evils. This is clear from the meaning of ‘healing’ as curing of and also preserving from evils; for when evils are meant by ‘sicknesses’, curing people of them, and preserving them from them, is meant by ‘healing.’” Secrets of Heaven. CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠ Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠ - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WC YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    17 min

  2. 7 OCT

    Abide in Me - Episode 9

    When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”   But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”  Mark 2:1-12   Our own close connection with the Lord also comes about through times of trial, and through the grafting of faith onto love. Unless faith is implanted in love, or in other words, unless the tenets of faith lead us to live a life of faith—which is charity—the bond will never develop. This alone is following him, or forming as close a bond with the Lord as the Lord’s human part formed with Jehovah. A life of faith is also what causes all who live it to be called God’s children (after the Lord, who is the only child of God) and to become images of him.  (References: Genesis 14:20) Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §1737 "The task of the first half of life is to create a proper container for one’s life, and the task of the second half is to find the contents that the container was meant to hold." Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky, Vincent Stuart, London, 1957 Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2011 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠ Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠ - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WC YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    25 min

  3. 30 SEPT

    Abide in Me - Episode 8

    A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning: “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.” But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.  Mark 1:40-45   ‘He laid His hand on me’ (from Revelation 1:17), symbolizes life then infused from the Lord. The Lord laid His hand on him because a communication is achieved through the touch of the hands. That is because the life of the mind and so of the body projects itself into the arms and through them into the hands. It is on this account that the Lord touched with His hand the people He brought back to life and healed….The fundamental reason for this is that the Lord’s presence in a person is an attachment, thus a joining by contiguity, and this touching becomes closer and fuller in the measure that the person loves the Lord, which is to say, as they keep His commandments. From Apocalypse Revealed §55 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠ Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠ - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WC YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    16 min

  4. 23 SEPT

    Abide in Me - Episode 7

    Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.” So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.  Mark 1:35-39   The more closely a person is joined with the Lord, the wiser they become. Since a person has in them from creation and so from birth three degrees of life, they have especially three degrees of wisdom. These are the degrees that are opened in a person in the measure of the conjunction. They are opened in accordance with their love, for love is the essence of the joining. But a person perceives only dimly the ascent of love by degrees, whereas those who know and see what wisdom is perceive clearly the ascent of wisdom in them. The reason degrees of wisdom are perceived is that love enters through its affections into one's perceptions and thoughts, and these display themselves to the mind's inner sight, which corresponds to the body's outward sight. So it is that wisdom is seen, and not so much the love's desire which produces it. The case here is the same as with all the other things that a person actively does. They are aware of how the body accomplishes them, but not how the soul accomplishes them. Thus a person perceives also how they deliberate, perceive and think, but not how the soul of these activities - which is their affection for goodness and truth - produces them. Swedenborg, Divine Providence §34 But there are many other ways of getting oneself out of a bad inner state. You must understand that no work is possible unless you get into these bad states because they are tests or, if you like, temptations, which are absolutely necessary in order to make us skillful in dealing with them. You will not learn to swim well unless you are often dropped into the water. And it is always surprising that some of you think that if you pass into a bad state it is because you cannot do the Work. It is just in these bad states that one can work and learn what it is about. It is quite an interesting view, that was once given a long time ago, to regard bad states as something about which you must be clever and use, as it were, every possible intelligence and technique to get out of them. There are many different forms of Self-Remembering, and Sly Person was once defined as “they who know how to remember themselves in different ways at different moments.” Sometimes when one is in a bad state and attempts to get out of it and fails to do so, one can be consciously passive to it, without being negative and without identifying with it fully, having the inner certainty that it will pass provided one does not let negative imagination work and does not consent to its presence. This is a form of Self-Remembering and is just as if one has to wait, and knows that one has to, because it is raining too heavily and one cannot go out just at present and yet remains certain it will clear. Nicoll, Commentary I, pg. 368 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠ Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠ - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WC YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    12 min

