The Now Nexus: An Ontology for the Coming Age

Copyright © 2012 by Donald Leo Peek, Jr.

www.nownexus.com

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-5672-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5673-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5671-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910861

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/17/2012

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Good Thinking

Accepting the Obvious

Spider Push-Ups

The Open Door

Sophia

Partners in Pride

Drooling Clowns

The Way of Pride and Joy

The Waiting

Charity Genes

The Theorem of Means

Now Grace

Words of Praise

The Mind of Christ

The Important Family

Stop, Look, and Listen

Now a Piece of His Mind

Practice Makes Permanent

What Now

Waking Up

Preface

Early one morning, as I began to settle down and prepare to search for focus in my prayer and meditation, something wonderful happened that brought clarity and life to this project. That morning my mind was changed, and in light of this new perspective, my thinking changed as well. In truth, my entire life changed, and I am compelled to share the way that is prepared for all of us, which was given to me that morning.

By way of background, a few watershed moments need mentioning. As a child, I suffered with scarlet fever and had a dreadful time getting any sleep. I could not rest. Over the course of the illness, I had a recurring nightmare that terrified me. A skinless head and face of raw evil would get right up in my face. I called it Hamburger Man. No matter how hard I tried, I could not make him go away. But Momma could.

She would come down the hall to my room, sit on the bed next to me, and touch me. It’s okay, Donnie, she would say. Momma is here now. Let’s say our prayers. Then she would begin, and I would join her. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. In Jesus’ precious name, we pray. Amen! By the time we got to in Jesus’ precious name, Hamburger Man had disappeared and I had fallen off to sleep. I made it through scarlet fever with Mom’s help.

One summer at Vacation Bible School, our senior pastor, Dr. Morris Ford¹, came to talk to us kids. As I remember, we were finishing up our punch and cookies and he offered a few well placed words and then asked something like, Do any of you believe in Jesus?

Without hesitation, I raised my hand. I knew about Jesus and what he could do. He could help you go to sleep when Hamburger Man was chasing you!

That was over forty-five years ago. Needless to say, I sometimes lived a fast and worldly life over the course of that forty-odd years, but those days are well past, and this is now.

I lost my dad to AML (acute myeloid leukemia), a ferocious, fatal disease back in 1997. After he died, Mom was not doing well without him. She began treatment for CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia), which had begun to take advantage of her loss. She entered clinical trials under the care of Dr. Michael Keating at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and we began to travel to Houston on a regular basis. The six-hour drive from Arkansas and the sharing of a room at the Rotary House gave us a great opportunity to grow closer than we ever imagined we could. I guess some derisively might call me a momma’s boy, but I would embrace that epithet because of the honor and privilege it is to be her son.

My dad’s death at the hands of this killer had been like a train wreck. Its unexpected suddenness caused profound shock. We finally learned he had AML on a Tuesday, and he passed away that Friday. Disbelief and extreme emotional stress attacked us all, but no one felt it more than Mom. As she held her dying lover’s hand, she called the name of Jesus. Over and over she whispered, Je-sus! It sounded like she was chanting a passionate yet reverent chant that had an ancient quality and some kind of Jewish flair to it. This took me back a bit as she repeatedly called Je-sus with an assurance and confidence I had never before witnessed. It soon became obvious that Mom and Dad’s spirits were actually connected. As Dad struggled for air, Mom helped him let go in the name of Jesus.

I was profoundly impacted by this connection. I could see past my tears to the truth of their love for each other, for God, for good, and for those of us who loved them both so much. The connection was made clear to me. I began to understand the basic premise of the now nexus—the premise that there is one Spirit that all God’s intended are tethered to now.

Dad’s eyes had been yellow and cloudy the few days prior to his death. Jaundice, the doctors said, from liver and kidney failure.

But, in the moment he died, as he raised one eyebrow and stared up into the corner above his bed, his eyes glowed. Crystal clear and brilliant blue, surrounded by pure white, they were so bright they appeared to shine as beams of light. It was unreal. He saw something up there in the ceiling and was absorbed by it. Then he lowered his gaze to meet mine, bit his lip like he always did just before he knocked the hell out of something, let go, and escaped his body. His eyes slowly closed, and he was gone.

Several moments blurred into one as we gathered close to hug and kiss our dad for the last time. Finally, I relinquished my place at his head and turned to walk away. I took the few steps to the end of his bed and then heard his voice as clear as a bell say, Go call the kids. He was referring to my boys who he insisted were not to make a frantic trip to Little Rock just to see him die. As he said, Don’t risk the damned highway. I also believe he wanted them to remember him before cancer. My wife Kim was preparing the kids to come to Little Rock when I called to let her know Dad had passed away.

