Gratitude

 For those who were at service on Sunday, January 13, 2013 a few bullet points to jog your memory:

·        An attitude of gratitude brings altitude

·        When we are “at altitude” we can see a larger picture

·        Spiritually speaking gratitude allows our hearts to open and see “a larger picture” of our attitudes and our circumstances.

·        Spiritually speaking gratitude allows our hearts to open and see “a larger picture” of other people in our world; a world beyond the words our ears hear and the “pictures” our eyes see.

·        The more we extend gratitude, the greater our hearts are open. The greater our hearts are open the more Love naturally flows from us.  The more Love that naturally flows from us the more we experience love.  What we give is returned to us a thousand fold or even a hundred thousand fold.

·        The more love we give in our lives, the more love we know in our lives and love is the emotion we feel when we are joined with God.

·        Just like a fireplace needs fuel to burn (wood, coal, peat, gas, etc) in order to generate heat. Gratitude is one of the kinds of fuel that our heart burns in order to generate love.

·        Romans (1:21) “for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

·        Now let’s restate that from the positive, “for they knew God, they did honor Him as God and give thanks to Him, thus they became useful in their thinking, and their wise hearts were luminous.”

·        Gratitude is the fuel of an illumed heart.

 

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To read the complete text of "Gratitude" from Sunday, January 13, 2013,  click here.

Living a Full Life, part 1

For those who were at service on Sunday, January 6, 2013, a few bullet points to jog your memory:

Christmas is over and what are you doing with our gifts?  Are you using them or have you put them away so nothing can happen to them?

In the parable of the three talents, the two servants who used what they were given to be in charge of experienced increase.  The one, who, for fear of loss, buried what he was in charge of, experienced no increase.

And so it is with our God given gifts, one of which is the awareness of the Presence of God. Use that awareness and our life “increases.” Hold it back and our life experience is stagnant.

Another gift of God is compassion.  Our world, both inner and outer, is crying out for compassion.

People, who exercise their gifts (the awareness of the Presence of God, compassion, etc.) day after day, little by little expand their experience of those gifts (we experience what we express).  People who do not exercise their gifts find that they wither away and life becomes more and more distressing.

Matthew 7:16, “By their fruit ye shall know them.”

Matthew 7:26, “And everyone who hears these sayings of mine and who does not do them shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.”

James 1:22, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

Clearly the scripture above and the Parable of the Three Talents indicate the necessity of action in applying spiritual “ideas,” or “principles.”

Aristotle, “In order to learn the things we need to know, we learn by doing.”

Exercise your gifts and live a full life 

Stright Line Connection

For those who were at service on Sunday, December 2, 2012, a few bullet points to jog your memory:

• As demonstrated by nature, transformation is a regular occurrence
• Tadpoles transform into frogs
• caterpillars transform into butterflies
• What about us? Can we transform our belief in ourselves as primarily human to the awareness and experience of our identity as divine?
• When the day comes that we realize, "There must be a better way," transformation begins
• Our trip through transformation likely will include these moving through these ideas:  
• (1) We say, “I’m not just a human being.  I’m a being with the Creators potential.”   
• (2) Then the day comes when we think of ourselves as more than just a limited person with potential – we think of ourselves as a child of God, just as Jesus said we were.
• One of the hardest tasks we'll face on our journey is the dissolution of our crippling negative self-talk
• "Once you make a sincere effort to tackle your dysfunctional thinking you'll have fewer bouts of depression, anger, shame, etc." (A paraphrase of Dr. Don Colbert in his book, "Deadly Emotions: Understand the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection That Can Heal or Destroy You"
• "Replacing lies with God's truth isn't hard. It just takes intentional and consistent effort" (ibid.)
• If you are stuck in negative thinking, bathe yourself in truth; in thinking about God; in extending love to your circumstances, conditions and thoughts so that you may know the truth... that sets you free

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To read the complete text from Sunday, December 2, 2012,  click here.

Gratitude

Hi.  No Monday Message today.  Yesterday the congregation shared the service expressing what they were thankful for.

I hope your Thanksgiving was enriching and that we all remember to be grateful everyday.

Bless everything,
Rev. Brad

"But-Head"

For those who were at service on Sunday, November 18, 2012, a few bullet points to jog your memory:

• Please don’t take this the wrong way.  I have to ask, “How big is your “but?””

• The “but” I’m talking about is your, “Yeah, I know, but…” followed by a reason why some good idea (aka application of spiritual principle) won’t work for them.  “But… thinking” is what keeps us stuck in our experience.

• I hear, “yeah, but…” a lot as the reason why people aren’t willing to choose a different path of thinking that will lead them away from the experiences that come with their entrenched habits.

