Sunday, November 24, 2013

This past Sunday several members of the congregation spoke a little bit about themselves and also shared a meaningful spiritual experience they’d experienced.

          There is no recap of those messages.

          In addition to the bullet points published on this pages, I also publisher the entire text of nearly every week’s talk. My sister Diane passed away on July 2^nd of this year. I spoke about that on Sunday the 7^th but somehow never published my talk.  You can read it here.  It is titled Positive Spiritual Practice.

Responsibility

Here are a few bullet points to jog the memories of those who attended service on Sunday, November 17, 2013. The full text of the service can be read here.

·        What is your primary responsibility in life?

·        Children? But what if you have no children?

·        Your spouse/ partner/ significant other? But what if you are not in a relationship?

·        The planet, humanity, social justice?

·        What, as the saying goes is, “Yours to do?”

·        In regard to the world, I have no idea. In life I would say it’s to be responsible for your consciousness, now. (or as it’s sometimes said, “Know Thyself”.)

·        This is first and foremost, not to the exclusion of anyone or anything else, but always ahead of any responsibilities in the world.

·        Everything you make yourself responsible for in the world is greatly enhanced by “knowing yourself.”

·        When you take responsibility for your consciousness, the world is transformed.

·        You are an important part of the transformation of the world.

·        “It’s not primarily what you do. There is something more primary than what you do and that’s what you express through your state of consciousness. What you do flows through your state of consciousness.” (Tolle)

·        When we get upset about what we perceive others do not know, about them being unconscious, it would be good to put into action these words of Jesus, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Prosperity Sunday #3

A few bullet points to jog the memory of those who attended service Sunday, October 27, 2013 - to read the full text, click  here.

          * On the last Sunday of each month we are reviewing one chapter from Rev. Eric Butterworth's book SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS, this is "Prosperity Sunday #3."

* This week's chapter is The Law of Visualization, “Having seen and felt the end, you have willed the means to the realization of the end.”

* From the book, page 49, “We have been conditioned to believe that life is lived from the outside-in. We see things “out there,” and we react with attitudes and feelings about them. Without question, what we see is as it is.  [and thus we think] Seeing is believing!”

* According to that statement, seeing is believing, our eyes tell us what we see. Our eyes report back to the brain what is there in front of us.

* A paragraph or so later Butterworth writes, “What the mind sees is not this picture that is communicated to the brain, but what your awareness has conditioned you to see. In other words, seeing is not believing; believing is seeing! You see things, not as they are, but as you are.”

* If we actually saw what was in front of us, no two people could ever have a differing opinion about what occurred.

* This chapter tells us how we see and how we need to think. These are two very important things to know.

* The first of those two things, how we see, is, “We see with the mind.”

* Now, how do we need to think? When things in our life go awry, we generally think, “I’ve got to set this right.”  Butterworth suggests that, “More important than setting it right is seeing it rightly.”

* What Butterworth means by seeing things rightly is recognizing that our experience of what’s occurring “out there” is a reflection of what’s occurring within us.

* Charles Fillmore wrote, “Turn the great (bulk) of your thinking toward ‘plenty’ ideas and you will have plenty regardless of what men about you are saying or doing.” Prosperity page 13 (insertion is mine)

* On page 57 of the book, Butterworth writes one sentence that gives us advice on how we need to think. In my opinion it’s the single most important sentence in the book. Again, in my opinion, taking this advice on as your living experience is the single biggest step you can take toward turning your life to one of prosperity.

* “The secret of achieving prosperity lies in so vividly keeping yourself centered in the inner focus of affluence that you literally exude the consciousness of it.”

* Here’s another way of saying the same thing: The secret of achieving prosperity lies in deeply, vividly, believing within you in the ever-presence of affluence (prosperity) that you literally radiate the consciousness of it.

* This one sentence is the core. Don’t forget it.

* If you have not yet come to live and understand this, you will.

* I believe in you wholeheartedly.

Faith and Prayer

A few bullet points to jog the memory of those who attended service Sunday, October 20, 2013   -   To read the full text, click here.

         *Faith is the key to the Kingdom of Power within you. One of the aspects of the Kingdom of Power within you is the ability to create. 

          *Our way of thinking creates the experience of our life.

          *Faith is powerful and we all have faith. Our faith is either positive or negative. I don’t believe there is any such thing as no faith (“I don’t really have any faith.”) or neutral faith (“I’m neither here nor there about that…”). When we don’t have positive faith we have negative faith.

