Relationship

For those who were at service on Sunday, February 24th, 2013, a few bullet points to jog your memory.
To read the complete text of "Relationship"  click here.

• If you are inspired by the words attributed to Jesus and you discovered He never said those words, would it make a difference to you?
• It doesn't matter what you call it (or who said it, or who did it), it's how you relate to it that's important
• We give everything the meaning it has for us
• A woman friend told me that she once was troubled so deeply by the use of male personal pronouns in the Bible that she stopped singing those words when she sang hymns in church... but now she had gotten over that
• I asked her what the difference was between then and now. She said she realized her opposition to the male personal pronoun was getting in the way of her deepest experience of the Divine.
• The words hadn't changed; the way she related to them changed.
• It doesn't matter what you call it (or who said it, or who did it), it's how you relate to it that's important
• Tony Robbins is quoted as saying,"... the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place to go to give, and not a place to take."
• How do you relate to your interpersonal relationships? Are they places you go to get, or go to give?
• On a larger scale, what is you relationship with life?
• Have you ever asked someone, or been asked this misplaced question, "What do you want to get out of life?"
•  God is, in a manner of speaking, "An endless Love-giving machine."  We are made in the image and after the likeness of God.  
• Giving is our natural state.
• In everything you do, in every situation or circumstance you approach, with every person to whom you relate, give (express) Spiritual Love in union with whatever you do in a worldly sense.

1-4-3

For those who were at service on Sunday, February 10, 2013, a few bullet points to jog your memory.
To read the complete text of "1-4-3"  click here.

• Minots Ledge Light (Scituate, MA) is special
• Rather than have a steady rotating beam it has been blinking out a repeating series of pulses; 1, then 4, then 3 since 1894
• 143 represents the number of letters in each of the words of a three word phrase: I Love You
• In 1947 when the US Coast Guard wanted to automate the light and return it to a steady rotating beam there was such an uproar from the the people of New England and sailors worldwide that the Coast Guard left it to blink out its unique message: 143 I Love You
• Love is powerful
• Unloving expressions are like sand in the machinery of your life. Add it in continuously and soon enough and your life won't work anymore
• Love is like oil in the machinery of your life; it keeps things running smoothly
• “For this is the message from the beginning, that we should love one another... let us love not in word or speech, but in truth and action” (1 John 3:11,18-19)
• Love is powerful, but it is abstract until it is expressed in and by you
• If you would like to transform your relationship with a person, circumstance, or situation, enfold them in love. Let this be an experiment in secret. Do this quietly in your heart every day. Bless them/it every time you think of them/it.
• A woman opened a restaurant where two others had failed. She succeeded. Her “secret?” “I just blessed all my customers. I loved them as Jesus taught us to do. I loved the complaining man as well as the satisfied customers. When customers leave my place I not only invite them to come back, I silently send them a blessing of love and pray for their prosperity and happiness.”
• Love is powerful
• There is nothing you or I have ever done, ever said, or ever thought that can diminish or destroy the love God has for us
• When you think of our church would you silently send a blessing of love and happiness?
• Thank you, 143.

To read the complete text of "1-4-3" from Sunday, February 10, 2013,  click here.

Your Ego is a Bully

For those who were at service on Sunday, February 3, 2013, a few bullet points to jog your memory: 

Bullying is an epidemic these days.

16 year old “Joseph” (Oak Ridge, TN) was bullied after coming out to his schoolmates

He was told he was stupid, worthless, unwanted, wrong, God didn't love him, etc.

Have you ever thought, “This is exactly how my ego treats me?”

The ego is a bully.

Do you let ego bully you around?

Do you let it bully you into fear.

Do you let it bully you into shame?

Do you let it bully you into guilt?

Do you let it bully you into believing you're worthless... stupid?

Do you believe the lies it tells you about yourself?

Do you let it bully you into squelching your natural you? Have you been bullied so deeply that you've lost the awareness of your real you and you think the bullied you (angry, etc.) is the real you?

Don't believe your inner bully.

Your family deserves better.

Your friends deserve better.

Those who look to you as a role model deserve better.

Those who observe you in life deserve better.

You deserve better. 

Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked (doesn't listen to his ego), nor stands in the way of sinners (acts out negative behavior), nor sits in the seat of scoffers (passes judgment on others); but his delight is in the law of the Lord (extending Love), and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” 

Lexi James was teased and taunted in High School for stuttering, her bright red hair, and a desire to be a country singer... and she wrote this song, which she could well have been singing about how the ego treats us and how we can respond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it7L2qp8OwQ  

What are some ways in which we Make this our time... and shine? Here are some suggestions:
Stand guard at the door of your mind
Feed it something good every day (30 minutes)
Keep your body strong
Find a mission bigger than yourself
Find a role model
Help somebody seemingly “worse of” than you. 
 
“The secret to living is giving.” 

Give Love.

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  To read the complete text of "Gratitude" from Sunday, February 3, 2013,  click here.