2014 Annual Picnic

        Sunday, September 28, 2014

          Here are the headlines from various Friday papers:

1.     The Gulf News (United Arab Emarites): “2,917 Ebola deaths in West Africa”

2.     Muncie Star Press: “AG hounds school, city embezzlers”

3.     The Buffalo News: “Armed more, but not to the hilt”

4.     The nambian: “Telecom fails to pay salaries” and “Clients panic as Standard Bank system crashes”

5.     The Times of London: “Avenge my Father, says daughter of aid worker”

Now here’s the headline that should be in every paper reporting difficult times: No matter what outer appearances look like God is with you.

 We can never make an outer solid foundation in our lives living life through only the material world: things, circumstances, conditions. God is with you. No matter how big a crisis may loom in your outer life, no matter how bad the diagnosis from the doctor, God is with you.

God is a God of miracles.

God is a God of better-than-expected outcomes.

God is a God of the HIGHER working of the law of life.

When we do turn to the awareness of the HIGHER power of God, we are in tune, again, with “miracles” that can occur in and through our lives.

Newspapers and all varieties of media are information sources to which most of us are connected to on a daily basis. What we need is a HIGHER information source especially during times of human difficulty. We need something to hold onto when we see pictures and images like the beheadings performed by ISIS, and again this past Friday in an incident in Oklahoma. We need to make a spiritual connection so that we can stay in contact with the truth of God.

What do you spend more time with on a daily basis, worldly media… or maintaining your awareness of your connection with God?

We have the capability to remain aware of our connection with God and that automatically gives us all the capacity that we will ever need to, shall I say, “Flatten out the trials and tribulations in our lives.” Remaining aware of our connection with God will unlock undreamed-of possibilities to implement “miracle” help in our lives and in the lives of others.

A woman who had recently faced great difficulty in her personal life was asked this question, "How do you hold on? What do you do?"

If you want information that is beyond the physical world of turmoil, turn to the Bible. If you want information that is not bad news, but good news, turn to the Bible… if you find that calls you higher.

Turn to A Course In Miracles if you find that calls you higher.

Turn to the Daily Word if you find that calls you higher.

Turn to Guideposts Magazine.

Turn to Science of Mind Magazine.

Turn to the works of Abraham-Hicks. Turn to Unity books.

Turn to the words and ideas you hear here on Sunday’s.

Turn to Rumi.

Turn to Wayne Dyer.

Turn to Joel Osteen.

Turn to whomever or whatever calls you higher and brings you peace (Note: “checking out” might bring you seeming peace in the moment but that doesn’t qualify as “going higher”).

I believe that God doesn’t care what form you use to open the door to peace because God (peace) is always with you. The outer forms are just doorways to the inner release of God.

When it seems there is none to be found anywhere, God will give you great comfort. You will become aware of something that is beyond disorder confined to time and space. You'll become aware of something that will give you courage because it is eternal Truth. You’ll become aware of something that is for you personally, for your own personal life, in a very specific way. Awareness of the Presence of God will give you this.

A woman by the name of Julie Bradshaw of South Carolina tells the story what happened to her after making a commitment to connect with the Presence of God within her.

She had been participating in an on-line dating service and contacted a man whose profile interested her. His response to her, she said, “… was somewhat brusque.” Because he didn’t return her interest she chose to send him an angry and accusatory reply.

Shortly afterwards she told her dearest friend who rebuked her asking why she routinely gets so angry when she doesn’t like someone’s response.

Julie was initially taken aback but thinking it over realized, “This particular behavior pattern had been an integral social skill set for her.” She also realized she neither knew the origin of the pattern, nor could she stop it.

Julie says she prayed to the Holy Spirit for an answer to why this negative knee-jerk pattern had such control over her. A few days later she received her answer. She said while running errands she became aware of an inner voice that said, “Beloved, do you not realize that you and this young man are playing the same game? He was afraid you were not really interested in him and he backed away. You were afraid he was not really interested in you and you attacked. You were playing the same game in different ways.”

Then she has this realization that she learned to be aggressive playing Monopoly. Her mother had taught her to play with an aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach. When she wanted to play Monopoly with other kids and they didn’t want to play with her (because she sucked all the fun out of the game) she would become aggressive and attack them verbally because they backed away withdrawing their energy from her. Julie, then, adopted this as her way to deal with all of life!

God, she said, had led her to a whole new way of looking at a situation that had brought her pain in the past.

She slowly began to heal. She understood that she no longer needed to attack as a defense. When she felt the urge to attack she was able to step back and modify her thinking which then modified her behavior in a true and lasting way. She was able to stop herself before she could be hurtful toward someone else.

Let me read to you the final paragraph from the book from which this story comes. The Book is “When God Spoke To Me.”

“This experience opened the door to allow God’s Voice (as she calls it) to be an integral part of my life. I may have sometimes been shown a piece of myself I’d never seen clearly before, and have sometimes had to face aspects of myself that weren’t serving me, but my life is now enriched by the presence of God’s Voice (you could also call this ‘inspiration’) on a continual basis. I feel blessed to know this source of Love and guiding compassion accompanies me on every step of my path through life, and is ready to offer me advice whenever I want it. I need only ask.

Julie Bradshaw’s story validates the headline I suggested be run in every paper reporting difficult times: No matter what outer appearances look like (or have been) God is with you. And as Julie says, all we need do is ask.

So I suggest you consider spending quiet time connecting with and communing in the peace God each day instead of oh-my-goshing-ain’t-it-awfuling about world events.

2 Corinthians 4:16 tells us, “Our inner nature is being renewed every day.”

Let us let our inner nature be one of peace rather than attack. Let us let peace be what is renewed in us every day.

God bless you and thank you for being here today.