  5. 16 SEPT

    Abide in Me - Episode 6

    After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. So he went to her bedside, took her by the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a meal for them. That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. The whole town gathered at the door to watch. So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. Mark 1:29-34   By “disease” is meant evil, and the reason is, because “diseases,” in the internal sense, mean such things as affect one’s spiritual life, which things are evils, and are called lusts and cravings. Faith and charity constitute [an authentic] spiritual life, which life sickens when what is false takes place of the truth which is of faith, and when evil takes place of the good which is of charity; for what is false and evil brings that life to death, which is called spiritual death, and is damnation, as diseases bring natural life to its death; hence it is, that by “disease,” in the internal sense, is meant evil.  Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §8364.   The Lord is present with each and every human being. He exerts insistent pressure on us to receive him. When we do receive him, which occurs when we acknowledge him as our own God, Creator, Redeemer, and Savior, his First Coming occurs [in us], which is the twilight before dawn. From then on, we begin to be enlightened intellectually in spiritual matters and to grow into deeper and deeper wisdom. As we receive this wisdom from the Lord, we move through the morning into midday. The day continues into our old age until we die. Then we come to the Lord himself in heaven. There, although we died old, we are brought back into the morning of our lives, and the rudiments of wisdom that were planted in us while we were in the physical world grow and thrive to eternity. Swedenborg, True Christianity §766 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠ Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠ - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WC YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠

    14 min

  6. 9 SEPT

    Abide in Me - Episode 5

    Jesus went to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath He taught in the synagogue. The people were amazed, for He taught with authority unlike the teachers of the law. A man possessed by an evil spirit cried out, but Jesus commanded the spirit to be silent and come out. The spirit left after a convulsion, and the crowd marvelled, saying even evil spirits obey Him. News about Jesus spread quickly throughout Galilee. Mark 1:21-28 ‘Demons’ mean evil lusts produced by the love of the world. And people with the same lusts are connected with spirits emotionally, even so that they are a unit. Such is a person who does not search out any evil in themselves which they call a sin, and consequently is not desirous of removing it by repentance. And as every evil is composed of lusts, being nothing but a bundle of lusts, it follows, that the person who does not search out any evil in themselves, and shun it as a sin against God, which can only be done by repentance, becomes a demon after death. From Swedenborg, Apocalypse Revealed §458 Someone asked: “Is it bad, the dark side?” You must understand that everything you do not acknowledge appears at first sight bad. It is the devil because the devil is always what is unknown, unacknowledged or not understood. If someone had invented the radio a few centuries ago they would have been burned as an agent of the devil. The dark side does not mean anything evil in itself. It means simply that it is evil to you, with your present estimation of yourself. It is evil to you, because when you admit it into your consciousness your present estimation of yourself will change. The result will be that you will be much better than you were before. You will be much better because your present estimation of yourself kept up by imagination, and by buffers, and by pictures, and by continual lying, has been  weakened, and you have entered a larger world of consciousness. You should not think of the dark side as evil except to your Imaginary “I” which is one’s worst evil. If your Imaginary “I” is full of imagination about what you are, and if this imagination becomes destroyed by admitting what is antagonistic to you, you will begin to lose this wrong, sensitive Imaginary “I”, and your consciousness will broaden out and you will cease to be what you imagine yourself to be and move a step towards Real “I”. All the Work is against Imaginary “I” with which each one of us faces life so inadequately. The teaching of the Work sets out to destroy the power of Imaginary “I” but at first everything that threatens Imaginary “I” seems to be very evil – in fact, the devil. That is why I think it was once said in the Work: “The devil is also necessary.” So many people identify themselves with God without any justification and even imagine that they have intercourse with God continually. All this belongs to Imaginary “I” and in such cases God has indeed to take the aspect of the devil and destroy this imagination, these pictures, these fantasies, this self-merit, and all this nonsense that the Work attacks so strongly in each of us. Nicoll, Commentary III, pgs. 835-36 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠ Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠ - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WC YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    18 min

