Friday, November 28, 2008
What Is Good?
Today I am resolved to see only the good in everyone and in every event. Light can have no union with darkness; evil has no affinity with good. If good is the great Reality, while evil is the great negation or denial of Reality, then it follows that we should see the good in everything and recognize the apparent evil merely as a theoretical opposite of good. However, there is not God and something else. God has no equal or opposite. The Divine Spirit of God inhabits eternity; overshadows everything, including human events through history and today; dwells within our own soul; and is released through our own act of consciousness.
I am resolved today to see the good in everyone and in every event. I will call upon the good and will refuse to accept that anything other than good can come into my experience.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Deep Within Me
All the Love in all the world is right here, right now with me. I now cease all self-oppposition or self-degradation. I hear only the voice of Love, speaking to me. I hear nothing but the words of Wisdom, guiding and inspiring me. And when I listen there is a response from something greater than myself. It is the mysterious energy of Love, the active principle of unity with creation. Everything loves, and everything responds to love. It is a universal quality, shared alike by all, the central flame of the Universe called God.
Desiring to be loved, I allow myself to love greatly, to feel warmly inclined toward all people, and to be helpful on their behalf. I give as I wish to receive. As I love and cooperate with other people, so do they love me and give me their cooperation. My loving thoughts attract caring friends to me.
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.--Matthew 12:15
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Look Unto Me
Isaiah was an 8th-century BC Judean prophet who declared that all the world belonged to God and that God will destroy it. "The land will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word." (Isaiah 24:3). Isaiah therefore warns the people of the world to turn to God.
The verse from Isaiah that has been on my mind this week is in Isaiah 45, verse 22. "Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other."
"Look unto me"..... means to to turn to, to face or to recognize who God is.
"and be saved" ......means to be set free.
"all the ends of the earth".... refers to the earth at large, all common things to creation, not just the Hebrew people.
"for I am God".....Isaiah is saying that God is our strength, and we must realize that God is the source of all things.
"and there is no other." Isaiah is stating that there is nothing else but God. There is nothing outside the Life of God.
As we live in the Life of God as created we either begin to reflect the true perfect nature of our creator or we begin to construct an unnatural view of self and a life that is nothing more than an elusion much like a shadow that appears to be real but in truth has no substance. As our existence becomes more identified with the elusion of self, our lives like the land mentioned by Isaiah will be "completely laid waste and totally plundered."
As the Jewish mind was evolving toward understanding the true nature of God, Isaiah in his time opened a small window that led to greater understanding. There is One Life that exist and that is the Life of God and out this Life there is One Mind that creates and sustains everything.
It seems so simple, "Look unto me" and nowhere else and you will be set free. You are set free to realize that your life exist only in the Life of God, no where else. In the Mind and Life of God, the concept of fear, of death, lack or limitation has no reality, therefore we should not recognize any legitimacy in these things in our own thought and experiences.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Shadows
Because my life exist in the Life of God I know that every apparent death is a resurrection. I know that fear, doubt, thoughts of lack or limitation are shadows of my past and do not exist in Reality.
Knowing this I now claim health instead of sickness, wealth instead of poverty, happiness instead of misery. Every thought of fear or limitation is removed from my consciousness. I know that my word transmutes every energy into constructive action, producing health, harmony, happiness, joy, peace and great success. I know that there is something at the center of my being that is absolutely certain of itself. It has complete assurance and it gives me complete assurance that all is well. Silently I pass from less to more, from isolation to inclusion, from separation into oneness. This perfect Law of God is operating through me. Joyfully and thankfully I accept it.
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.--Maori Proverb
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Healthy Level of Insanity
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice!
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ' For Marijuana.
6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.
7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.
9. Sing Along At The Opera.
10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.
11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'
12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'
13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'
And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity
14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Everlasting Arms
But God will increase the guidance of the already guided. --The Koran
If God is my refuge, why is it that I refuse to avail myself fo this divine security? The Psalmist tells us that "the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him.....in truth." This can have but one meaning. We cannot call upon God in truth unless we enter into the Divine Nature in truth, that is, we cannont expect love to become hate, nor peace to enter into confusion. If we would call upon God in truth, we must become like the truth. This is the seemingly unfathomable mystery of the infinite, invisible Essence of Spirit that surrounds us. Jesus tells us that if we abide in Him, then His words will abide in us, and we shall ask for anything that we will and it shall be done unto us. The everlasting arms are beneath, but they bear us up only when we enter into the truth. The Koran tells us that God increases our guidance once we have guidance. This is a mystical way of saying that if we believe in Divine Guidance, then we will be divinely guided. "Act as though I am, and I will be." Believe and it shall be done unto you."
Today I believe in Divine Guidance. Today, I believe that underneath are the everlasting arms. Today I rest in this divine assurance and this divine security. I know that not only all is well with my soul, my spirit, and my mind, all is well with my affairs.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The American Veteran
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
It is the VETERAN who salutes the Flag, It is the Veteran who serves under the Flag.
It is the VETERAN who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country and the freedoms we enjoy.
Be very proud of our young men and women in the service today, no matter where they serve. God Bless them all!!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
I Am Alive.