          *It is valuable to do an occasional self-inventory to observe the quality of our thinking; is it positive or negative? (all non-positive thinking is negative)

          *The quality of our thinking shows us the type of faith we are expressing.

          *When we are engaged in negative thinking, we are expressing negative faith and that faith unlocks the creative power within us in a way that works against our Good.

          *When we are engaged in positive thinking, we are expressing positive faith and that faith unlocks the creative power within us in a way that works for our Good.

          *When you pray, pray in a positive manner (unlocking “positive creative power” within you), affirming what you would like to experience in your life. All Prayer is answered through inspiration. Pay attention to your thoughts and the people and circumstances around you.

          *God Loves everyone; no exceptions.

          *God answers all prayer; no exceptions.

          *Have faith in that.

The Healing Power of Gratitude and Extending Love

Charlie Brooks spoke on Sunday about his experiences at the time of, and after, his motorcycle accident in June of 2012.

          Clearly Charlie felt blessed by the fact that two registered nurses were present among the people who stopped to help after his crash in the desolate spaces east of Albuquerque, NM.

          There were two things that really stood out to me about Charlie’s comments:

·        When he was speaking about experiencing the Presence of God he said, “Just allow it to be. There is tremendous power in allowing and extending Love.”

·        Charlie was seriously physically damaged from the accident and spent many, many days and nights confined to his bed. Rather than focus on what might be viewed as his unfortunate condition he spent his time in meditation and prayer for others.

Thank you, Charlie for sharing your story with us and demonstrating the healing power of gratitude and extending love to others.  We are blessed because of it.

Prosperity Sunday #2

There is no abbreviated version for Sunday, October 6, 2013. Please click here to read the full text.

Go To Your Roots

A few bullet points to jog the memory of those who attended service Sunday, September 29th, 2013   -   To read the full text, click here.

 “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13, not “I can do all things through my own individual strength and power.”

 

Paul is talking about a man and I think he misses the point. He’s talking about a man rather than what the man, Jesus, demonstrated – what I would call, “God in our soul.” (Soul=sub-conscious mind where divine ideas are present and out-picture into our physical life according to our thinking/belief)

What Jesus demonstrates is, as I said, God in our soul. When God extended Itself (created us), It placed in our soul Its likeness and image – not that we then take It unto ourselves as our individual power. I would say it’s more like the link to that power.  We open the door to that link and connect to the power that’s “on other side” and together, in partnership, not on our own but in partnership, we have power and can do all things.

The road to success, spiritual and otherwise, hasn’t been a straight, easy drive.   

In 1976, Steve Chandler had an interview with the famous bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger had recently retired from his sport, and Chandler asked him about his future plans.  Arnold replied, "I'm going to be the number one
box office star in all of Hollywood."  Chandler wanted to laugh, but he restrained himself.  Here was a guy with the body of Goliath, an accent as thick as paste, and almost no acting experience.  Box-office stardom seemed an unlikely goal.  But Schwarzenegger had thought it through very carefully.  He said, "It's the same process used in bodybuilding.  What you do is create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture, as if it were already true.”

 This is precisely what Jesus was saying in Mark 11:24 when he said, when you pray – pray believing that you have ALREADY received!

 

There is a lot of truth in a tree. A tree is lush at the top. It has leaves. A healthy tree goes far out and gives you shade. But any gardener will tell you that if you water or fertilize the tree, you have to circle, on the ground, the outermost branch line. This is where the ends of the roots are. You cannot see the roots, but they are there.

Here’s the point: a tree is identical on top to what the root system is underneath.

It is the same with us. There is a root system and a foundation in your life.

What you are rooted in in your mind is what appears in your life.

What are you rooted in and what’s the depth and breadth of those roots?

It can be a very real, powerful foundation, if you have a solid root system that is grounded in an awareness of the presence of God.

We need deep roots in God. We need to unlock that link I spoke about earlier… to the awareness of the Power and Presence of God.

How do we do this?

1.                              We have to consent to the magnificent power of God coming though us.

2.                              We must also travel in a circle of positive friends who believe in us and believe in what we can, and God can, achieve together… not in what we cannot do.

3.                              Pray believing that you have already received.

4.                              And in the words of Molly Friedenfeld, “Focus on faith and grow your roots strong so no one can make you believe in something that is not good for your soul.”