There are some who think that righteousness is in beards, in the length or heaviness of one's whiskers. Some think it is contained in long hair; some in drab, ugly, colorless apparel, not realizing that God created the gorgeous coloring of the butterflies and the birds and the flowers, the sunsets and the rainbows. God created all things to be as beautiful as possible. He never intended women to hide their beauty behind little, beetle-like costumes of drab dreariness. Beautiful apparel only becomes detrimental when it is used to satisfy one's empty vanity. It is then one realizes that every good can revert to evil if permitted to be carried to excess. It is in excess that the good can be transformed into ill.
Some think that righteousness is contained in everything that is unprogressive and backward, either in the physical, mental or spiritual realms. The old ways, unrelieved by modern inventions and comforts, do not have a monopoly upon righteousness. Every invention was brought forth to help lift the original curse of man, that he might no longer have to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Everything that is helping to lift that curse is of God, for the day is at hand.
The glories of heaven are only possible to manifest through eons and ages of advancement in every line of endeavor. Those who reject the beauties and comforts of this world, thinking they are serving God, know nothing about God nor of His righteousness. Neither do they comprehend the beauty He has created to be expressed in all things. God expresses His greatness always through Love and through beauty. Those who turn their backs upon beauty and the new and wonderful, progressive things are in no way prepared to step into the wonders of eternity. Holding to ugliness and to old, dead ways does not prepare one for eternity. It only places seals upon such that may take ages to remove after death has finally released them from their folly.
The only danger in beauty, luxuries, comforts and lovely apparel is that man is apt to set his heart upon the outward show and hence loses the permanent values of all that is perfect and divine. It is possible that a woman can work so hard to clothe her body perfectly she will leave her soul naked and ashamed. The physical body is only the more apparent in this little span of mortal life. The Spirit is that which is apparent throughout all eternity.
If one does not permit the things of the world to take possession of him, but rather, uses them rightly, makes the right use of them, then he is beginning to comprehend righteousness. He will then accept all of the marvelous gifts, which God has bestowed for the pleasure and joy and comfort of man, with a true sense of appreciation and gratitude. He will use all things for both his physical and spiritual advancement in a balance of love that will glorify God always.
Some shun movies and television as instruments of evil. They are often used for evil, but behind these inventions is a means of instruction that all ages of the world have unconsciously waited and hoped for. When these means are used to portray all that is lovely and wonderful they will fulfill the divine purpose of their coming forth -- and that time is very close at hand. When the movies and television are used to honestly and truthfully reveal the struggles of individuals, groups or nations in their endeavors to overcome adversities and to reveal their triumphant victories, they are but giving the world a divine glimpse into the conditions and the sacred achievements of mortality and revealing the goodness of God in action.
Righteousness is not contained in backward styles of hair-dos, beards, clothing, or in a lack of enjoyment of all with which God has blessed the earth. These backward ideas are retrogressive and unenlightened ways of self-righteousness, which carries its ugliness out into the open to be seen of men.
Righteousness is contained in the human heart. It is in the thinking and feeling attributes of man. It is expressed in love, gentleness, long-suffering, patience, brotherly-kindness and in that vibrant essence of inner praise and rejoicing that is released to God in eternal vibrations of loving gratitude.
Righteousness is not something that is worn as a garb to be seen of men. Righteousness is worn on the inside as the innermost reality of the love-filled soul of man. It is worn thus until it eventually fills every cell and fiber of the individual and he becomes IT. Then it is that he will be filled with Light -- even the Light of Jesus Christ -- and he will be clothed in that Light and in its glory.
This clothing is so beautiful and so far above anything even "Solomon, in all his glory" ever possessed, there is no Comparison.
Ugliness, dreariness of mind, drab, ungainly clothing or a lack of colors have no part in righteousness. These carry but the outside manifestations of the grim dinginess of that which has seeped through from the Nether Regions.
Glorify God through love, praise and gratitude and you will become glorious, will be clothed in glory. This song of joy and appreciation is righteousness in full expression. This supreme gift of gratitude and singing praise and love alone is pleasing to God. This alone is God-like.
Any outside display of apparel, style or action that is worn to be seen of men is only a show of self-righteousness and is completely without value. It is not spiritual adornment. It is an erroneous idea that spiritual beauty must be expressed in an ugly physical cloak. That which is spiritual is manifest in its own way and likeness, which is in exquisite beauty.
Righteousness is something that must be lived, not worn. It is something within, not something displayed on the outside. In the humble, glorified perfecting of true righteousness, man becomes that righteousness and it has nothing whatsoever to do with fanatical conformities of clothing, styles, drabness, ugliness or backward unprogressiveness. All that is spiritual is expressed in loveliness and beauty and joy, in adoring praise and gratitude and loving worship.
Righteousness is the "right use" of all the manifest beauty, the spiritual perfection, the supreme love, the praising glory of devotion and thanksgiving that wings its way heavenward in a song of eternal joy. Righteousness is not only the "right use" of the spiritual powers and beauty locked within a man's own soul, but it is also a releasing of all the spiritual strength and love and light as it is permitted to flow back to the throne of God, increased and glorified. Ugliness, drabness, deadness, dreariness, unprogressiveness or mortal, physical conformity has nothing whatsoever to do with righteousness.