My prayers changed on the day Daddy died. I had literally begged, bargained, and tried everything to get God and humankind to save my beloved father. I told God that I would sell everything and give it all to and go to work for the Leukemia Foundation if he would just save my dad. To this day, I still wish I could have done something, I not only felt helpless, I was helpless. My sorrow was deepened because not only was I helpless to stop his disease, I knew it would soon be Mom’s turn. I don’t know much pathology, psychology or philosophy; I see myself in the business of distributing the truth as far as I know, but I am very passionate and simply must tell you about the truth.

Dr. Charles Stanley², a great man and preacher whom I love, said in one of his messages that we should pray with a burden to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and that if we do, God, being faithful, would no doubt do it.

I knew that God is good and that I should seek His will more earnestly. So, for the first time, I constructed a prayer that asked God to fill me up with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, just as Dr. Stanley prescribes.

My prayer had changed, and let me tell you how that new prayer changed my life. After being propelled through all manner of obstacles, I was compelled to write. I set out to write something about ethics in marketing, which I felt somewhat qualified to do. But a week or two into the project, I was getting nowhere. I only had a few pages that might have been considered readable and informative. There was no doubt in my mind that I needed help.

So, on that morning, I prayed the same prayer again. I asked to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding just as I had done before, but suddenly something inside me kicked the prayer up a notch and added the words, and may my efforts be brought in line with Your will and desire. By the way, I also prayed that my wife, kids, and co-workers not think I had gone crazy.

That morning God assured me I was on the right track and answered my prayers. As I prepared for the day and began to focus on Him and meditate on His ways, I received a vision of a character to write about. Now I am very sure that this had never happened to me before: not like this, not with such clarity and power. This vision personified a humble super-hero, a character that was some sort of supernatural, bioelectrical engineer, a nano-technician or brain surgeon of some kind. Hey, I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.

His name is Emeth³. He is from the source of all life. In truth, he is a very good character, whose mission is to connect new pathways and rewire patterns and circuits of truth in the human mind to dispel illusion. He is a sort of spiritual neurologist or psychic surgeon with license to heal and save. He repetitiously whispers words of wisdom and displays pictures of truth directly into the mind of humankind. He has absolute power and authority from the source, and his reliability and loyalty are beyond belief. At first, I did not know why he was named Emeth. I had never heard that name before, although my grandfather Willis was named Emmit, and I dearly love Emmitt Smith. At first, I was not quite sure what to do with this character. He was so far over the top; I was reluctant to keep him in a book about ethics in marketing for fear of ridicule or outright rejection. So I didn’t, and like a self conscious numbskull, I threw it all away! I destroyed all of the free flowing notes that I took down direct from Emeth. All of the material about Emeth I had worked on in those moments is gone. I was too self conscious to let anyone see what I had written. But the connection in my mind still remains firm.

I went on for a while without Emeth and even tried not to think about him, but I knew deep inside I was onto something good with him. Somehow I felt I had received privileged information from him. So I began to search for some reference to him in all my current reading. In my mind I kept seeing and hearing the words Spiritual Warrior. I wanted to know where I had come up with this guy. I wanted to prove to myself where he had come from, so I searched again for E-myth or Emmeth. At the time I did not know how to spell his name and I found nothing whatsoever about him. I found nothing that would lead me to believe that he had come to me any way other than directly from God. I even asked a few godly men if they had ever heard of Emeth or Emyth, but the name wasn’t familiar to them, either. Deep down inside, I knew he had come to me straight from God because I had asked God to inform me and to conform me to His will. I was just afraid to accept what God had given me.

A few months passed, and the thought of this amazing character kept on hounding me. At that time we had lots of trouble with our internet connection; it was slow at best and we finally upgraded to DSL. So, once again, I searched the Web for some reference to Emeth. This time I typed in Emet, and there it was. The search engine found Temple Emeth, a Jewish synagogue in New Jersey. So I clicked there, retrieved the phone number off their Web site, and called.

Shabbat Shalom, answered a man’s voice. I cleared my throat and said, Yes, sir, this is Don Peek, Jr. calling from De Queen, Arkansas. Would you be so kind as to tell me, what does Emeth mean? With no hesitation, he responded, "Emeth is Hebrew for truth."

