Two ways

[leisure_59]

marc:

I have watched with interest your growth (and love) of the teachings of Isaiah. I also have Gileadi's books and have experienced through him and prayer a love of Isaiah. Your retelling of Jacob's ladder is somewhat like something I have thought about over the last few years, and I think of it as a six story building representing the earth or the telestial world we now live in. I have created a sort of parable and have named it THE ESCALATOR.

We enter mortality and "play" on the ground floor which is the third floor.

There is a basement, but as children we do not find the escalator that only goes down. The basement is Babylon...There is a sub-basement known as perdition.

Some parents of children know that they should get their children off the ground floor, and to do this they must lead them over to the escalator that is always headed down--so the parents must teach them to climb UP the "downward escalator", so they can get to the next floor where there is more knowledge and protection from temptations.

Unfortunately, parents stuck in Babylon (the basement) allow their children to roam there. These individuals can escape up the escalator if someone
(missionaries) point the way. Missionaries are also on the ground floor to lead individuals to the 4th floor (1st floor = perdition, 2nd floor = Babylon, 3rd or ground floor = entry and everyday living, 4th floor = covenant people, 5th floor = covenant people hearing a VOICE and being obedient to that VOICE, and 6th floor = those who ascend to meet the VOICE face-to-face).

Although there are many covenant people on the 4th floor who find joy staying there and making friends, some feel that there is more to experience on the next floor up; and that the sacrifices of ascending "up" a downward escalator and perhaps losing friends and even some family, is worth the challenge and begin climbing.

This climb to the 5th floor must be accomplished through (not only great desire), but a total submission to a VOICE that leads one ever upward. The climb is steep and narrow. One completes the climb only because of total obedience to the VOICE which has become a "beacon of light" to that individual.

At both the 4th and 5th floors there are certain tasks to perform and because of these tasks and sacrifices, many either pause or get back on the downward escalator to lower, more comfortable levels (floors).

If one is totally obedient to the VOICE on the 5th floor and desires with all their heart to meet the VOICE; then they attempt to climb the escalator to the 6th floor where they will meet the one who was leading them up the escalator. They will meet the PERSON face-to-face and find exceeding joy! At each level (4th through the 6th) more light is gained allowing entry to the various levels.

The joy that is experienced at the 6th floor is everlasting and can only be lost if one rejects and denies all that he/she has experienced there, and then get on a one-way elevator going down to the sub-basement.

[marc]

Thank you for sharing your parable, leisure_59! When I read your telling of the final floors, it reminded me of the law of sacrifice explained in Lecture Six and the effects of faith in Lecture Seven of The Lectures on Faith.