Rosemary Ollison, Book: "Beyond Religion"

ABOUT BOOK
"BEYOND RELIGION"

IMAGES FROM BOOK:

"BEYOND RELIGION"

RELIGIOUS LOADS

JESUS TAKING RELIGIOUS LOAD

CARRYING JESUS'
LIGHT LOAD

"TAKE OFF YOUR SUNDAY GO TO MEETING CLOTHES"

"ALLOW GOD TO COME INSIDE YOU"

I am sixty-six years old and I have had religion for forty-six years and a personal relationship with God for twenty-four years. From personal experience I can tell you and I can SHOW you that there is a difference in just having religion and in having a personal relationship with God.

Apart from my personal experience I did research on the Internet on the subject of a personal relationship with God. On Yahoo I found 112,000,000, on Google I found 1,690,000 and on “religious leaders” on Yahoo I found 64, 500, 00 and on Google I found 5, 080, 00 catches. It is apparent that people are interested in religion and in a personal relationship with God.

I have spent the past five years researching the Christian religion in books, on television, and the internet and I have not seen where the subject has been explained with pictures. But this is uniquely what I have done, I do not just tell about my personal relationship with God I SHOW tangible evidence of my personal relationship with God. I am not a religious teacher or preacher I am just an ordinary individual that can give proof of what I say. I have documented twenty-four years of a word to word conversation that I am convienced beyond any doubt that I had and continue to have with God.

I am a retired educator of special children for eighteen years. I was divorced in 1967 and raised my son and daughter alone. I have four grandsons, one granddaughter and one great grand son. I live alone. I spend on an average of five hours each day journaling, from which I have written three books, over forty articles and about 150 poems. I am an artist; I have drawn and painted about 2000 images all with messages. I am a designer of clothes, jewelry and crazy quilts. I love taking pictures. My latest passion at this stage of my development is creating computer art. I have over 6000 images of computer art and I have 34 images on the Internet at MOCA Museum of Computer Art. For the past two years I have been attending computer classes.

Until now I have not been inspired by God to write a book about my experience. Forty-six years ago when I accepted religion I did so for the soul purpose of becoming a friend of God and communicating with him personally. For twenty-three years I became so consumed with religion until I didn’t take time to develop a personal relationship with God.

When I started to document my two way conversation with God it was for the soul purpose of helping me to remain sane. I had no idea that I would be doing so for twenty-four years and continuing to do so. I had no idea that when I asked God to SHOW me what was in my heart and mind that caused me pain and suffering would it end in my trying to write a book to help others. Now that God has walked me through “life’s maze” by means of the Holy Spirit helping me to know the truth so as to be sat free, my heart is very heavy and pines to share my blessings and gifts. I cannot be completely satisfied until I am allowed to do so because I see so many depressed, unhappy and unfulfilled religious people.

Without Religion I would not have been found by God. When it comes to finding God it starts with Religion. Many are born into the Religion of their parents. Otherwise Religion goes in search of people or people go in search of Religion. In either case the Religion chosen is based upon the needs and the desires of the individual. Most humans trust their Religious Leaders with their faith. When God wanted to speak to the Israelites they were afraid and did not want God to speak to them. Therefore they asked Moses to speak to God for them. Many today do not believe that God is interested in having a two way conversation with them, answering their personal questions and telling them personally how to live their lives. Most people do not beleive that God wants to a personal relationship with humans. Therefore, they trust in Religion to tell them what God wants them to know and what he want them to do.

Before Religion found me I felt no shame, guilt, condemnation or fear of God even though I had a child outside of wedlock, and practiced fornication. Religion informed me how God feels about fornication or having sex without being married to the individual. Religion did not stop me from committing fornication it just made me feel guilty for doing so. The only reason I embraced Religion was because I was told that I could pray to God and he would answer me. To my literal mind this meant communicating, exchanging a few words with God personally. My teacher showed me the account of Abraham in the Bible and told me that I could have the same relationship with God, that I could actually be God’s friend! Based upon this idea I at once enthusiastically embrace Religion in expectation of hearing from God personally and directly.

I became confused and frustrated because after twenty-three years of seeking to hear from God I had not received not one word. But at the point of giving up and at the brink of insanity God made a connection to me.

I cannot tell you how to connect to God, but I can tell you and show you what I did and what happen to me after I connected to God. I believe that one reason that many who desire to connect to God do not do so is because they try to do something to cause God to connect to them. God created humans to have a personal relationship with them.

My attitude before I connected to God was to expect that what I did in my so called “religious works” would cause God to take notice of me. After years (23) of working to get God to notice and to connect to me I realized that all of my works had not brought me to God or into a personal relationship with Him. God made a connection to me only after I realized I couldn’t do anything or be righteous enough so as to have Him connect to me.