Old time religious chill bumps covered my entire body. I thanked the man and hung up the phone. I was thrilled beyond belief by this confirmation of my vision and the firm connection to the flow of truth that I call the Now Nexus. Emeth, Truth, is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity! This was a revelation to me. He is the unchanging connection we have to the Father that runs through the Son; this connection is what I call the Now Nexus and this nexus now leads us to the knowledge of God’s will and His desire for our lives. The Now Nexus is not a transcendental meditation technique with psychobabble to boot; it exists solely because of the grace of God and the vast miracles of faith. It brings greater understanding and more meaning to God’s Word. It empowers a higher sense and sensitivity to the spirit in symbols, words, music, language and even letters. It provides greater understanding and control of the mental images and word pictures that so often flash in our minds. In truth it is a powerful helper that connects and positions us for Christ’s leadership in our life and it attracts others to the amazing power that is available to us all now.

The title of this work is intended to attract attention and hopefully draw a new age of believers into the true power of now. In many cases in this text, Now is used to personify that part of Himself that God gives us, our lives.

The word nexus ⁴ is defined as: (1) a connection, tie, or link between individuals of a group or members of a series; (2) the group or series connected. Nexus in this work is intended to have such meanings to a point that I call the golden point that once reached goes beyond mere sensory communication onto shared mind, vision, epiphany, enlisted consciousness, realization, and oneness with God’s will, intention, and desire. Thus, the Now Nexus is our super-exalted lifeline, a sort of spiritual umbilical cord that feeds the Spirit of Christ within us. My goal is to remove the shadows of doubt in our minds and shine a spotlight on the truth of our connection to and inclusion in the family of God. I attempt to bring the most vital and urgent sense to the word now and to fully express the precious truth intended by Jesus Christ. His command is to wake up, take hold, and stay connected to our eternal lifeline now! Many times we think that this sort of thing is other people’s personal business and therefore none of our business, so let’s get started right here and briefly take a look at this business now.

Introduction

Business is business and in business information, relationships and profit fuel the engine. Elaborate and sophisticated financial, management, accounting, marketing, and many other information systems have been developed to guide the leadership effort of today’s business organizations. These information systems support leadership by trying to control and optimize business efforts through constantly monitoring and evaluating the painstakingly obtained and reported results of a wide and growing chart of accounts, activities, and contacts. No longer do executives receive only a sale’s cost and expense—its profit or loss—over time (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, every three years, every five years, etc.). Now performance may be gauged in real time, moment-by-moment, and by personnel, activity, product, category, segment, service, location, price, etc. Today, business leaders, with the help of these information systems, may review an almost endless array of demographic and other segmented criteria, with subset upon subset broken out to micro-view trends. In lay terms, the object and target of today’s sophisticated management accounting information systems could be described as subtle minutiae. In broad terms, as it applies to the small business corporation, MAI, Management Accounting Information is the accurate accounting and effective reporting of metrics or measurable information concerning any business activity other than tax-based accounting. MAI is at the forefront of today’s entrepreneurial efforts.

Many large organizations will not spare any expense to get the right information in order to form a new strategic plan or to fine-tune the current plan, to provide a guide service for effective decision making and corporate leadership. Each year, organizations expend billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of men, women, and computer hours on consulting in the effort to take care of their business.

The quality of the information is considered critical. It may be flawed by poor reporting habits, skewed under false assumptions, stale from distraction, corrupted by a virus, or just plain wrong because of ineptness. And, once again, an almost endless and seemingly overwhelming number of possible criteria pop up at independent levels of significance. Traps surround each metric, and charges are set at depths to explode and disable the organization and consume it or, at any rate, still further camouflage, slow down, and mislead the effort. This is not personal or sinister, it’s just business. At such literal and metaphorical depths, the decision maker must have good guidance or risk the fight to acquire the present facts: the best, fresh, true information on his own. To avoid stepping off into one of many pits where he may find himself impelled by misguided effort and stuck with charges, expenses, debt, and liability that lead to debilitating loss and failure he must obtain good counsel. This is why consultants exist and why U.S. Presidents appoint a few hundred executive assistants.

Timely, accurate guidance is essential for the optimization of any business or organization. As we know, a little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing, but beginning something—including targeted purposeful information gathering—is costly and perhaps seemingly dangerous. When getting started, stepping out in faith with a view to the future is vital. Being willing to step out of the boat and onto the water in faith is required. This fractal truth determines one’s destiny.

The measure of care and priority given to gain and maintain the integrity of the data ought to instill confidence in its value. Any greater perception of utility that may be realized along the way further ensures that intended purposes will result. The business person’s intention should always be reduction of risk and maximization of profit for the perpetual optimization of productivity toward the same. Having this deliberate intention is a key, and having it demonstrates a clear understanding of the critical necessity of establishing a superior process to gain timely accurate information. A superior process contributes to achieving the goals of the business or organization. Leaders need to grasp and value this idea early; it is simple but very profound, for it is vital to success.

