God, the "Great Iconoclast."
  • Alma Turner
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The Gospel of Thomas

Sayings of Jesus: 49, 50, 51


Saying 49
Jesus said: Blessed are the single ones and the chosen ones, for you will find the Kingdom. Because you emerged from it you will return to it. 
​Jacob was a man (single) renamed Israel which became the name of one nation (chosen).
I am a small part (single) of a great whole (chosen).

I am aligned with, guided and protected by a loving Power; I can only have that experience within a whole that is surrendered to the same purpose of love and service. 
The apostles were individuals chosen to be part of the twelve.
The Biblical genealogies are lengthy and detailed. Each individual is named yet part of a whole: we are single and chosen, part of the whole.


Saying 50
​Jesus said:
​If they ask you, "Where are you from?" reply to them, "We have come from the place where light is produced from itself. It came and revealed itself in their image."
If they ask you, "Are you it?" reply to them, "We are his Sons. We are chosen ones of the 
living Father."
If they ask you, "What is the sign within you of the Father?" reply to them, "It is movement. It is rest."


Question 1: Where are you from?
In Genesis we experience God as the Creator of Light. Jesus then says "I am the light of the world" which signals a new light since the sun is still shining and has been since the "original goodness" of creation. God created light, just as God created Jesus. 
In the 12 Steps "design for living," we are born out of the light of our sponsor's experience, of the process. Light is produced from light. 


Question 2: Are you it?
Jesus is asking us to claim our identity in the second question as "chosen ones of the living Father." Claim that truth. Claim that identity. Those being asked are also those learning the truths they are to pass forward. "All women of faith have courage." (BB pg. 68) It takes courage to deal myself in.

Questions 3: What is the sign within you of the Father?
"It is movement. It is rest." No easy "behavior management" solutions.  The two are within the same being just as quanta have two simultaneously occurring contradictory identities, a specific point in space/time and energy in motion. 


Saying 51
His disciples asked him: When will the dead rest? When will the new world arrive? He replied: That which you are waiting for has come, but you don't recognize it.

When we sing in a choir, we experience a beautiful unity that is always the truth, yet unrecognized as Jesus says.  Drinking used to make me feel part of the whole. Now I experience myself as part of a whole in many ways. It's all about consciousness.
At this second, my pride is stinging from a small pettiness that came out with my daughter. I feel busted. Yet, too, I know I am here with her in the kitchen as she cleans; I pause to remember a minuscule fraction of all the circumstances, the divine choreography, that has led the two of us to be here.... all the way from Ethiopia, all the way from the dawn of Creation.  
Me, as an unaware person, is slowly dying through the Steps, through daily surrender. The new world constantly comes into view and slips away, too. Jesus is right. I don't recognize it, so distracted am I by my many-more-than-five senses, my emotions.


  • Alma Turner
    • Alma Turner
    • Site Overview
    • Alma's Blessings
  • 12 Steps
    • Step 1: Humility >
      • Step One Questions
    • Step 2: Hope
    • Step 3: Faith
    • Step 4: Honesty
    • Step 5: Trust
    • Step 6: Willingness
    • Step 7: Surrender
    • Step 8: Forgiveness
    • Step 9: Justice >
      • Amend White to Black
    • Step 10: Perseverance >
      • Fear Watch
    • Step 11: Contact
    • Step 12: Service
  • Poems, Prayers, Music
    • Beloved Poems by Others >
      • I Stand at the Door by Sam Shoemaker
      • The Guest House by Rumi
      • The Invitation by Oriah
      • Invictus
      • Elohai Neshama
    • Poems by Alma >
      • Poems 2017-2020
      • Poems 2021 >
        • Prayer Poems
        • Poems Early 2021
        • Poems September 2021
        • Poems October 2021
        • Parables and Songs
        • Clay Haiku
      • Newer Poems
      • Injustice Poems
    • Big Book Prayers
    • Music >
      • Roberta Flack
      • Marvin Gaye
  • more
    • Rowdy Beauties >
      • Rowdy Beauties Bible Study N'awlins
      • Rowdy Beauties Bible Study Zoom
      • Rowdy Beauties Resouces >
        • Resources for Chapters 1-4
    • Disciplines >
      • Fasting
      • Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer
      • Reading!
      • 12 White Steps
    • The Gospel of Thomas
    • Psalms >
      • Psalms 23, 46, 91, 139
      • Psalms 121, 1, and 32
    • Bible Thoughts >
      • Genesis >
        • High Priest
        • Jacob is Israel.
      • Prophets >
        • Isaiah 30
        • Isaiah 54
        • Jeremiah 31:31-35
      • Frederick Douglas
      • Jesus >
        • Brown or Black
        • Teacher
        • Son of Man
        • Activist
        • High Priest
        • Innocent
        • Lynched
        • Alive
        • Sayings >
          • Sayings 1-3
          • Sayings 4-6
          • Sayings 7-9
          • Sayings 10-12
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          • Sayings 25-27
          • Sayings 28-30
          • Sayings 31-33
          • Sayings 34-36
          • Sayings 37, 38, 39
          • Sayings 40, 41, 42
          • Sayings 43, 44, 45
          • Sayings 46, 47, 48
          • Sayings 49, 50, 51
          • Sayings 52, 53, 54
          • Sayings 55, 56, 57
          • Sayings 58, 59, 60
          • Sayings 61, 62, 63
          • Sayings 64, 65, 66
          • Sayings 73, 74, 75
          • Sayings 76, 77, 78
          • Sayings 100, 101, 102
          • Sayings 103, 104, 105
          • Sayings 106, 107, 108
          • Sayings 109, 110, 111
          • Sayings 112, 113, 114
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