God connected to me by revealing to me my true identity. I needed valid credentials to come before God. I tried to use my religious works as credentials to get God to connect to me or to have a personal relationship with me. I was confused and had no idea as to who I really was. My true identity (individuality, uniqueness, distinctiveness, characteristics, self, character, personality) was a mystery me. The key to knowing God’s plan for my life was to get to know myself. You might think that your mama knows you or that your daddy, brothers, sisters, or friends know you or most of all that you know yourself. But the truth is that only God, your Creator knows who you are, who He created you to be.

Until January 1, 1985 I had absolutely no idea who I was and knew not how I would ever find out who I was. On that date the Holy Spirited directed me to pick up the Bible translation: “THE BIBLE IN LIVING ENGLISH” and directed me to read Psalm 139. I read:

Jehovah, you have sounded me and know me,
You know my sitting down and my standing up,
You far away are aware of what I have in my mind.
You itemize my traveling about and my lying down to rest,
and are familiar with my courses.
When a word is not on my tongue,
There you, Jehovah, know the whole of it.
You hem me in behind and before
and lay your hand on me
The knowledge is too mysterious for me;
it is inaccessible; I am not capable of it.
Where shall I go from your spirit?
And where shall I get away from your face?
If I go up in the sky you are there;
And let me make my bed in the realm of death, there you are.
Let me lift the wings of dawn
And alight at the back of the west,
Even there your hand will be leading me
and your right hand grasping me.
And do I say “I will just have darkness shroud me
and night enclose me,
Even darkness does not make it too dark for you
And night is light as day;
The darkness and the light are alike.
For it was you that built my vitals,
were weaving me together in my mother’s body
I acclaim you that you are fearfully mysterious,
mysterious are your works, and my soul knows it well.
My bones were not unknown to you
as I was made in secret,
stitched in and underground place.
Your eye saw my germs,
and they were all registered in your book;
Many days they were shaped,
and not one of them was lost.
And what a stupendous thing to me
are the objects of your concern, Jehovah!
how multitudinous is their sum!
I count them—they outnumber the sand;
I make and end—I am still at you.
If you are killing a wrong-doer, God,
and bloodstained men, turn aside from me;
Those who perversely disobey you,
futilely set themselves up against you,
Do I not hate those who hate you, Jehovah,
and loathe those who stand up against you?
I hate them with utmost hate;
they have become enemies of mine.
Search me, Deity, and know my heart,
test me and know my ideas,
Ane see if I have in me a course that leads to pain,
and lead me on the course that lasts forever.

Verses 1-22 showed me how my Creator knew me. But at the time I read this 139 chapter of Psalms I did not care who I was. All I wanted was to die, to end the emotional, mental and physical pain I constantly experienced. Even though I faithfully fulfilled my religious duties I was so unhappy until I wanted to die. When I read the 23 and 24 verses of Psalms 139:

“Search me, Deity, and know my heart,
test me and know my ideas,
And see if I have in me a course that leads to pain,
and lead me on the course that last forever.”

I want to make it very clear; I am not saying Religion is not needed! But it was apparent to me from my experience that more than Religion was needed.

At that stage of my personal development I had no true concept of what a close personal relationship with God is like. I didn’t know what was going on inside me. I could not understand why I could be so miserable when I was trying to be a good person and trying with all my heart to please God. I wanted to know WHY I was experiencing so much pain. Therefore, when I read: “Show me, Deity, and know my heart, test me and know my ideas, And see if I have in me a course that leads to pain, and lead me on the course that last forever.”, a little fire started in my heart. And now twenty-four years later my heart is filled with a fire like the fire Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was thrown into. My heart is on fire to tell the world that God is nothing like religion picture Him. I pray that all religious people go beyond religion and get to know God personally and have God tell them personally who He is and who they are and His purpose for them is and what their gifts are. I don't know ten individuals who know what their gifts are.

Only God can tell us what we need. All I wanted was for God to show me my painful ways. That became my constant prayer. The years following God spoke to me by means of the Holy Spirit, telling me in great details my “painful ways”. I did not want to forget what the Holy Spirit revealed to me. I started recording in a journal what God said to me by means of the Holy Spirit. After twenty-three year I had at long last got a two-way conversation with God. When God first started communicating with me my faith was weak, I had doubts and fears and some times question if God was really communicating with me or if it was all in my mind or that I might just really be crazy. I wasn’t sure of the voice (spiritual) I was hearing, therefore, I referred to it as: “My Little Voice Number One” or “LV1”. Now it is: “My Big Voice Number One” or “BV1.