• “But thinking” is a choice that keeps us stuck.  Is being a “but-head” working for you? :o)

• We are here to find freedom.    
• Freedom is having a sense of complete well-being regardless of our circumstances or conditions 

• We find freedom by choosing to live by proven spiritual principles, (aka a God-centered life, Christ consciousness) in any given moment. 

• Spiritual freedom is a choice.

• We want to push away our feelings – I hear this all the time – “I don’t want this, I’m tired of this, I want to get rid of this feeling.”  Then I might suggest a spiritual approach and that’s when it comes out, “Yeah, I know, but…” Have you ever heard yourself say this?

• I once heard a man say, “The healing is in the feeling.”

• I believe we have to feel our feelings in order to heal them.

• What we resist persists… looms larger.

• Feel your feelings and act from spirit no matter how loudly your feelings invite you not to.

• Freedom is a choice.  Make a commitment to choose Spirit over fear.

• A woman tells a story about the day her son came into her office to tell her he was going to make a parachute jump the next day, what he was going to do and how he was going to do it the next day when he made that jump.  She said she could also hear the fear in his voice.  “Yet,” she said, “it was about feeling the fear and doing it anyway.”

• The next time the pressure is on and you want a change, don’t fall back into old patterns of pushing away the pressure…don’t be a “but-head…” feel the pressure and choose to express Spirit. :o)

 
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To read the complete text of "But-Head " from Sunday, November 18, 2012,  click here.

Spiritual People

For those who were at service on Sunday, November 11, 2012, a few bullet points to jog your memory:

• Who are you?
• What is your profession?
• I suggest the answer to both these questions is, "Spiritual person."
• Spiritual person is our profession.  Anything else we do in the world is our avocation.
• A spiritual person demonstrates the following three characteristics (among others):
• "Risk Taker"
• Step out and follow God, even when it's not in the normal flow of the people around you
• "Visionary"
• Lives for what is forthcoming.  Sees the good, the perfect pattern of God, and they are willing to do whatever needs to be done now to let that pattern emerge.
• "Outrageous"
• We have found our spirituality because we were looking for something that didn't fit the normal flow, something that we could use every day of our lives to live in an unusual, fulfilling, incredible space where we are aware of God's presence every moment in our lives. When we become willing to be outrageous enough to see God's design for our lives, we become willing to do what it will take to fulfill that design.
•  Jesus demonstrated these characteristics
• "Risk Taker"
• He dared to challenge the scribes and the Pharisees 
• "Visionary"
• He looked around at a time when people had very little, when they were struggling to find their daily bread, and said to them, "The kingdom of heaven is within you, and it is God's good pleasure to give you the fullness of that kingdom."
• "Outrageous"
• He ate with publicans and sinners; forgave an adulteress; touched lepers; stood before the tomb of his friend Lazarus and said, "Come forth," knowing absolutely that his friend would arise; was crucified, died, buried, and rose up.  Then He goes an outrageous step further and says to us, "These things that I have done, you can do also, and even greater things."  Definitely, He was not your average person
• What must it be like to live within and from the power and Presence of God?
• Take the risk of the visionary and in outrageous contentment live that life.

God Bless you.
 
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To read the complete text of "Spiritual People" from Sunday, November 11, 2012,  click here.

The Kidney Stone

For those who were at service on Sunday, September 16, 2012, a few bullet points to jog your memory:

·        I was in the hospital for a kidney stone

·        Kidney stones are small (mine was about 1.5 mm, the width of a penny)

·        How can something so small have such a big impact?

·        A small thing such as a misplaced, thoughtless, or unkind word directed at another (or ourselves) can be the catalyst for suffering and pain 

·        Jesus counsels us in Matthew 17:20 that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed (or a kidney stone?) we can move mountains

·        Even a small dedication to spiritual principles will have a big impact on your life

·        Attending to “the small things” with spiritual principles (before they turn into unnecessary mountains) will have a big impact on your life

·        How do we do this?

·        “Step back and let God lead the way” (listen to our inner guidance… let divine wisdom sit on the seat of authority)

·        This can be difficult because we have been trained to be in control of our lives.  If we want something, we are told to go out there and make it happen

·        There is a light in you, in everyone; the Light of God… and the universe and all that it contains is longing to behold your release of this Light.  The entire universe and all it contains is waiting to join with you in the Light of God.  As you step back, the Light in you steps forward and encompasses the world in happy union.

·        You are the Light of the world, and that is no small thing!

·        “Step back” and let the Light of God shine in every little thing you do

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To read the complete text of "The Kidney Stone" from Sunday, October 14, 2012,  click here.