Second Baptism

Sunday, October 26, 2014

I really like the music to the song Mindy sang for us today (I Can Only Imagine). As I was writing for this week I played it over and over and over.

One of the ideas in the lyric that really caught my attention, especially in light of what I wanted to share this week is the idea that, “I can only imagine.”

The singer is singing to Jesus about an experience he wishes to have, an experience which he has clearly set in the future, “I can only imagine what it will be like when I walk by your side. I can only imagine what my eyes will see when Your face is before me.”

Why now walk by the side of Jesus (Joy, Peace, Happiness, Love) now, look into the Face of Love, now? Then write some words and music, and sing and play that to me?

This idea of a future reward for a life well lived now is confusing to me.

Did God invent the “carrot and stick” idea? “I’m gonna promise them peace and happiness but it’s always just going to be just out of reach – a moving target while they’re alive on earth.”

Would a loving God do this?

The lyricist of the song wonders aloud what’ll happen when he meets Jesus – a symbol for Joy, Love, Peace, Happiness: will I dance or will I fall to my knees. What I hear is, “Will I express Joy or will I feel so unworthy – like I’ve always been told I am by the traditional church – that I’ll fall to my knees to demonstrate that, “I am less than…”

Some people would say that is humility. I say no. Humility would be to recognize our value is the same as that of Jesus. We may not express that fully now, but our value is the same.

While I was writing another song popped into mind, “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” from JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR.

Here are some of the thoughts extended from those lyrics. Remember that the character singing the song, Mary, has traditionally been portrayed by the church as a prostitute and she is portrayed that way in the film. Current scholarship puts her on a level of at least that of the disciples.

Mary sings:

• ·        I don’t to know how to love him, what to do. Do I look on Jesus as a man, treat him like a man? I don’t know how to take him.

• ·        I been changed, I’ve really changed. I seem like someone else.

• ·        Yes, we change when we “let Love in and let Love out!”

• ·        I don’t know why he moves me – he just a man.

• ·        She sees Jesus as a man. She can’t look beyond appearances and see the Presence of Love, although she certainly feels it.

• ·        When we look on Love as ordinary, common, we don’t see the uniqueness of it.

• ·        Should I speak of love, let my feelings out? (Yes!)

• ·        I never thought it’d come to this (nor did I in my life!)

• ·        She says, I’m the one whose always calm, so cool, running every show (ego) He scares me so (scared of Love)

• ·        Her constant question is, “What’s it all about?”

• ·        He scares me so, I want him so, I love him so

Clearly the character is confused about Love. I think it’s because she’s looking at Love as a physical thing while experiencing it Spiritually (as a heart and mind thing).

When we think of Love only in physical terms, confusion reigns.

When we express love only in physical terms, we can only imagine what spiritual Love is like.

You don’t have to imagine.

You can know.

And you know now when you participate in what Charles Fillmore referred to as “second baptism.”

Let’s begin first with, “What is Baptism?” Baptism is a ceremony in which we dedicate our life to spiritual ideals. Baptism is also the activity of cleansing and purifying the soul and the mind.

What is “Second Baptism?”

Mr. Fillmore says, “Don’t be baptized into the church once and let that suffice, but be baptized every time you need it. When you find that you are not getting on in your spiritual development it is very necessary that you be baptized again. Deny something. Search your mind and find out what mortal thought you are building that is interfering with the perfect expression of the Spirit.” (Second Baptism 7/16/1916)

Maybe a better way to think of this is as “Ongoing Baptism.” Whenever you are not “getting on” in your spiritual development, baptize (cleanse) your negative and limiting thoughts.

Mr. Fillmore urges us to take a proactive stance in pursuit of what the first song, “could only imagine,” and the second song could feel the presence of, but was uncertain how to relate to it: Love.

I really have no idea of how to define capital L Love. I could say it’s, “The essence of God’s being,” but that doesn’t really do it and the reason is capital L Love is an experience unlike any other thing, an experience beyond all definition. The only way I know to experience it is to remove the blocks to the awareness of its presence.  When the blocks have been removed Love flows forth in our experience. We don’t have to generate it, we don’t have to think about, or choose to extend it; we simply “let.”

Nearly 100 years ago, in 1916, Mr. Fillmore suggested we “re-baptize” every time we need it. Baptism is, after all, between you and Spirit, and the cleansing of destructive thought can be experienced whenever you wish.

Deny something, then follow it with an affirmation.

Deny a statement or a thought that is not true. And follow it with a positive statement of truth.

I have to do this all the time to keep the rats away, so to speak. Baptism, the cleansing of the mind, is an ongoing process, not a “one-and-done” ceremony.