  7. 8 SEPT

    Abide in Me - Episode 4

    One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men. Mark 1:16-20 No one follows the Lord from their own self, but only from the Lord Himself. For the Lord draws after Him those who from freedom will to follow. He can draw no one who does not will to follow Him. For the Lord provides that the person may follow Him as if of themselves, flowing into their freedom, for the sake of the person’s reception and installing of truth and good, and resulting reformation and regeneration. If it did not appear that they followed the Lord as if of themselves, that is, acknowledged His Divine and did His commandments as if of themselves, there would be no attachment and joining, and thus no reformation and regeneration. For everything enters into the person and becomes as if it were their own that they receive in freedom, that is, as if of themselves, whether it be what they think and speak or what they will and do as if of themselves. And yet one ought to believe, as the matter really is in itself, that they do these things not from themselves but from the Lord. This is why it is said that they must act not of themselves but as if of themselves….A person cannot know otherwise than that this is done by themselves, when yet all good flows in, and so also that which they think, that which they will, and that which they consequently do….All this makes clear that to "follow the Lord" is to be led by Him and not by self. Swedenborg, Apocalypse Explained §864 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson⁠ Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠   Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal   Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠   YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    14 min

  8. 26 AUG

    Abide in Me - Episode 3

    The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News of the kingdom of God. “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent and believe the Good News!”  Mark 1:12-15 [People], by Divine guidance, are led by means of temptations to a firm acceptance of the truths and the forms of the good that constitute faith. [In Exodus 13, “God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.”] 'God led' is Divine guidance; and 'by the way of the wilderness' is the process that leads people to be tested and so to reach a firm acceptance of the truths and the forms of the good that constitute faith. Temptations are the means by which they become firmly accepted. 'The wilderness' in the spiritual sense, is a situation in which truth has not yet been bonded to good in the person’s spirit, as well as the state of those with whom the two are to be bonded together. This bonding is not accomplished except by means of these tests. Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §8098 “[Love and wisdom] flow in from God. We receive them as if they were ours. In fact, because we feel them that way, they emanate from us as if they really were our own. The Lord grants us this feeling so that what flows in will have an effect on us, and be accepted and stay with us. All that is evil also flows in, not from God but from hell. We feel pleasure as we take evil in, because we were born that way. Therefore we receive no greater amount of goodness from the Lord than the amount of evil we have removed as if we were removing it on our own. It is our repentance and our faith in the Lord that does this removing.” Swedenborg, True Christianity §461)“No one can know what a spiritual crisis is like except the person who has lived through one. The trial mentioned in Mark 1:12, 13 sums up all the Lord’s trials, which consisted in his battling the self-love and materialism that filled the hells, out of love for the entire human race. All trials target the love we feel. The severity of the trial matches the nobility of the love. If love is not the target, there is no trial. To destroy a person’s love is to destroy the core of that person’s life, since love is life. The Lord’s life was love for the whole human race, a love so great and good that it was pure, unalloyed love. He allowed this life of his to be attacked continuously, from the dawn of his youth until his final moments in the world, while he was continually routing, subduing, and vanquishing them. This he did purely out of love for the entire human race. Since his love was not human but divine, and the greater the love the harder the struggle, you can see how fierce his battles were and how savage on the part of the hells.” Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §1690 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson Emanuel Swedenborg, ⁠www.swedenborg.com⁠ John Clark Echols, ⁠www.clarkechols.com⁠ Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” ⁠www.solomonkeal.net⁠   Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal   Show Your Support: ⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠   YouTube: ⁠⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    24 min
  9. Abide in Me - Episode 2