O ye people, earth-born folk, ye who have given yourselves to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of God, be sober now, cease from your surfeit, cease to be glamoured by irrational sleep! --Hermes
If ye knew God as God ought to be known, ye would walk on the seas, and the mountains would move at your call. --The Kashf Al-Mahjub
"For now we see through a glass, darkly." How familiar this passage might be to many of us, but what does it mean other than that our vision is clouded by a material sense of things? Hermes tells us that we are both drunk and asleep, that we are ignorant of God. Emerson tells us that once in a while we awake from our slumber and look about us to perceive the world of reality, but too soon sink back again into sleep. And from another ancient text, quoted above, we are told that if we knew God as we ought to, we would be able to walk on the seas, that the mountains would come at our call. All progress is an awakening. Every new scientific fact is a discovery. This also is an awakening. It is really true that we are largely asleep, dreaming away the hours. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you life." It is indeed high time that we awake from this sleep. No one can awaken us but our self. Let us, then, make every endeavor to arouse the mind to reality and to penetrate the gloom of fear and superstition, to cast aside doubt and uncertainty, to behold the Light, which is eternal.
I am alive, awake, and aware. My spiritual eyes are open. As from a long night's sleep, I awake!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Essence of Spirit
For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.--Amos 4:13
The great prophet Amos tells us that "The God of hosts" is the name of the Power that forms the mountains, creates the winds, and declares Its presence in the sanctuary of our own thought. This poetical description of the Spirit of God brings a sense of lightness, of peace, and of transcendent joy. Amos seems to have lifted the load of life in his declaration that the Spirit treads upon the high places of the earth. This transcendent thought of God should ever be with us, and , like Jesus, we should walk over the waves of human disturbance rather than being submerged by them.
Life does not depend upon something outside itself, but immediately precipitates itself in our experience when we recognize it. It is this divine recognition that gives us transcendent power over everything, and we may rely upon this law for it is absolute. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
There is this subtle power within me which is the essence of Spirit. I am sustained. I am guided. I am guarded. I am kept in the way of peace, prosperity, and joy. Every atom of my being is vibrant with life, alive with deathless self existence. There is a song within me today that finds its echo in everything I do, causing the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and awakens the paralysis of fear into life and action.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Giving
Today I give myself unstintingly to the Life that God gives me. This I do spontaneously and with joy, withholding nothing. I will not do this with any hope of reward, but in the glad joy for the opportunity to increase the fullness of the Life God gives me. Everything that I have belongs to the world. Giving, I will receive the world back into my own consciousness. I acknowledge that One Life flows through all.
Today is good, tomorrow will be even better!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Success
Today I expect every good thing to come to me. Everything that is worthy of the soul, I anticipate. Everything that belongs to the Spirit of God, I accept this gift. Everything that partakes of the nature of the Divine Reality, I claim as my own. Today I identify myself with abundance and success. I know that my destiny is divine and eternal, that my destination is certain, that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. I know that this Kingdom contains everything necessary to my well-being. I rise above the fray! In gratitude and with joy, I receive this Kingdom into myself.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The English Language
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce .
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this . There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP... When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP! Oh . . . one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U-P
Monday, November 10, 2008
Like Attracts Like
What Jesus said:
“You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) Law of Attraction: When you are light, then you attract more light(good). Like attracts Like.
“Do you think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) Man was trying in vain to understand God through the Law and the Prophets, Jesus simply wanted us to know the truth about God’s own laws that exist throughout our universe which would make our lives more fulfilling, more joyful, more abundant in every way. Jesus was also trying to reveal truth that gives insight into our eternal existence.
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous…..Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44-45, 48) Law of Attraction: Love will attract more love, joy and abundance. The more love you attract into your life, the more your life will reflect perfection and the closer you become connected to God’s true nature and laws. Hate will attract more hate. Anger attracts more anger, jealousy attracts more jealousy, deceit more deceit, lies more lies, and so on. Remember God’s Law of Attraction: like attracts like.
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) Law of Attraction: As I see myself as the perfection of life, made in the image of God, I am at peace and one with everything.
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets…to be honored by men. (Matthew 6:1-2) Law of Attraction: Generosity/Love attracts Generosity/Love. Acts of generosity should be given in a spirit of love and selflessness, thereby attracting the same into your own life.
"Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."(Matthew 13:1) The mind is the builder and sustainer, the creator, and distributor, and unless the mind conceives of itself as possessing good things it will not appear to possess them. This is but another way of stating the law of cause and effect, that immutable principle which governs all things.
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
I forgive those who try to harm me and as I do, my heart is made pure. Law of Attraction: Forgiveness attracts Forgiveness. Unforgiveness attracts unforgiveness plus bitterness & resentment.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Truth
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.--John 8:32
Jesus implies that there is a truth, which known, automatically will demonstrate itself in our experience. What could this truth be other than a consciousness of our union with the Life of God? It is wonderful to contemplate this spiritual and exalted idea of truth--that truth which frees us from the tyranny of fear of the unknown.
It is neither in our stars nor in our environment nor in the religious dogma of today that we should look to discover this truth. The truth that Jesus proclaimed that makes us free lies only in the conscious communion of the soul with it's Source, the conscious union of each individual with God, the conscious union of the heart's desire with the Source of its Being.
Today is the best day of my life because I am free! Today I know that the truth makes me free from fear, doubt, or uncertainty. Today and everyday there is One Infinite Mind that is consciously directing my destiny.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Meet Molly
The little pony gained weight, and her mane finally felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg. The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports. And she asks for it. She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too. And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. 'It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse,' she laughs. Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people, and she had a good time doing it. 'It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in! life,' Moore said. 'She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.' Barca concluded, 'She's not back to normal, but she's going to be better. To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself.'
This is Molly's most recent prosthesis. The bottom photo shows the ground surface that she stands on, which has a smiley face embossed in it. Wherever Molly goes, she leaves a smiley hoof print behind.