If you no longer want to “only imagine,” if you want to know how to “Love Him,” the Lord, your God, practice continuous baptism.

Searching

Sunday, October 19, 2014

          Today is my birthday, so I thought I’d talk a little about, well, me. ;-)

          When I look back on the many things I’ve done in my life I can see a trend that I would describe as searching and exploring.

Others in my family may have seen it as “That kid just can’t hold down a job.” A cousin once asked, “So what are you doing now?” That question kind of stung and it was a fair question considering I was almost always discontent with what I was doing, and looking for something else.

          When I would analyze, which I don’t do anymore, I would wonder if I came into the world as a searcher and explorer. I am told that when I was a toddler I had the propensity to wander away from home when outside. Some people won’t let their dog off the leash outside because they’re afraid they’ll run away. I don’t know if I really did toddle away or if this was my sisters’ plan to have to not watch me. ;-) Regardless, my parent’s solution to this was to purchase a harness for me and connect me to the fence with a length of clothesline. I don’t know just why, but I apparently graduated from that setup to being hooked to my Aunt Marie’s clothesline – we lived in a tiny, tiny, house in the backyard of my mother’s sister Marie, and her husband Harry. I guess this clothesline setup gave me more access to the yard.

          Was I a natural born wanderer or did they not want to deal with keeping their eye on me?

If I didn’t come into the world predisposed to adventure, maybe I learned it from my family life. From the time I was born until I left home for good at age 18, we lived in seven different houses. That’s a new address on the average of every 2.5 years. I also attended 10 different schools between kindergarten and 12^th grade. Change was a way of life.

I even wanted to change my name.

I started collecting stamps when I was in, maybe, sixth grade. I would send away for stamps under a different name, Luke, instead of Brad because I didn’t like my first name. I chose Luke because my Aunt Lillian and Uncle Ray had given me a Bible based board game and all I can remember at this point is if you landed on a square with a particular quote from Luke you basically won the game. I guess I wanted to be associated with a winner!

So, I wandered as a toddler, we moved a lot, and I was constantly at a new school, I wanted to change my name; change, change, change.

 After I joined the workforce change continued. I had job after job after job. (I quit counting them up when I hit 30).

One of my sisters told me her husband said to her, “Your brother is never going to amount to anything.”

I guess I could say, in retrospect, through all that change that I was seeking peace and happiness. I just didn’t know then that peace and happiness wasn’t found in anything outside myself… at least not lasting peace and happiness… until this question was posed to me, “Do you have your own direct connection with God?” I started to work toward establishing a connection with God until I came to understand that I am connected, and always have had my own direct connection with God. At this point I realize the question should be, “Are you aware of your direct connection with God?”

A movie I saw a week or so ago began with this Mark Twain quote: “The two most important days of your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why.”

My job in life is to be aware of my oneness with the spirit of truth that is available to each of us and joins all of us… and to let that be what informs my thoughts and actions.

To be consciously aware takes conscious work.

“Our most important study is our own mind, not only the intellectual mind but the spiritual mind. "Know thyself" was inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi; and it must be inscribed on our own temple, "over" the door of our mind. "Know thyself." We must become acquainted with our own mind.” (Fillmore, Keep A True Lent p/38)

"Know thyself"; know who and what you are, where you came from, what you are doing here, and where you are going. If you want to know all this, meditate upon the I AM.” (Fillmore, Talks on Truth p/76)

          What is the I AM?

          The I AM is your Spiritual identity; the real you, the Christ Mind of each individual. God is I AM, and we, God’s offspring, are also I AM. I AM is the indwelling life, love, wisdom, and all the ideas eternally in Divine Mind.

The I AM is your true nature, the name of the spiritual self, as distinguished from the name of the human self. One is governed by Spirit, the other by personal will. Jesus called it the Father. I AM is eternal, without beginning or ending: the true spiritual being whom God made in His image and likeness.

Lead the “small you” – your personality – out of its narrowness and into the expansive everywhere-consciousness of the great and only I AM. We identify ourselves with that to which we attach our awareness, and whatever we identify our self with we manifest.

Mr. Fillmore would say, “Hitch your  I AM to the star of Christ, and infinite joy will follow as surely as the day follows the night.”

Be observant, watch your thoughts and ask yourself, “Do these typical thoughts lead me to peace and happiness or am I pulled back into the same old experience, like a leaf in an eddy in a stream?”

One vital requirement of self-observation is self-acceptance rather than self-condemnation. Self-condemnation mires us deeper and deeper into the very thing from which we’re trying to move on.

Meditation, contemplation, acceptance, renewal, expression.