However, success in anything does not come just from receiving good information or advice. You must first perceive a need and believe that the information obtained is true, valuable, timely, and actionable. Now the important part: you must execute, you must act in good faith on the information and do in good faith that which this new knowledge has led you to think may make a difference toward satisfying this need. You must weigh the value assigned to this difference against all costs and the feasibility of success and the cost of failure. Your value judgment of the difference an action will make determines the fate of such efforts. Will the plan of action make a positive difference as hoped for or could it in truth make no difference at all or perhaps even do more harm than good? Once perceived and judged, a difference is assigned a position on your value scale ranging from negative values of less than zero all the way to very positive values.

Unrecognized need always causes misconception, and misconception miscarries from its position of poor perception and determines a poor outcome. However, in recognizing that a vital need does exist and in good faith seeking a solution, we often find a difference maker that positively impacts the entire organization. This truth is not limited to business. Truth is the most valuable commodity in any market. Truth is inviolate and universal and, as you know, it applies to our personal lives as well.

Survey the extent to which we in business seek market information alone. Now compare those efforts for profit, financial security, synthetic glory, and their offspring to the amount of effort we are willing to expend in order to seek true guidance toward the ultimate profit of our universal security, spiritual gain, and glory for God.

Personally, I find that I am desperately wanting and many times lacking the willingness to get started down any spiritual process, much less a superior one. Now, if you are at all like me, you know we can do better. We stand in need of the willingness to put in the effort necessary to develop a right relationship with our guide, the truth. We can accept the same old synthetic shreds that corrupt our lines of thinking and our productivity or we can seek new thread and find an inexhaustible bolt of truth supplied directly from the source.

Only you and your guide know the effort you give. My dad always advised me, Do business in a businesslike manner. However, Forrest Gump’s mommy proclaimed, Stupid is as stupid does. Surely by now we see that many of us are knee-deep and lost in the field of need. We must move to do business with God and do it in a businesslike fashion. So I ask, how is your brain wired?

CHAPTER 1

Good Thinking

What do you think? Does your mind suggest a glass half empty or half full? This is an old and very tired question but please try. What glass? you ask. Is it a wineglass you visualize or a water glass? Perhaps what you visualize is not even a drinking glass at all but maybe a window glass or stained art glass or even an hourglass? Such words evoke images, and perceptions form in our mind. This virtual mini-Rorschach test is to get you started thinking about how you think. What comes to mind when a word is heard or a letter seen? Our common understanding or individual sense of a word melds with our active senses and evokes a mental and an emotional response within us or does not faze us at all. Many times this depends on what’s on our minds and how we have been conditioned.

Instinctive perception may not be understood as having anything to do with choice, but it does. For what comes to mind is only a suggestion; we do not have to accept it. We do not have to act or live instinctively; we have free will. We choose what we will accept and try to believe or reject. Our free will is able to soar to great heights like a falcon. But if we choose not to remove the hood from our eyes and search the skies, we remain in the dark, grounded by fear, and our minds can become a dark room with no doors.

Fear is a natural instinct. But our instincts many times are wrong, and we imagine something true that is in fact false. The form of perception a person chooses to interpret an instinct with creates contacts and connections in her mind that grow through repetitious use and develop to replicate a way of thinking; alternately, these contacts and connections fade and die. These connections yield confirmation and eventual faith or doubt and denial. The free will to choose the manner and form of one’s perception is a supernatural gift that results in what may superficially be called creativity, possibility thinking, good attitude, optimism, and strong character or on the other hand empty, dull, crude, defeated, bad attitude, pessimistic, and weak. However, in reality, these are merely evidence of the spirit that dwells inside a person at that moment: evidence of the spirit’s attempt to control the being it has moved into and that spirit’s intention. Naturally, the spirits of the world attempt to influence, condition, and gain control of a person’s mind, for the mind controls the whole person. So it is also within the spiritual realm of the supernatural whereby people are enabled to control the validity of their perceptions, which is of course our goal.

Our perceptions of God, the world, people, and of all things are pivotal. In Mark 4:11-12, Jesus says, The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven! Yet to those inside the body of Christ, foreknowledge has been given. According to Matthew 13:16-17, Jesus said, But blessed are your eyes for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them (KJV). This in fact is true. For any perception may develop into a great belief if given the reinforcing environment for growth. Beliefs produce faith, and faith in truth is our only means to a good end.