Righteousness is the releasing of all the spiritual powers and strength of men in the great, triumphant achievement of divine overcoming.
Righteousness is not a rejection of all that is beautiful and lovely. Righteousness is the "right use" of all the blessings and powers of earth and of eternity. He who becomes the slave of the things of the world is misusing them and his own inherent powers. The things of the earth become misused instead of being used rightly as divine blessings from God.
As one learns to use the tangible gifts and blessings correctly, he will be prepared to comprehend and apply the spiritual powers of eternity.
One has to make the right use of his heart, his soul and his mind in expanding his divine faculties to encompass that Kingdom of God and the wonders of heaven. The Kingdom of God is not revealed or comprehended in narrowing down one's vision and faculties, but in the enlarging and expanding of them until one's mind can begin, in a measure, to encompass the wonders of eternity and the glory of God.
When man begins to comprehend and to make the right use of all things, including the things of this earth and of all his divine faculties of love, appreciation and understanding, he will be prepared to become a resident of the Kingdom of Heaven, for he will be exalted to the status of son-hood. It is here that all things will be added unto him which will enhance his well-being and his comfort and his joy. It is here that he will get a growing comprehension of the nearness of God and the ineffable use of his powers.
When one is admitted into the great order of the Brotherhood of Light, or becomes a member of the Church of the First Born by having brought forth that divine, holy Light of Christ until It fills his whole being, or until he is filled with Light and comprehends all things, then he is prepared to have Christ, or the divine Light, reveal the Father.
Righteousness is a song in the soul, a devotion in the heart, a gratitude of praising thanks expressed in a joy of love.
Righteousness is as free and unhampered as the color and fragrance and beauty of a flower. It is as spontaneous and effortless as the song of the bird. It is as unrestricted and immense as the sea, as boundless and all-enfolding as the sky.
Righteousness is not a cramped, restricted way of living and feeling and thinking. Righteousness is the great inner, released glory of a man's own soul expressing itself in every glorified act of bounteous, beautiful living.
Righteousness is a condition that has left the mortal fears, negatives, dislikes and discords behind. Righteousness is devoid of pride or self-seeking. It is a condition of love so pure, so free and so all-inclusive it comprehends all things, even the souls of men and their needs.
Righteousness is not achieved through striving or skimping or cramping one's thoughts, nor in a denial and rejection of God's beauty and glory as it gathers to itself only drab ugliness. Righteousness is as beautiful as the blossoms, as divine as the Light of heaven and as powerful as the symphony of the universe, for it is a part of that glorified symphony in expression as it is manifest in the soul of man. Righteousness is all that is beautiful, good, lovely and divine.
Glorify God in songs of everlasting praise. Worship in an adoration beyond words that are expressed in pure happiness and inner joy. Worship in an adoration that becomes an expressive part of the great, eternal symphony of God's glory. Let your soul awake to His power and His perfection and His glory until your eyes and mind are filled with naught else -- and you will be righteous.
As you walk thus with Him, clothed in the immortal power of His great, enfolding love, the world will feel that righteousness and seek it for its own.
Righteousness is not expressed in a long, sanctimonious face or in drab ugliness, either of clothing or surroundings. Neither is it expressed in fanatical condemnation for all who do not fit into the mold you may have constructed for yourself, no matter how rigid that mold may be. The mold you are locked in may only be your own ugly, self-constructed cocoon, as you lie spiritually dormant and unproductive of color or beauty or loveliness and without power to soar into the heights, where spiritual vision is perfected.
It is not righteousness to try to fit another into the pattern you have selected and constructed for yourself. Your neighbor, friend or family member must be permitted to glorify God in his or her own way and according to his or her own vision and understanding. This is your own righteousness in action as you permit all to use the great, divine gift of free-agency which God has so generously bestowed upon all.
Love much! Rejoice always and forever! Sing your inner songs of praise and thanks and you will be letting your own light so shine that others, seeing the glory of it, will also seek to glorify God by setting their own light aglow.
The great spiritual song locked within a man's soul, when released in its triumphant soaring of love and praise and gratitude, is the pure, undefiled righteousness of God in full expression.
Righteousness is not a thing of ugly, drab, conformed restriction.
Righteousness is the inner song of your own soul as it is released freely into the universe as your part of the eternal, divine symphony of heaven. It is the expression of your own love and praise, joy and gratitude singing from within in expanding, spiritual glory.
Whenever that praising song of happiness, of joy and gratitude is released from within, you may be sure you are in tune with the infinite. You are more -- you are a very part of heaven's symphony. As your own song of eternal light and glorious righteousness is released to assist in mingling its own melody with the divine symphony of heaven being sung at the throne of God, you become one of that group of chosen ones. This is righteousness. This is the beauty of God in full expression in your own wonderful, lovely life.