When I was much younger I was riding a friends motorcycle through town. I was stopped by a policeman and issued a traffic ticket for failing to make a full stop, failure to signal my turn and speeding – 38 in a 35. I figured the ticket was bogus because I was being targeted for the way I looked (longhair, long beard, jeans, denim shirt, denim jacket, black helmet, dark round sunglasses)  so I never showed up to court.

A few years later when I thought my apartment had been broken into, even though I couldn’t find anything missing (which was easy because I didn’t own anything other than my clothes, a TV, and a mattress on the floor, and a few enough dishes), I thought “the right thing to do is to call the police, just in case.” Imagine my surprise when, after they checked my apartment and then arrested me for failure to appear in court, hand-cuffed me, and led me away!

I hope you’ll really let this idea of contemplating your true nature and living from its direction… I hope you’ll really let it get inside of you so you can step out into the stream of life that will take you to lasting peace and happiness instead of the jail you find yourself in because of the eddy of your thinking.

ho 'oponopono

Sunday, October 12, 2014

I’d like to begin today by asking you to solve this addition problem,

123   

654   

878   

954

Who has an answer?

Describe to me the procedure you went through to solve this addition problem.

(Example: I totaled the numbers in the right-most column, 19, wrote down the nine and carried the one to the middle column; added those numbers, 20, wrote down the zero and carried the two to the first column; totaled those numbers (26) and wrote that down. Solution 2609. Another answer might be: I got out my calculator and added up the numbers.)

Would it be fair to say you used the principles of mathematics to solve this addition problem?

How many of you attempted to solve this problem by asking mathematics to do it while you sat back waiting for it to be done?

One of the things that sets Unity, and all “new Thought” communities apart from traditional Christianity is we believe that God has instilled in us the same “powers” that God possesses. We all possess these same “powers,” powers that are set into motion through the use of spiritual principle. We possess these powers but they are not of our making. They were placed in us, by God, at our creation.

We have full use of them. They were a gift to us at our creation. We must consciously include God in the use of these principles for them to be most effective.

We have the principles of the workings of math and we don’t ask mathematics to solve our math problems; we apply those principles ourselves.

If you have a car, do you ask the source from which you obtained your car to drive you to your destination for you or do you operate it according to the rules of the road?

Jesus tells us we have the power to heal. Do you ask God to heal you or others, or do you apply those principles of healing yourself?

We apply them for ourselves.

In spiritual healing it is important for us to be aware of the same thing as in math and having a car. We have the power to heal and to do so we must use the principles of healing.

The clearer we are about the principles amd their source, the more effective the results.

You may remember a man from the movie, “The Secret.” His name is Dr. Joe Vitale. Dr. Viltale wrote a book, ZERO LIMITS, and the story I am about to tell you comes from his book.

·        He heard a story about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them.

·        How did he do such a thing?

·        The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness .(It would take a book to address the assertion, “…he created that person’s illness.” For now, we are just going to let that declaration go.) As he improved himself, the patient improved.

·        When Vitale first heard this story, he thought it was an urban legend, it didn't make any sense, so he dismissed the story.

·        H writes that he heard that story again a year later… that this therapist used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. Vitale says, I had to know more.

·        The therapist’s name is Dr. Hew Len.

·        He worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years.

·        Dr. Len said the ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous.

·        Psychologists quit on a monthly basis.

·        The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit.

·        People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients.

·        It was not says Dr. Len, a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

·        Dr. Len went on to say that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files, but he never saw patients.

·        While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

·        "After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely," Len told Vitale.

·        "Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications.

·        And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed and the staff began to enjoy coming to work.

·        Absenteeism and turnover disappeared.

·        Today, that ward is closed."

This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: "What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?"

Dr. Len’s answer delves into perhaps, the deepest of metaphysics. I am going to give you a kind of “superficial answer.” We are just going to float on the pool of metaphysics this morning.

“Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life - simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility.” (To extend love to) (made after the image and in the likeness – confusion about this passage – God is Love, God extends, or radiates, love. That’s our job, too. God’s love, true love, heals)

I’m going to tweak his answer just a bit into something that can be used in a “more graspable” way; that total responsibility for your life means that you are responsible for the feelings you feel about everything in your life - simply because it is in your life—

“…that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life - simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility to extend love to.”

 We are, after all, made after the image and in the likeness of God, God is Love, God extends, or radiates, love. That’s our job, too. God’s love, true love, heals.

“This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy--anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than taking  responsibility for your thoughts and feelings, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho 'oponopono means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone--even a mentally ill criminal--you do it by healing you.

Loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.

Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you.

"When you look, do it with love."