After receiving thousands of words from God explaining my ideas and painful ways I was still filled with questions. One day God said to me.

LV1: "You have heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I will now give you pictures to SHOW you your painful ways. Go buy a sketch pad and magic markers and I will cause you to draw images that will show you what is in you that is causing you pain".

I reminded God that I did not know how to draw. But I did as he told me and that was the beginning of God giving me pictures. The pictures I drew was frighten to me. Most of the first pictures I drew no one has ever seen. God showed me that I was filled with too many unanswered questions.

I am not trying to be an expert on anything. This book is much like an abstract work of art. As you look at the words and images I believe they will cause you to feel and think for yourself. The images will cause you to go beyond religion or a belief system and carry you to a place where you can learn to know and accept who you were created to be. A place, were you can become a fully functioning and creative individual.

I want to share my struggle in going beyond Religion, getting to know myself and finely getting to know a little about God. I see so many religious people that are unhappy and suffering emotionally, spiritually and physically. Also some Religious people are doing things that they do not want to do. I believe that my experience can be of some help to these people.

Beyond Religion I made a connection to God and found a spiritual, emotional and physical healing. Those of you who do not already know, I want you to know how far down God will reach to pull you out of a helpless situation. God knows exactly what we need and how to give it to us. One way in which God helps me is by means of pictures and what I call poetry. I cannot believe that God allowed me to experience what I experienced without some purpose. Those who I am able to share just a little of my experience and gifts with are impressed and most of all my works causes them to think and feel that which they say they have not been able to deal with. Some even say my works are too deep and makes them think and feel what they do not want to think or feel. I repressed my feelings and refused to think and feel for years and I know the results of not allowing yourself to feel and think.

When Jesus was on earth he taught with illustrations. He is the Great Teacher and nothing has changed. I have received hundreds of illustrations to help me understand myself and God’s purpose for my life. One of the most compelling illustrations that I received is the one below.

I named this image or illustration “THIRD DIMENSION”. My interpretation of this picture is: The first dimension represents the religious part of me, an outwardly well-put together woman but too green to know the truth. The second dimension represents the real me that was not known by my religious associates and in many ways not known by myself. I was too yellow to face the truth. The third dimension represents the person I become when I go beyond religion and enter into the presence of God, where I am completely controlled by God’s Holy Spirit, at which time I am a woman full of fertile seeds that produces an abundance of good fruits.

Before I could go beyond Religion I had to enter into the spiritual, the “THIRD DIMENSION”, into the presence of God. I had to leave the “first dimension” where I allowed myself to be declared righteous or good by trying to follow laws. I had to fearlessly enter into the “second dimension” Where I had to get naked as it were and look at the lies, anger, shame, guilt, fear, hate and all that dwells within my imperfect human nature. I had to allow Jesus Christ to be my Savior and stop trying to be saved by my religious works. And after Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior had covered my nakedness (my sins), once He has clothed me with the Holy Spirit, then and only then could I enter into the presence of God, the “third dimension” and be controlled by or live by the Holy Spirit. It is not easy to enter into the presence of God (have a personal relationship with Him) but once you experience being in God’s presence you will want to remain there forever and forever!

What you have just considered is just a hint of my gifts and blessings. It will take many books to tell of God’s goodness that He has expressed to me. Since God is not partial or unfair anyone can have a personal relationship with Him and receive His blessings.

The words below exemplifies my divinely directed life:
My life is so awesomely full!!
I rejoice in waking up every morning new
because my God has something new for me to do
I don’t have to worry about the anxieties of life
because all I need and more my God ample supply
I wake up early every morning waiting to see what my Father has for me to do
Some days He disciples me revealing my sins for me to see
Some days He just simply sat with me quietly just loving me
Some days He gives me ideas, so I spend the day creating what pleases me
Some days He doesn’t tell me exactly what to do, so I rejoice in just waiting
Some days He sends me to someone who needs the love he has put into my heart
At the end of each day He looks me in the eyes—and just nods
I spend most of my time with my God, my Father
No disrespect he is “My Right Hand Man”
I love to be discipline, to be set straight by my Father
Even though some times it is real painful
But once I have been set on the straight path, once I have been informed
I rejoice because in my Father and his son Jesus I have learned to trust
When I lie down at night I can sleep in peace
because I have spent the day with my Father and my savior Jesus Christ
When I go to bed at night I say to my Father and my savior Jesus Christ
NIGHT! NIGHT!
Then I sleep like a baby while they watch over me

In no way is this image to be taken as a
representation or picture of God or Jesus!
This is just my child like imagination

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