All perceptions, whether positive or negative, true or false, increase in accordance with the relative supportive or affirming environment they are subjected to in one’s mind. It is human nature to take a concept and develop it or abandon it. Any conceived perception, as it grows from an infant connection or inkling in our subconscious mind, attempts to create and control an environment that sustains, perpetuates, and multiplies itself. It is from this point of view that we may truly realize the impact and consequence of our form of perceptions.

Now—this and every instant—is when humankind chooses to adopt the thread of truth that leads to life or accepts a falsehood that blocks spiritual insight and the enlightenment of true precepts. So this must also be where and when our vitality is spawned. However, this birthplace of our true reason did not create itself. Nor can it sustain itself or evolve alone except to fulfill its own self-determined purposes and fate. It is only a tributary downstream from the spring or well source. It is dependent on the good flow from the good source, what we Christians call God’s Grace. This good dependency gives birth to good reasoning—reason good and true to attempt to secure the blessed flow of Grace. It brings true reason to follow upstream and trace the only nexus now known in truth that leads to the source. True reason now, in hope of finding a good future, seeks to maintain an unobstructed flow and ensure the future source of good.

Good is a given now, and it is also a given that we are dependent on the good that graces us. It is obvious that our entire being and our existence are known to be completely dependent upon the good graces of the source—God. Paul, speaking to the Romans, For since the beginning of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse (1:20). We are at His mercy, and once again it is the good seed of hope that springs eternal, being grafted onto the tree of life. Truth is good. Now, as one united for good, we forever stand firm, being deeply rooted in the faithful flow of truth. No longer do we merely get a taste of truth; now we may tap a direct line into the inexhaustible supply. Now our lifeline to the infinite source of good, life-giving truth is precious and true. We are connected by God’s overflowing love for His people.

Good thinking, the vitality of true reason that removes doubt and excuses must be our quest for now, the quest of life. Now—this time, this moment—is so vital, yet it is nonetheless worthless without truth. The truth of humankind’s reason is, therefore, essential.

The truth of perception could be argued as being more vital than the truth of reason, as seed is absolutely essential for a harvest. But it is the action and process of the harvest that feeds. The cycle of life has purpose, and the intention is clear—to sow, grow, harvest, and feed. In doing so, more seed is sown, more crops are grown, and more fruit is harvested. In like manner, your spirit’s desire for truth, if given vitality, is saved so that one more may come along in faith and increase the speed and productivity of the harvest. I paraphrase what Jesus told His disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. (Matthew 9:37).

Our own self-actualized interests initially perceive our faith in this or any other system. Our own value judgment ensues. If we are watching this me first, selfish and self conscious perspective takes control of our minds and, thus, our beings are very nearly all about themselves. Because we live in this world, our connection to a worldly environment continually reinforces these relative perceptions. What may be called relativism dominates our thinking. We see a false reality and cannot help but develop reliance on our fears, frailty, and death. Perceptions from within this fog of fear many times produce an overwhelming sense of isolation, helplessness, and insecurity. Now being alone against all sorts of fictional beliefs, our soul is headed toward the end of our own adoptions. What I mean to say is, Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves (Romans 14:22). For once adopted a hopeless sense of desolation lingers like a fog, while our worldly conditioned mind reminds us how we humans are animals, mere matter and are now considered mere pots of clay (Lamentations 4:2). We may begin to think, I am only a feeble crackpot, destined to be cast out, broken up and buried alive. Thrown out, trampled and left behind to struggle alone. Left for dead in the potter’s field of blood, left to sink under the quick matter of earth only to be reprocessed by the worm and ant.

However, now, watching for the truth, we are given the foreknowledge that in reality our lives are a great and valuable gift, a treasure, and we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (2 Corinthians 4:7). Yet our reason, short of truth, goes missing and is easily replaced with lies. The belief system we know, adopt, and rely on is based upon false reasoning and the all-too-familiar senses of pride, fear, doubt, and anxiety such reasoning brings. We orphan God’s spirit of truth and abandon our faith in Him. We drown Him out with the mindless chatter of our self-indulgent pride, fear, and lust.

The vitality of true reason has its foundation set in trust. That trust comes from a vital faith placed in the inkling of truth that we may know right now. The spirit that dwells within us demonstrates the health of our reason. Our mind’s focus demonstrates the spirit of our faith. Though we are often conflicted, we perceive what we focus on to be worthy of our attention and give it a foothold in our consciousness because we believe it may be realized as either a trustworthy fact or disproved as fiction. Fiction is folly and if we are not to waste our lives chasing false and misleading precepts, accurate perception of worthiness is essential and one’s discernment and trust in truth is everything.