    26 AUG

    Abide in Me - Episode 2

    This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,    and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’” This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!” One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” Mark 1:1-11 “A wilderness is a symbol for something dim, but only relatively so. “Relatively dim” refers to the condition of spiritual people compared to that of heavenly people. Heavenly people are drawn to goodness; spiritual people, to truth….Those who are heavenly never debate about religion or religious truth. Goodness gives them an intuition for truth, so they simply say “Yes.” The spiritual, though, talk and argue about religious truth, because truth gives them a conscience for goodness. Another reason is that heavenly people have a loving goodness planted in the voluntary part of their mind, where a person’s main life resides. Spiritual people have it planted in the intellectual part of their mind, where a person’s secondary life resides. This explains why that loving goodness is relatively dim in spiritual people.” Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §2708:9   [It is said of the Children of Israel as they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land:] ‘And God led the people around by the way of the wilderness’ means that under Divine guidance they were led by means of temptations to a firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘God led’ as providence, or Divine guidance; and from the meaning of ‘by the way of the wilderness’ as a way that leads people to undergo temptations and so to reach a firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith since temptations are the means by which they become firmly accepted. ‘The wilderness’ means a place which is uninhabited and uncultivated, and spiritually, a situation in which there is no good or truth, and also a situation in which truth has not yet been bonded to good. That being so, ‘the wilderness’ means the state of people with whom the two are to be bonded together and the temptations that accomplish that bonding.”  Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §8098 CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson Emanuel Swedenborg, www.swedenborg.com John Clark Echols, www.clarkechols.com Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” www.solomonkeal.net   Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal   Show Your Support: ⁠PayPal⁠   YouTube: ⁠@Abide_In_Me⁠ Substack: ⁠@clarkechols⁠ I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    28 min

  10. SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    Abide in Me - Episode 1

    This series surveys the Gospel of Mark with an interpretive eye, looking for Jesus’ offer of a secure attachment with God. This mental experience of connection is the physiological experience of salvation. Through the series, we will discover the benefits to our wellness of being securely attached. First off, Jesus repeatedly teaches that there are rules governing the processes in creation, including our thoughts and feelings. He says in Mark 12:29 that the “greatest” of these is loving God and others with our whole selves. That is being securely attached. Modern studies of the brain, and current understandings by psychology, confirm this point of view from which we will read the Gospel of Mark.  Among the many ways we will be saying this, the following principles serve to start us off: The surer I am that I am loved by another, the more secure I am in my sense of self, and the more fully I can love others. When I am loved by another, I am secure in my sense of self, and I can love others. Being loved by another, I am secure in my sense of self, and I can love others. I invite you to follow Jesus Christ and discover the path to discovering a mind and heart that so securely connects with God that you experience salvation; and, based on that relationship, you become so securely attached to others that you experience satisfaction, joy and peace here and now. EFFECTS OF BEING SECURELY ATTACHED Has an active experience of self-worthHas unconditional regard for others’ worthIs silent when typically one is verbal (not defensive, explaining, or justifying)Looks for and affirms others’ goodnessIs affirming and optimistic (non-complaining)Is conscious of, can identify and express the emotion being feltHas a mindfulness practiceRemains in the present during conflict with another personRests in the non-duality of mercy and justiceHas clarity regarding selfishness and self-careConsiders oneself on a journey, in process, unfinished, on the wayHas a sense of being part of, and connected to, all living beingsLives from a sense of abundance (rather than fear of scarcity) CREDITS Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson Emanuel Swedenborg, www.swedenborg.com John Clark Echols, www.clarkechols.com Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” www.solomonkeal.netI pray this has supported your transformative life, whatever practice you have in your life.   Podcast Host: John Clark Echols Music Credit: Solomon Keal   Show Your Support: PayPal   YouTube: @Abide_In_Me Substack: @clarkechols I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.

    8 min

Trailer

About

This series surveys the Gospel of Mark with an interpretive eye, looking for Jesus’ offer of a secure attachment with God. This mental experience of connection is the physiological experience of salvation. Through the series, we will discover the benefits to our wellness of being securely attached. I invite you to follow Jesus and discover the path to discovering a mind and heart that so securely connects with God that you experience salvation; and, based on that relationship, you become so securely attached to others that you experience satisfaction, joy and peace here and now.

Information