Confessions Of An Ordinary Mystic PDF Download

When Ray was six years old, his mother lay dying in a makeshift hospital on an Alaskan Island, praying with all her heart for God to watch over her sons when she's gone. A bit of a scoundrel as a kid, Ray experienced a religious awakening in 1957 when he was 18 and immediately began teaching a new way to view the Bible. To Ray, Jesus was not necessarily the only way to "know" God. This got him into trouble with church elders. Excommunicated in his 20s and raising a family from paycheck to paycheck, he ran into a strange woman who liked Ray's inclusive understanding of Christ's teachings and invited Ray to meet some like-minded friends who were part of a religion Ray had never heard of. He refused to meet them. The woman accused Ray of being a hypocrite. Ray gritted his teeth, acquiesced, and met these believers of this "odd" religion with a name he could not pronounce. This meeting, when Ray was 26, changed the fate of his life and the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people across the United States . . . for the better. Ray was, in one sense, ordinary - a football-loving family man with a penchant for coffee and peanut butter who wound up co-owning a tiny architectural firm dedicated to building shoe stores. In another sense, Ray was mystical - seemingly without stress even though he had reason to be incredibly stressed out. He was absurdly patient and generous, a lover of truth, and a wayfarer who felt guiding by God even when he went blind. His spiritual understanding of life and how to live it led him to believe his calling was to help his fellow human beings view reality in a world-embracing way that transcended the modern boundaries of religions, countries, and peoples. Along the way, Ray uncovered a divinely inspired plan spiritually detailing how humans were destined to live - in unity and in peace. This book is a memoir dedicated to Ray Estes, now nearing 80 years of age, and his positive influence on the many friends he made along the way...